Sick-Ass 2025 Outbreak Fest Lineup Has Knocked Loose, Alex G, Slowdive, Danny Brown, More

Manchester’s annual Outbreak Fest focuses on hardcore, but it’s expanded in recent years to expand tons of non-hardcore stuff that hardcore kids might like. This year, for instance, headliners included Have Heart, Basement, American Football, Soccer Mommy, and Action Bronson. Next year, the festival returns to Manchester’s BEC Arena, and it looks like it will be awesome.

Next year’s Outbreak Fest headliners cover a lot of ground: Metalcore all-stars Knocked Loose, reunited shoegaze greats Slowdive, and Alex G, whose music is decidedly not remotely hardcore but who has a lot of fans in that world. Other boldfaced names include Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as past Outbreak headliner Denzel Curry and recent Knocked Loose tourmate Danny Brown.

Knocked Loose is the only big name on the Outbreak lineup that could really be called a hardcore band. But the undercard still has plenty of hardcore and hardcore-adjacent stuff, including Sunami, Drug Church, Militarie Gun, Speed, Pain Of Truth, God’s Hate, Jesus Piece, Gouge Away, Spy, Splitknuckle, Ikhras, and Impunity. There’s also a large shoegaze contingent, including Fleshwater, julie, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, and Feeble Little Horse. Are we counting Superheaven as a shoegaze band? What about Deafheaven? Because both of them are playing, too.

Other acts on the bill include Have A Nice Life, Momma, Model/Actriz, Foxing, Tigers Jaw, Rocket, and Manchester natives Maruja. I can’t tell whether the Long Goodbye on the poster is the one with Michael Cera and Clark Duke, but I don’t know of any other bands called Long Goodbye. This is just the first wave of bands, but it’s already shaping up to be something special. You can find more info here.