Good Things Festival is gearing up to make its return in 2026, with the annual collision of punk, metal, hardcore, emo and alternative music preparing to take over Australia once again.
The lineup has just been announced and it reveals a formidable cross-section of punk, metal, hardcore and alternative music, with Limp Bizkit leading a bill that also brings Simple Plan, Spiritbox, Polaris, The All-American Rejects and Bad Religion to Australian stages. Alexisonfire will perform Crisis in full, while Millencolin revisit Pennybridge Pioneers and Ministry make their farewell Australian appearance. The lineup digs deeper with Grinspoon, Bilmuri, Chad Gray, MxPx, Neck Deep, Speed, Slowly Slowly, P.O.D., The Devil Wears Prada and Choirboys, bringing together several generations of heavy music for one sprawling day.
Also appearing are All Them Witches, The Black Queen, Future Palace, Headwreck, The Home Team, House Of Protection, ivri, Kami Kehoe, Locked Shut, LØLØ, vianova and Voice Of Baceprot, adding another sweep of international and emerging talent to an already stacked Good Things 2026 lineup.
Limp Bizkit return to headline Good Things following their 2023 appearance, bringing more than three decades of nu-metal chaos back to the festival. They are joined by Simple Plan, returning after their 2019 Good Things appearance, while Spiritbox make their first Australian visit since debuting here at Knotfest in 2023. Sydney metalcore heavyweights Polaris also join the bill following a huge year that included supporting Linkin Park across Australian arenas.
There are some particularly significant returns further down the lineup. The All-American Rejects will play Australia for the first time in more than 17 years, while MxPx return after a 13-year absence. Alexisonfire mark the 20th anniversary of Crisis, and Millencolin will reprise Pennybridge Pioneers. Most significantly, industrial metal pioneers Ministry will use their Good Things appearances to say goodbye to Australia.
Elsewhere, the lineup reaches across several generations of punk and heavy music. Bad Religion, Grinspoon, Bilmuri, Chad Gray, Neck Deep, Speed, Slowly Slowly, P.O.D., The Devil Wears Prada and Choirboys all feature, with Chad Gray drawing from both his Mudvayne and HELLYEAH catalogues. Sydney hardcore force Speed return home following international appearances including Coachella and Reading & Leeds, while P.O.D. make their first Australian appearance since 2018.
All Them Witches, The Black Queen, Future Palace, Headwreck, The Home Team, House Of Protection and ivri stretch the festival into psychedelia, synth-pop, post-hardcore, shoegaze and experimental heavy music. Kami Kehoe, Locked Shut, LØLØ, vianova and Voice Of Baceprot complete a bill that isn’t relying entirely on nostalgia, with LØLØ making her Australian debut and Indonesian metal trio Voice Of Baceprot returning following their first Australian headline run in 2024.
It makes Good Things 2026 a particularly broad snapshot of where heavy and alternative music sits right now: legacy acts alongside contemporary metal, hardcore’s new generation and artists increasingly unwilling to stay inside neat genre boundaries.
Backseat Mafia knows the territory well. We covered Good Things in both 2024 and 2025, spending the day moving between stages and photo pits as the festival delivered everything from huge international performances to some of the most exciting names emerging from Australia’s heavy music scene.
Those previous editions also demonstrated that Good Things is about considerably more than the names printed largest on the poster. Some of the day’s most memorable performances can arrive early, on smaller stages or from artists audiences might have initially regarded as little more than a convenient stop between two favourites.
Good Things has built its reputation on bringing different corners of heavy and alternative music together for one enormous day, and 2026 looks ready to continue that tradition. The lineup has landed; now all that remains is the long wait for the gates to open.
DATES AND VENUES:
Friday 4 December – Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne (16+)
Saturday 5 December – Sydney Showground, Sydney (16+)
Sunday 6 December – Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane (16+)
Go HERE for all ticketing and event information.
