Thursday is a night of reunions and anniversaries. Blink-182 are the Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker lineup, back together since DeLonge's return was announced in October 2022. The album that followed, One More Time..., opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the band's third chart-topper, though the record most of the stadium will know by heart is 1999's Enema of the State, past 15 million sold.

Below them is a run of bands that carried this music into the mainstream. The Offspring made Smash for Epitaph in 1994, still cited as the best-selling album ever released on an independent label, and return to the stadium where they played Rock on the Range in 2017. Jimmy Eat World spent 2026 playing Bleed American front to back for its 25th anniversary; Chris Payne, who wrote an oral history of emo, has called "The Middle" the first true pop top-40 hit out of that scene. The All-American Rejects bring Sandbox, their first album in 14 years and their first without a label.

Thursday's other half is much heavier, and for metal fans it's the deeper half. Mastodon last played this field on May 9, 2025, with guitarist Nick Johnston about a day into the job after founding guitarist Brent Hinds left that March. Hinds died that August. The band answered with Marrow Deep, an August 2026 album built around the Three Fates of Greek myth, and now plays as a five-piece. Meshuggah are in their 40th-anniversary year, and May 13 is one of three festival dates in a row that close their Forty-Year Anomaly tour of North America. That tour's support acts, Testament and Blood Incantation, play Thursday too, so the whole package lands on one day.

Knocked Loose come in off a fall co-headlining tour with Denzel Curry, named after "Hive Mind," the February 2026 single that put a rapper on a hardcore record. Turnstile won two Grammys that same month, Best Rock Album for NEVER ENOUGH and Best Metal Performance for "BIRDS."

Thursday Pick

Circa Survive (Post-Hardcore, Major): the band announced an "indefinite hiatus" in 2022 that Anthony Green later called a breakup, then came back in 2026 with a Louder Than Life set and a string of hometown shows in Philadelphia. The festival bills Thursday as their exclusive Ohio reunion show.

Friday, May 14: Iron Maiden's Night

Steve Harris started Iron Maiden in East London in 1975, and the tour that brings them here has one rule: nothing later than 1992's Fear of the Dark. Run For Your Lives began in May 2025, with Simon Dawson on drums after Nicko McBrain's final show. Spring 2027 is its third and final North American leg, 16 shows that end with two festival headline slots: Sonic Temple on May 14 and Boardwalk Rock in Ocean City two days later.

Friday's majors lean toward the 1990s. Alice in Chains played Rock on the Range here in 2009, 2013 and 2018, and were booked for Sonic Temple 2025 until a medical emergency for drummer Sean Kinney called off the rest of the band's May dates. A Perfect Circle were among the Rock on the Range headliners in 2011, and "Starless" spent two weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in October 2026, their first time there since 2003. Keep your phone in your pocket: the band runs a no-phone policy, and more than 60 people were once thrown out of a Pennsylvania show for filming.

The newer metal on Friday is just as strong. Bullet For My Valentine bring Social Apocalypse, their eighth album, due March 19, 2027. Sleep Theory, the Memphis band led by Army veteran Cullen Moore, fold R&B vocals into metalcore. Nevertel, who have toured with them several times, play the same day. The Pretty Reckless scored their eighth Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1 in November 2025, the most for any woman-fronted act in the chart's history.

Friday Pick

The Warning (Rock, Major): three sisters from Monterrey who got their "Enter Sandman" onto The Metallica Blacklist in 2021, and have since opened for Foo Fighters, Guns N' Roses and Muse. Their fifth album, Everything's Falling, came out in August 2026.

Saturday, May 15: Falling in Reverse's Night

Falling in Reverse last played Historic Crew Stadium in May 2024, a ten-song Sonic Temple set that opened with "Zombified" and ended on "Ronald." Three months later Popular Monster gave them their first No. 1 on Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums chart, after four albums that had all stopped at No. 2. Ronnie Radke's band keeps adding guests: "Joseph," from September 2026, features Slipknot's Corey Taylor and System of a Down's Serj Tankian, which Knotfest reported as the first song those two singers had ever released together.

The set that belongs to the city is Beartooth's. Caleb Shomo started the band in Columbus in 2012, and in May 2025 they filled Alice in Chains' Sunday main-stage slot at Sonic Temple on less than two days' notice, playing right before Metallica. This time the festival put "Hometown Show" on the billing in advance, and they arrive with Pure Ecstasy, their sixth album.

