Hey look, it's our first 2026 festival lineup! Unless I'm forgetting something! Every January, the year in hardcore unofficially begins with FYA Fest, a two-day Florida mosh marathon that attracts reckless dancers from around the world. FYA is a strictly DIY festival, and it always leads to some wild-ass footage. Last year, FYA's bookers had to move locations a couple of times at the last minute, when the it became impossible to ignore the Zionist alignments of its previous home, Tampa's Shanna and Bryan Grazer Jewish Community Center. But now, FYA has a new home at the Orlando Warehouse, where everything goes down next year. It's also got a lineup full of heavy hitters.
Last year's FYA Fest had some big reunions in the hardcore world -- Foundation, the Mongoloids, Kids Like Us, Blistered. This year, the bookers pulled in a couple of other bands who haven't played in a long time, the ultra-heavy Philadelphia monsters Turmoil and the Orange County straight-edge crew Excessive Force, both of whom date back to the '90s. Another '90s band will headline the whole shindig: Hatebreed, who remain hugely important in hardcore decades after they became a more mainstream metal institution. The bill also has other reunited legends like Gorilla Biscuits and Merauder.
But the best reason to go to FYA is to see which newer bands have the juice to really get a room going. Drain are booked as headliners this year, and you already know they set it off. Fleshwater, heavy shoegazers with hardcore backgrounds, might be the odd band out on this bill, but they also get rooms moving. The lineup features tons more leading lights from the present-day underground, including Mindforce, End It, Big Boy, Haywire, Gridiron, Magnitude, Combust, Scarab, Final Resting Place, Age Of Apocalypse, C4, Seed Of Pain, No Idols, and Start Today. The fest also has international bands like Whispers, Bulls Shitt, Wits End, and Nasty. There are a bunch of names I don't recognize on there, too. I'll have to do some research. Find out all the relevant info here.
