Rabidfest 2026: Breaking Down The Bands #11: Hacktivist!

Most pits? Headbanging? Crowd surfing? Stage dives and high fives? There will be all that and more as twenty bands demonstrate their prowess over two days at Oxfords finest Metal Weekender Rabidfest! The annual festival will take place at The Bullingdon over Halloween weekend, Saturday 31st October and Sunday 1st November so what are you waiting for?! The bar will be stacked with all your favourite drinks and it’s all in a good cause too because they’re raising money for the Sophie Lancaster foundation!

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

Do your Saturday night headliner at Rabidfest really need an introduction? Probably not but f*** it, were doing it anyway. For those not in the know, the band that play at Rabidfest this year will arguably be Hacktivist 3.0 as the only original member of the Rap DJent pioneers is vocalist J Hurley. He’s joined by former Borders vocalist JJ Olifent, former October Ends guitarist Alex Hek and drummer Ste Cole, the protégé of former  Monuments drummer Mike Malyan. Together the quartet have landed singles “Bones” and “Masquerade” while having a wealth of earlier material to lean on including fan favourites like “Armoured Core” and “Unlike Us“. Millions of Spotify streams don’t lie and having witnessed them at Tech-Fest, Radar Festival and the iconic Camden Underworld you can rest assured that they’re going to be putting plenty of bounce in the mosh pit! Rumour has it they’re working on a long overdue third album so we might even get some new material.

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