The Prodigy are the day's outlier, a rave act on a metal bill. The Fat of the Land debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1997; after Keith Flint died in 2019, Liam Howlett and Maxim only found out whether they could carry on by booking a small tour in 2022. The festival bills Saturday as their first Ohio show in 20 years. A Day To Remember surprise-released Big Ole Album Vol. 1 in February 2025, and Jeremy McKinnon said in March 2026 that Vol. 2 was well along.

The rest of Saturday's majors pull in different directions. Underoath spent fall 2026 on a 20th-anniversary tour for Define the Great Line, which went gold. Till Lindemann, billed as "The Voice of Rammstein," brings the solo show that produced Live in Kraków in September 2026, his first live record under his own name. GWAR, now fronted by original bassist Mike Bishop, still spray fake blood from a compressor-driven tank aimed straight at the crowd.

Saturday Pick

President (Metal, Major): a masked band that made its live debut at Download in 2025 and says it will never discuss who its members are. Their debut album, Blood of Your Empire, entered the U.K. albums chart at No. 5 in September 2026.

Sunday, May 16: Korn Closes

Korn shared the top of the 2025 bill with Metallica and Linkin Park, so this is a return. The new wrinkle is music: "Reward the Scars," written for Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, came out in spring 2026 as their first new song in four years, and Munky has said the band wrote almost 40 songs for the next album. Behind it sits a 1994 debut that GRAMMY.com credits with pioneering nu-metal.

Sunday also has the weekend's two rarest bookings. Faith No More last played anywhere in August 2016; their return, announced in July 2026, runs through stadium dates in Australia and New Zealand with System of a Down, and the festival bills Columbus as a rare U.S. reunion show. Ministry are on their farewell run, billed here as the final Columbus show. Al Jourgensen has already set the last concert for October 30, 2027, a year to the day after the final album, Hate to Go, and says he plans to go raise goats.

Primus picked their new drummer, John Hoffman, from more than 5,000 applicants. Clutch arrive with their 14th album, Wasted Lands, out in January 2027. Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators bring Flying Blind, due in February, which adds pedal steel to the band.

Sunday is also where rap and metal meet. $UICIDEBOY$ run their own touring festival, Grey Day, which sold more than 600,000 tickets across 60 shows in 2024. Ghostemane, who grew up on Korn and Nine Inch Nails, played his first headline shows in five years in August 2026, and the festival bills his set as his return to the stage. Poppy became the first female solo artist nominated for the Best Metal Performance Grammy, with "BLOODMONEY."

Sunday Pick

DRAIN (Hardcore, Major): a Santa Cruz trio Revolver called hardcore's "most fun band." They cut ...Is Your Friend live with no metronome, and they were on the 2026 Grey Day run with $UICIDEBOY$, who share their Sunday.

Where the Bill Makes You Choose

Nobody knows yet which sets overlap, only who shares a day. Thursday is two festivals at once: a pop-punk and emo line from Blink-182 through The Offspring, Jimmy Eat World and Sleeping With Sirens, and a heavy line through Mastodon, Meshuggah and Knocked Loose. It also holds both sides of an old story: Anthony Green sang on Saosin's 2003 EP before starting Circa Survive, and Saosin play the same day with Cove Reber singing.

Friday splits by era: Iron Maiden, Alice in Chains and A Perfect Circle for anyone who came up on 1980s and 1990s records, Bullet For My Valentine, Sleep Theory and The Warning for the newer bands. Saturday is the most crowded at the top, with Falling in Reverse, A Day To Remember, The Prodigy, Beartooth and Underoath all on it. Sunday puts Faith No More's rare U.S. date and Ministry's final Columbus show on the same day as Korn.

Some pairings are split across days, an argument for the four-day pass. Poppy plays Sunday, but her "Suffocate" partners Knocked Loose play Thursday. Primus play Sunday, while A Perfect Circle, whom they toured with on Hoffman's first run, play Friday.

The Bottom Line

Pick a lane for each day, then start with the full lineup and star what you want, so the schedule builder can place it once times are posted. Then try our undercard picks, the genre guide, the first-timer's guide or the festival's history, which runs back to Rock on the Range.