Linkin Park closed out Download Festival 2026 last night, making history in the process as they became the first female-fronted band to headline – check out what went down below.
- READ MORE: “This is not the end, this is not the beginning”: Linkin Park look to the future with new faces
Last night (Sunday June 14), Mike Shinoda, Emily Armstrong and co. headlined the last night of the Donington Park festival, marking a UK exclusive for the band, who last performed at the event in 2014, fronted by the late Chester Bennington.
They reformed in 2024, seven years after Bennington took his own life, in a move that proved incredibly divisive at the time, with Bennington’s son Jaime accusing remaining members of “quietly erasing” his father’s “life and legacy”. Choosing Armstrong as his successor was equally controversial among some fans, who pointed to her alleged ties to the Church of Scientology and previous support of convicted rapist Danny Masterson.
In the wake of those allegations, Armstrong distanced herself from Masterson, stressing that she did not condone any “abuse or violence against women” and had only attended an early hearing in his rape trial “as an observer”.
While controversial, her addition to the band made her the first woman to headline Download on Sunday night, which some fans described as “breaking barriers”.
Nodding to the milestone, Shinoda joked the crowd that Armstrong “hates this kind of attention”, and invited the crowd to form an women-only mosh pit for ‘Two Faced’ to honour her.
Mike requested a women only mosh pit in honor of Emily pic.twitter.com/OmVa8ONRqj
— ♀♀ ⚢ ✵ (@EmptinessChaos) June 14, 2026
A Place For My Head 🔥🔥🔥
Download Festival pic.twitter.com/TlEUEm17dy
— ♀♀ ⚢ ✵ (@EmptinessChaos) June 15, 2026
GEEEET IT, QUEEN 🔥🔥🔥👑
Two Faced
Download Festival pic.twitter.com/cIGGRTYF27— ♀♀ ⚢ ✵ (@EmptinessChaos) June 15, 2026
So you thought I wasn’t going to dance today?
dancing baby 🤏😍
Faint pic.twitter.com/SPujyc2ACa— ♀♀ ⚢ ✵ (@EmptinessChaos) June 15, 2026
mike 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/8mETHFm2hW
— Eline 📸 (@elinehphotos) June 14, 2026
— Linkin Park Live (@LPLive) June 15, 2026
I don’t know about you guys, but I felt that 🥵 pic.twitter.com/6m8vpNdsyA
— ♀♀ ⚢ ✵ (@EmptinessChaos) June 15, 2026
Elsewhere in the set, a short teaser trailer for their forthcoming film Unshatter played out, with Shinoda confessing in it that “the hardest part of ending is starting up again”.
Link Park at Download Festival 2026 played:
‘The Emptiness Machine’
‘Lying From You’
‘Crawling’
‘Up From the Bottom’
‘Somewhere I Belong’
‘The Catalyst’
‘Burn It Down’
‘Where’d You Go’ (Fort Minor cover)
‘Waiting for the End’
‘Two Faced’
‘A Place for My Head’
‘IGYEIH’
‘One Step Closer’
‘Lost’
‘Breaking the Habit’
‘Overflow’
‘What I’ve Done’
‘Numb’
‘Heavy Is the Crown’
‘Bleed It Out’
‘Papercut’
‘In the End’
‘Faint’
Back in 2024, when they first announced their comeback, Shinoda opened up about the “culture” of the new Linkin Park line-up, saying it felt like the “best we’ve had”. As well as Armstrong joining the line-up, drummer Colin Brittain has also joined the band, following the departure of founding member Rob Bourdon. Founding guitarist Brad Delson is also absent from the group’s comeback tour, but is still working with them on new music.
While some fans were divided over the comeback following Bennington’s death, as the band started the live shows, Shinoda explained that this version of Linkin Park was “not about erasing the past”.
He then explained why Linkin Park chose to keep their band name for the relaunched line-up, and added that he is “not sure” if they will make new recordings of older songs that feature the late frontman.
