The organisers of the annual ‘Mutations Festival’ are FORM and today they have announced that the undefinable, undeniable, raucous FAT DOG and legendary Beastie Boys alumni MIKE D will be headlining this year’s event!
Mutations Festival is renowned for consistently showcasing “the next big thing”, from CMAT, Yard Act and Sprints in 2021; to The Last Dinner Party, Wunderhorse and Fat Dog in 2022; English Teacher, Antony Szmierek and Paris Paloma in 2023; KNEECAP, Arooj Aftab, and Adult DVD in 2024; to Keo, and Big Special in 2025. It’s looking certain that Mutations Festival 2026 will be no exception.
The festival returns Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th October 2026 and is apparently going to be their most ambitious and exciting edition yet!
In the next 2 weeks they will be dropping another 90 of the most exciting international breakthrough and established artists for Mutations Festival 2026. So keep an eye out for the full line up coming very soon.
FRIDAY NIGHT HEADLINER – FAT DOG:
The undefinable, undeniable, raucous Fat Dog return to Brighton after a period of calm with renewed ferocity, new tour dates and new music. The band, with chief rabble rouser Joe Love at the eye of the storm and now expanded to a seven piece, will be bringing their riotous live experience back to Mutations but this time in their rightful place as festival headliners!
Arriving in October, the band will release their sophomore album ‘Cancel Me (I’m Tired)’ on Domino Records, an exhilarating, swaggering, panoramic, inventive, re-inventive, re-re-inventive electro-punk-art-pop-rock’n’roll-space-country triumph that deserves all the adjectives. It blends electro-pop anthems, cascading rave bangers, cowboy-tinged pitstops and swirling psychedelia.
Into its lyrical orbit, the record pulls mentions of addiction, family ties, love, AI, ancestry, extra-terrestrials, Chris Tarrant, S&M, B&M, H&M and M&Ms.
www.instagram.com/fatdogfatdogfatdog
SATURDAY NIGHT HEADLINER – MIKE D 5D:
Mike D’s debut solo album, ‘Thank You’, released on 28th August via Capitol Records, comprises 13 servings of sonically inventive post-electronic grooves and hypnotic hooks, with his unmistakable voice guiding listeners through an aural playground that defies easy categorisation.
Hailed by Rolling Stone as “embodied with the punk energy that led to his band’s early breakthrough”, Mike D 5D – featuring Mike alongside his sons Skyler and Davis Diamond, Eddie Ruscha, Will Graefe and Milo Ruscha – will deliver a rare headline performance at Mutations Festival. The landmark appearance marks the first live show by a member of the Beastie Boys in Brighton since the band’s legendary performance with Run-DMC at the Brighton Centre in May 1987.
Returning for its eighth edition, Brighton’s seminal ‘Mutations Festival’ is set to return on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th October 2026, boasting an exciting mix of the most explosive, established, and brand-new international artists, all performing across nine of the city’s most treasured Grassroots Music Venues. These being: Chalk, Patterns, Revenge, Dust, The Prince Albert, Green Door Store, The Hope and Ruin, The Folklore Rooms and Alphabet.
Pre-sale tickets will become available at 10am on Tuesday 21st July – Details HERE.
