Hellfest 2026 – Hot, Heavy & Unforgettable!

Well... what a year!

Hellfest 2026 was hot in every sense of the word. Four incredible days of music, amazing people and temperatures that peaked at a scorching 42°C on Sunday!

As always, it was fantastic to meet so many new bass players and guitarists from around the world, while also catching up with old friends. From the guys in Trash Talk through to James LoMenzo, the weekend was packed with great conversations, incredible performances and plenty of memorable moments.

One of the highlights was spending time with the legendary Frank Bello from Anthrax, who is now a proud member of the Ashdown family.

During a call before the festival, Frank jokingly suggested it would be great if we could make the speaker cones on his cabinets purple. We thought, "Why not?" So, side stage before the show, we stripped down his rig and gave the speakers the full Ashdown treatment with custom purple cones. The result looked absolutely stunning and sounded every bit as good as it looked.

While we were at it, we also built Frank a pair of special custom Artist Edition heads based on our ABM Dual VU, complete with a number of bespoke upgrades. His long-time tech, Eddie, wasted no time integrating them into the live rig ready for the show. Seeing them on stage that evening was a real proud moment for the whole team.

Another fantastic moment was meeting the incredibly talented Richie Buxton, who has stepped in on bass duties for Limp Bizkit following the sad passing of the band's original bassist, Sam Rivers, earlier this year.

When he's not touring with Limp Bizkit, Richie performs with his partner in the brilliant Ecca Vandal. If you haven't checked them out yet, do yourself a favour—they're phenomenal. They'll also be joining our good friends Deftones at Victoria Park, London this August, and we can't wait to see them live.

Richie also spent some time checking out our latest basses backstage and immediately fell in love with the new Ashdown Capri 23". In fact, he loved it so much that we quickly got it prepped and stage-ready, and before we knew it, it was heading out with him for the final song of Limp Bizkit's set.

Watching Richie walk onto one of the biggest stages in Europe with a bass we'd designed and built was an incredibly proud moment for everyone at Ashdown. As he held the Capri high above his head for the crowd to see, it really hit home why we created the instrument in the first place.

The Capri 23" was designed to make bass playing more accessible and inspire the next generation of musicians. To see it on stage with one of the festival's biggest headline acts was genuinely breathtaking, and a moment we'll never forget.

Beyond the artists, Hellfest itself continues to be one of the best-run festivals anywhere in the world. A huge thank you goes to Ben and the entire Hellfest team for once again making us feel so welcome and giving us the opportunity to support so many incredible artists backstage. This marked our third consecutive year at Hellfest, and we're incredibly proud to be part of such a special event.

Our collaboration with Hellfest, the HF-40 Bluetooth Music Speaker, was also on display across the festival site and available to purchase directly from the official Hellfest merchandise stores and online shop. Seeing so many people enjoying the product throughout the weekend was something we'll never forget.

Now we look ahead to Hellfest 2027, which promises to be the biggest edition yet. With the festival expanding from six stages to ten, even more bands and fans will be able to experience what has become one of the world's greatest rock and metal festivals.

If 2026 was anything to go by, 2027 is going to be one for the history books.

A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by the Ashdown backstage area over the weekend. Whether you came to check out the latest UK-built gear, try one of our basses, catch up over a coffee or simply say hello, it was fantastic to spend time with so many musicians from around the world.

We'll see you in 2027!

For more information about Hellfest, visit the official Hellfest website. If you'd like to learn more about the Ashdown Capri 23" or the HF-40 Bluetooth Music Speaker, head over to www.ashdownmusic.com.