Tuska metal festival 2026: Bigger than ever
Tuska Metal festival is one of the most significant metal events in Finland and quite well known in Europe and around the world. Founded in 1998, it immediately stood out, as Tuska always took place in the heart of Helsinki. Starting out as simple indoor event, it turned into an open air park festival and in 2011, it moved to Suvilahti industrial area. Couldn’t imagine a better place for such an iconic metal festival. As the event grew, the entire surroundings of Suvilahti developed as well. A big shopping mall Redi emerged in 2018 and nowadays it’s a big part of the festival. You can exchange your wristband, buy tickets, visit Tuska store and buy festival merch. For people who appreciate speed and mobility, it’s a perfect option, because the festival area was really crowded every day.
Unfortunately, Tuska’s gonna in Suvilahti stay only till 2030 because some changes are planned in this area, for example the reconstruction of the metro station nearby, so the organizers have already been searching for a new location for the future. There’s a rumour that Tuska will return to a park area, as it had been a park festival many years ago.
Wristbands and VIP tickets at Tuska definitely deserve a separate story. Helsinki city is Tuska’s official partner and between June 23-30, there were a lot of benefits and special discounts for Tuska wristband holders. With this band, you can get discounts on Hop-on Hop off city bus tours, Stromma sightseeing cruises, special prices at some restaurants, bars, adventure parks and even the nearest hotel to the festival area – The Folks Hotel Konepaja – gives a special discount on accommodation. Like that, apart of enjoying one of the best festivals in Europe, people can also explore a European metal heart – the beautiful Helsinki city.
All VIP tickets had been sold-out a long time ago. And here at Tuska, a VIP experience really feels like on another level, compared to many other festivals I’ve witnessed. The VIP area was located at very special and atmospheric place – an old gasometer structure, which is one of the most iconic landmarks in Suvilahti. VIPs have not only a separate entrance, bars and toilets, but also a sauna with a hot tub and even free daily meals and evening snacks at the special VIP food area. No surprise why all those tickets were gone so fast, here at Tuska, VIP is a whole new level of quality and service.
This year the festival attracted 66 000 people, Finnish metalheads as well as fans from all over the world. Friday and Saturday hit a record of 23 000 visitors and lots of people who were unluckily without tickets were sitting and listening outside on the grassy slopes around the area.
Three festival days welcomed more than 60 bands from different continents on 4 stages – Karhu Main stage, Nordic Energy stage, Radio city stage, KVLT Stage (indoors). The traditional Tuska Forum held special activities every day. For example Amorphis whiskey and Jägermeister tasting, but most importantly special interviews and discussions with many performing bands, where many of them opened up a lot and shared some special stories and their personal feelings. Sunday also included a special program for children under 12 years old, so kids could learn about metal culture and feel the right atmosphere from a very young age.
The program was so intense and full of amazing bands, you definitely need to be a superhuman to catch at least half of them. The variety of metal genres could satisfy even the most picky metal palate. The schedule was quite tight, precise and working like a Swiss watch. I’ve seen group of friends separating and running to different sides of the area to catch their favorite bands.
Friday, the first festival day, was opened by the American death metal band Gatecreeper, who are already well knows in Finland and had played a few sold out shows. They were perfect for opening Tuska at Karhu main stage and naturally there were already a lot of people expecting them eagerly at the hottest time of the day.
Traditional guests for Tuska – the well known Finnish Thrash/metalcore band Lost Society had an epic performance at Karhu main stage, with fire, crowd surfing and of course presenting their new powerful songs from a freshly released album “Hell is a state of mind”.
80s legends and one of the most significant Japanese metal bands: Loudness rocked the festival during their 45th anniversary tour and played a fantastic show at Radio City stage. It’s not a first time for Loudness at Tuska and let’s hope definitely not the last, this band is very beloved here. For metal fans it was definitely a tough choice running between Loudness and Ensiferum, who played at the same time at Nordic Energy stage.
The Danish hard rockers D-A-D are well known and loved in Finland, they play here quite often and as always, they delivered a beautiful energetic show. A few other legendary 80s bands hit the main stage on this weekend, for example Queensrÿche on Sunday, delivering some “Operation Mindcrime” ear candy.
Friday headliners and one of the most expected bands at the festival were the one and only Megadeth. The legendary 80s thrash metal band and part of the “Big Four”, they went on their farewell tour in 2026 and what a pleasure it was to have them closing the first day of the festival.
Plus, the current Megadeth line-up includes the Finnish guitar player Teemu Mäntysaari and it was such a big moment to play in his homeland with one of the biggest metal bands in the world. Despite the rain and slightly cold weather the whole venue was packed, people went really crazy for Megadeth. And this band is definitely unforgettable.
The second day was not only the hottest day of June, but also the most intense of the festival: over 20 bands were performing on this Saturday and the gates were open already at 13h.
The kickstart was given by young and talented Australian pop metalcore band Melrose Avenue at Radio City stage. This band is pretty fresh at the metal scene, but already quite known around the world. As I found out during the interview with their singer Vlado Saric, social media (like TikTok) helped them to gain worldwide acknowledgement in a short time. Also, he always wanted to visit Tuska metal festival as a guest, so opening the second day of Tuska literally became a dream come true. And what a show they delivered!
There was also a beautiful surprise from Lee Jennings (The Funeral Portrait singer). He joined Melrose Avenue on stage and together they performed their new collaboration – “My cemetery friend”. That’s a rare luck for the fans, fortunately The Funeral Portrait were playing at Tuska on the same day, so this wonderful performance was possible.
