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Tuesday 16th July 2026
Review and Photos – Rob and Danni Wilkins
The thing that strikes you as soon as you arrive in Clisson for the first time for Hellfest is that the entirety of “Rock City” seems to be behind the festival. Nowhere is this more evident than at Le Off, a free, two-day festival that takes place in the car park of the supermarket Le Clerc adjacent to the campsite, before the gates to Hell open.
The line-up showcases local and not so local French bands, across two stages, spanning multiple genres and ending with two cover band headliners.
From openers Endless Agony, immediately drawing crowds to the sun-baked car park with a set of hardcore thrash metal, on through the intensity of Sick Sad World to the progressive and immersive Mu, the crowd grew, the beer queues lengthened, and the many traders did great business.
Hangman’s Blood impressed us with their stoner sounds and energy before the first band to really capture our imagination, Sarmates delivered a set of North African-tinged ethnic metal with a full show of costumes, folk instruments, face-painted flag-waving beauties and deliciously complex but enjoyable material.
Alt metallers Aphasis put a lot of energy into whipping up the crowd, during which what appeared to be the entirety of a local old people’s home turned up, set up chairs and parasols and proved the point about the locals really giving themselves to the festival. One lady appeared to spend the gig with her fingers in her ears, but my heroine was the octogenarian with a walking frame that insisted to her carer that she wanted to go down the front!
DARKROSE were our band of the day. Described as “sparkling dark rock”, their set had it all. Superb vocals, catchy songs, visually striking, energetic and making the political point of getting more females on stage, their potential is huge and felt like one of those “these could be huge” moments.
We returned to the bar and shade for sets by Derelicts and Redstone before a set by Ghost Anthem, whose crushing metalcore filled the car park with circle pits, walls of death and utter carnage. In a supermarket car park. In mid 30s heat.
A close runner for band of the day were Yerao. Described as “Nu Core”, but I would find it impossible to categorise the song that really stood out, “Circuspit of Madness”, in which a circus-style riff led a circle pit following a blow-up unicorn. Seriously, give it a play on your streaming channel of choice; it is a bit amazing.
Hannibal closed out the non-cover band part of the day. The competition winners showed exactly why they were on the bill with a destructive and powerful set.
Lovedrive (Scorpions tribute) and Slip Panther (80s/90s metal) headlined the day, bringing huge crowds as cover bands tend to do, so we put the cameras away and just enjoyed the music as the air finally cooled a little.
Although we didn’t photograph day 2, the mid-section was given over to “Le Off Kids”, a three-hour festival within a festival aimed at the kids of Clisson. To see the car park utterly rammed with families, kids on shoulders, wearing devil horns, rocking out to (seriously) a heavy metal puppet show (which was insanely fun), an AC/DC tribute band (“Brian” was spot on but “Angus” appeared beaten by the heat and rather static) and a Disney punk rock band called Cartoon Machine showed again, just how the whole town gets into the Hellfest spirit in a way unimaginable anywhere else.
In the afternoon we headed to the festival proper to get wristbands and enjoy some of the village entertainment, food and drink (wine is the same price per pint as beer – it is going to be a long weekend!)
Big shout outs go to:
The Hellcity stage. The new brasserie has an acoustic stage as well as food and drink. We loved the set by Fat Jeff, but the highlight was Dïe Morg. Forty minutes of some of the rowdiest acoustic guitar I have seen with crowds singing along, a cover of Scorpions’ “Still Loving You” that became an Irish pub-style singalong, a bottle of Jack shared (entirely) with the crowd, crowd surfing, and ending with half the audience on stage for “Dirty Old Town”.
As well as The Purple House, an intensely hot and crowded venue where bands play in a cage “in the round” where both Pussy Miel (“spoon or fist?” Has to be the best description in a program ever) and the drum/guitar duo YÜ blew us away before we needed intense hydration.
All this and the festival hasn’t actually started yet!
