Several Australian acts including metalcore favourites Polaris have been named among the lineup for Florida’s 2026 Welcome to Rockville festival.
Set for May 7th-10th, 2026, the four-day festival will take place at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, with headliners including Guns N’ Roses, Foo Fighters, Bring Me the Horizon, and My Chemical Romance.
Other newly confirmed major names on the bill including Parkway Drive, Turnstile, Five Finger Death Punch, Staind, A Day to Remember, and more.
Across the four days, 160 bands will take to the festival’s five stages, showcasing the enormity of the festival. The 2026 edition follows a record-breaking 2025 which saw more than 230,000 fans convene on the storied grounds.
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Polaris’ 2023 album, Fatalism, recently ranked in the top 30 in Rolling Stone AU/NZ’s 100 Best Australian Albums of the 2020s So Far list.
An album marked by tragedy, Fatalism stood as a testament to the supreme talent of Polaris’ late, great guitarist Ryan Siew. “When your unit literally gets shattered like the way it has, the most important thing is to pull together and prove to each other and yourselves, that you can still do it,” the metalcore band’s Daniel Furnari told Rolling Stone AU/NZ in 2023.
Following Fatalism, Polaris received multiple nominations, including for the Australian Music Prize, cementing their position as one of Australia’s leading metalcore acts.
Joining them to represent Australia on the global stage are Thy Art is Murder, Make Them Suffer, and Thornhill.
Known for their extreme metal sound, Thy Art is Murder have been a touring force since the release of their latest album, Godlike. The band are currently touring in support of Parkway Drive, alongside fellow Australian favourites The Amity Affliction.
Meanwhile, with five studio albums to their name, including Neverbloom (2012), Old Souls (2015), Worlds Apart (2017), and How to Survive a Funeral (2020), which debuted at No. 17 on the Australian Albums Chart, Make Them Suffer have cemented themselves as one of Australia’s premier heavy acts. The band has toured internationally with Bring Me The Horizon, Sleep Token, Parkway Drive, and While She Sleeps.
Melbourne metalcore band Thornhill have also toured with the likes of Sleep Token, following the release of their third studio album BODIES in April. It came after their 2022 LP Heroine, which debuted at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The album marks a shift toward a more immediate and unfiltered sound.
Ticket information for Welcome to Rockville 2026 can be found here.
