Rabidfest 2026: Breaking Down The Bands #8: Rattlesnakes!

Well gaah damn! Summer is almost over which means the countdown to Halloween has started! Fright night weekend wouldn’t be complete without Oxford’s finest Metal Weekender Rabidfest now would it?! Saturday 31st October and Sunday 1st November will see the annual event take place at The Bullingdon which is fast becoming something of a spiritual home. It will see no less than twenty bands over the two days trying not only to convince us that they’re the band of the weekend but also attempting to summon demons from other realms via the circle pits…

…as with any news there is the good, the bad and the f***ing ugly. So the wonderful news is that having survived Bloodstock this year Vampyra are going to be joining the bands playing Rabidfest this year. The bad news is that they are replacing the recently spontaneously combusted Thrashatouille…

A warm up show dubbed “28 Days Prior” will take place at The Jericho Tavern in Oxford on 3rd October and the line up for that looks like this:

Anti-Clone (headliner)
Chaplain
Blackmarket
Away With The Seas

Rabidfest itself will take place at The Bullingdon in Oxford over the weekend of the 31st October and 1st November 2026, here’s the line up in full:

Hacktivist (Saturday headliner)
n0trixx (Sunday headliner)
Vampyra
Maatkare
Swarm6ix
Black Candy
Devilhusk
The Dead XIII
The Crawling
Novacrow
Dacara
Rattlesnakes
Omegathrone
Spared An Endless Orbit
Necronomicunt
The Blade Itself
Twin Skeletons
Sabertooth
Lesbian Bed Death
Bldsugr

You’ve read the headline and now you’re wondering who Rattlesnakes are? Well you’re in the right place for an introduction! Based out of Nottingham they’re a Traditional Heavy Metal act who have recently signed with French label Listenable Records. That would be the very same label that bands like Aborted, Xentrix and Struck A Nerve call home. They earned that with sublime live performances around their 2025 EP “Deeper Shades Of Torment” and as if to prove the point, the music video for the first single and title track of their debut album “Shadows In The Night” has reached 77k of YouTube streams alone. The album will be out 30th October.

That means that when Rattlesnakes take to the stage at Rabidfest they will have songs we might not have heard in the set but if “Shadows In The Night” is anything to go by that will be just fine. Building on the foundations of Traditional Heavy Metal, the track finds the band combining Thrash, Speed and even Power Metal elements with vocalist Rowena Neale telling an 80’s Horror movie inspired tale. Riff lords Joshua Brown and George Charleston impress and the rhythm section of bassist Elliott Dryden and drummer Nathan Gratton will be providing a threat. The question is, will we get to hear “Spellbound” or “Destroyer” from the new record?

We’re proud to be a Media Partner of Rabidfest again this year alongside Red Death Media, Moomin Merchandise, Chaos Under No Ties, Moshville Radio, GraphicsFix, TwoFace Promotions, Blackstar Amplification and main stage sponsor Devolution Magazine. The Festival is all for charity and this year the profits will be going to the The Sophie Lancaster Foundation!

Rabidfest will take place at The Bullingdon in Oxford over the weekend of the 31st October and 1st November 2026:

Get your tickets -> https://www.rabidfest.co.uk

Get your merch -> https://shop.rabidfest.co.uk