For the main stage the opening act was Hokka, a new band uniting former members of Blind Channel (Joel Hokka) and The Rasmus (Pauli Rantasalmi).
They are playing in the best traditions of Finnish alternative and love metal. It was a beautiful and emotional performance and the crowed just loved it, you could feel in the air people were really missing this kind of music. (More info about the band in our Hokka interview.)
The Swedish power metal band Majestica took over Nordic city stage and invited folks on a special journey on a power train, making people dance and sing and forget about this extremely exhausting hot weather.
The KVLT stage is an indoor cozy area and every year it features young bands with great perspectives. One of the most interesting bands this year at KVLT was the young Finnish act Shere Khan. Mixed style of the 80s hard rock, glam metal and modern metalcore and their fancy look made them quite unique and unforgettable.
Probably the hardest choice for metal fans was how to pick between the Latin American all female band Dogma at Radio City stage and the North American The Funeral Portrait at Nordic City stage. Luckily, both stages were not so far away so you could enjoy a bit of both.
The Funeral Portrait is surely familiar to many European fans, especially after last year’s Weirdo tour, where they played with the Finnish legends The Rasmus and supported by Block of Flats. They delivered a high energetic emotional show in their best traditional way. Lee Jennings is a professional master of the middle finger, every time at their shows he inspires fans to don’t give a f@ck and raise the middle fingers – if somebody is bullying them.
And once again there was a special surprise this day. Jonne Nikkila from the Finnish Block of Flats joined The Funeral Portrait on stage for a couple of songs. It was beautiful to see that their friendship continued after the tour and seeing them performing together was a really special moment for their fans.
At the same time Dogma was enchanting metal fans under the roof of the Radio City stage. I would say this band was really one of the most unusual and memorable at the festival. The visual style is quite impressive – mixing creepy, crazy and provocative sexy, this is something new and unique. And for sure, these ladies know how to rock, the whole area was packed and guys were going totally crazy.
If you thought to catch the breath after that, think twice. With upcoming acts like P.O.D., Paleface Swiss and Kublai Khan TX you would be lucky to survive the craziness that was going on in the crowd.
For the first time in Finland, American nu-metal legends P.O.D. were totally killing it at Karhu main stage. It was clear, this band was highly expected here, the moshpit was mad.
Then Paleface Swiss from Switzerland took over Nordic City stage. If you not familiar with this band, at first when their lead singer Zelli arrives and gives his charismatic smile it may seem they will go soft. But no way, Paleface Swiss is one of the heaviest bands in Switzerland, playing nothing more than deathcore.
Insane moshpits, crowd surfing, death wall – people were getting bananas and enjoying at the maximum.
Kublai Khan TX from Texas continued crashing the audience later at the same stage. This hardcore band from Texas really knows how to lead metal fans on the next level of craziness. They were definitely one of the most powerful bands at this festival.
Headliners of the second day were the very much expected American modern metalcorers Bad Omens. In fact they were supposed to play at Tuska 2 years ago, but the whole European tour was unfortunately canceled. They finally came and delivered the grand show, which was absolutely perfect for closing the second day. Also many bands, who played on this day stayed to witness their amazing performance.
The Sunday and final festival day had a very bad surprise with rainy, fresh and windy weather. But can it scare real metalheads? Of course not! With the right music and drinks, it’s possible to survive everything.
This day Karhu main stage was taken by a powerful Finnish triad – Stam1na, Tarot and Amorphis. Also there were some visual changes on the main stage, part of the preparation for grand finale.
Stam1na was the first band opening the main stage, as always they delivered a powerful set and prepared the crowd for a big day. By the time Amorphis started, the whole main area was packed with people, good luck finding a spot closer to the stage.
For classic hard rock fans, the best band to check out would be the young Finnish folks Suicide Chain, playing at the indoor KVLT stage. They are an amazing energetic live band and it was visible by the packed area and the reaction of people. No doubt, these guys are on the way to great future.
The American trio The Browning basically saved the crowd from being completely drowned by the rain. These guys were the last performers for Nordic City stage. And what a show it was! Since the beginning, the rain was so strong that it was hard to even watch an act. But The Browning was the survival solution. With their specific sound, mix of electronic and deathcore, they made people move nonstop.
Never seen such a big crowd of metalheads in raincoats – running, dancing and jumping. Guys from The Browning really became this special Duracell battery for a crowd, their energy transferred and charged people right away. What a great final act for this part of the area.
And for the grand finale, Bring Me The Horizon had returned to Tuska. Through the years, this English act became one of the most influential bands in modern metal. Their sound is always progressing and adding new elements and their fan base is growing every year.
The whole pit area at Tuska was packed to its limit, eventually even people with VIP passes couldn’t get there, because it was extremely overcrowded and people were going completely crazy for this band. The whole show was magical – the fireworks, pyrotechnics, visual effects and of course the band’s powerful performance. People were truly hypnotized. Couldn’t imagine better finale for this festival, it was impeccable.
As the show finished, so did the rain. People were leaving with sadness, these 3 days brought so much fun and joy, and it was hard to believe that eventually it’s over. But then, the beautiful breathtaking sunset came and gave a new hope – there gonna be next year and Tuska story will never stop, it will bring new bands, new people and another beautiful fantastic weeked for metalheads from all over the world.
Photos: Starla Larsson, guest photographer, Tuska official photographers from Tovi Agency
