The Cure have been confirmed as headliners for Nova Rock 2026, alongside Iron Maiden, Bring Me The Horizon and more. Find all the details below.
The band will top the bill at the Austrian festival on Friday June 12, following performances from the likes of The Offspring, A Perfect Circle, Ice Nine Kills and The Pretty Reckless.
Read More: The Cure play ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ in full and celebrate ‘Seventeen Seconds’ at spectacular London Troxy showIt marks the second European headline show to be confirmed for Robert Smith and co. in 2026, after it was revealed that they’d be topping the bill at Paris’ Rock En Seine next August.
The group haven’t performed live since their ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ album launch gig at London’s Troxy last November. With news of their return to the stage next year, fans are speculating that a new album could be coming soon.
Check out the line-up for Nova Rock 2026 below, and buy tickets here.
Frontman Smith previously revealed that The Cure had another new album that’s “virtually finished” – with a third new record also on the way. He has also shared that he wanted to complete one of these projects before the group hit the road again.
“Seriously, I have to finish the second album,” Smith said in late 2024. “I decided that we weren’t going to play anything next summer [2025]. The next time we go out on stage will be autumn next year.”
Smith has hinted at how one of the new albums could sound, too: “Lyrically, it’s a very long way from being an upbeat album. It has one song of grief on it which didn’t make it onto this album [‘Songs Of A Lost World’], which is a very, very old song which we’ve been playing for a long, long time called ‘It Can Never Be the Same’. And I think that this next album will have that song on because I think it’s about time. It used to be called ‘Christmas Without You’.”
There are also rumours around whether The Cure will play a special show at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust gig series. Smith took over as curator for the 2026 edition, after The Who’s Roger Daltrey stepped down from the role.
Additionally, Smith said that he could imagine The Cure continuing up until they reach their 50th anniversary as a band.
“We’ll probably be playing quite regularly through until the next anniversary – the 2028 anniversary! It’s looming on the horizon,” he explained. “The 2018 one, I started to think about in late 2016, thinking, ‘I’ve got a year and a half, it’s easy!’ And yet I still didn’t manage to get there in time. Now, I’m starting to think, ‘2028, I must get things in order’; so [that’s] the documentary film and things like that.”
The singer continued: “I’m 70 in 2029, and that’s the 50th anniversary of the first Cure album. That’s it, that really is it. If I make it that far, that’s it. In the intervening time, I’d like us to include playing concerts as part of the overall plan of what we’re going to do. I’ve loved it; the last 10 years of playing shows have been the best 10 years of being in the band. It pisses all over the other 30 years! It’s been great.”
‘Songs Of A Lost World’ earned The Cure their first UK Number One record in 32 years, and landed at Number 6 on NME‘s best albums of 2024 list. Last December, the band’s London Troxy gig was released as a live album, with all royalties being donated to War Child.
Over the summer, Smith made a guest appearance during Olivia Rodrigo’s headline set at Glastonbury 2025.
The post The Cure have announced another huge festival for summer 2026 – headlining Nova Rock with Bring Me The Horizon, Iron Maiden and more appeared first on NME.
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