Looking Back and Looking Forward to Aftershock 2026
Aftershock 2025 exceeded records with 164,000 in attendance and 115+ bands over four memorable days. Sometimes we just think it’s a fun festival without thinking about the impact it has on so many people’s livelihood and the local economy. Pretty cool to see Danny Wimmer Presents honored with official recognitions from the City of Sacramento, the California State Senate, and the California State Assembly. This is recognizing DWP and Aftershock’s profound cultural, economic, and charitable contributions to the Sacramento community and also highlighting how the festival has firmly established the city as a premier destination for live music in California.
Last year, we met Danny Wimmer at the Return to Dust show at the Roxy in Hollywood. Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous and awkward. Meeting rock stars is cool, but meeting the person that creates the field of dreams for the rock stars is pretty amazing! I felt like I was sputtering that we went to Welcome to Rockville and Aftershock for the first time that year. He asked which one we liked better and why. In that split moment, my brain went on a time lapse speeding through all the moments of those combined 9 days. My short answer, Aftershock is my favorite because of the stage set up, the trees for shade, and VIP location. After he walked away I had all these other things to say. The long answer is everything from the time you buy your wristbands to gates open on the first day to the bittersweet walk out of the gates after the last song. There’s something on your calendar to look forward to, then you finally get on the plane or hit the highway, waking up and the day is finally here. The walk to the gates with complete strangers but you’ve never felt more at home. Scanning your wristband gets you entry into the festival, but it’s also the threshold where you are leaving the real world outside. Forget about everything, nothing else matters, but this moment with these people. Of course, the initial draw is the lineup of amazing bands, but you are part of a community that each has their own unique experience together. Maybe it’s a brief connection helping each other in the pit, or you keep running into the same people deciding to follow each other on IG and create life long friendships. The connections with the rock community and a sense of unity is what I will remember most about this festival.
There were some amazing line up highlights from this past Aftershock including a lot of anniversaries!
Blink-182’s nostalgia-driven set with special guest Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) for “Bored to Death”
Good Charlotte in a West Coast festival exclusive, joined by guest Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley for a performance of two Sum 41 classics – “Fat Lip” and “In Too Deep”
Deftones returning for a special hometown show and performing on the exact date of the 30th anniversary of their debut album Adrenaline
Lamb of God live debuting “Sepsis” and frontman Randy Blythe joining Lacuna Coil for a performance of “Hosting the Shadow”
Dream Theater in a 40th anniversary performance
The Dillinger Escape Plan’s West Coast reunion show
Korn’s electric headlining set, including a special tribute to Ozzy Osbourne on track “4 U,” to mark their final tour date of 2025
Flyleaf’s Lacey Sturm taking the stage with both Saliva and Scary Kids Scaring Kids
Bring Me The Horizon closing out the festival with a stunning high-tech, sci-fi set design that brought on the anticipation for their just-announced 2026 tour
GWAR’s 40th anniversary show of course with a blood bath to celebrate.
DWP festivals are about community from the bands to the fans to all the vendors. Most of the time we are running from stage to stage to catch as many bands as possible from the gates open until the last song of the headliners. At this last Aftershock, we made an extra effort to hit as many booths as we could. I think we hit close to all of them, even the medical tent. (that’s another story).
When we got there we wanted to connect with our friends we met from last year, which is quite a task because we’re always moving.The Coors Light tent which had a huge bright lighted sign that we could see across the park became our meet up spot. Our friends may have spent a lot of money there, always one in each hand. Next to it was one of my favorites, Astral Tequila had tasty margaritas, keepsake bandanas, and a photo op that you could make a gif and send it to your phone. They also give back to the community by upcycling the distillation waste to make adobe bricks. Astral Tequila is partnered with Habitat for Humanity Mexico and have built TEN homes since 2023. https://www.astraltequila.com. Beatbox had a full karaoke set up that was rocking and also had some band appearances throughout the days! Since Deftones was one of the headliners this year, Belching Beaver had a booth. They have had beer collabs with the band for years so of course Phantom Bride and Imperial Phantom Bride were available! Since that’s Kaiya’s day job we of course had to make a stop!
One Million Strong unites music, sports and entertainment to create a culture of belonging. They had a fun tent that we instantly felt like we were among lifelong friends. They had temp tattoos, photo ops and t-shirts giveaways. https://1millionstrong.com/. I think every single one of us has known someone that has battled cancer. We lost my dad/Kaiya’s Papa 9 years ago, so we always stop by Fuck Cancer and grab something to help the fight. Every festival I wear my Heart Support tank top and make sure to stop by the Heart Support booth. “Mental Health is a problem. Music is the answer.” I couldn’t agree more, music has been our savior. The founder is two time Grammy nominated Jake Luhrs, the front man for August Burns Red. They had temporary tattoos with mental health focused lyrics from each of the headlining bands. We had great conversation with new friends at this tent. Check out volunteer opportunities at www.heartsupport.com (you might see familiar faces)
One of the questions we get most often…Is VIP worth it? I say absolutely! At Aftershock, VIP is placed in a great spot, right in the middle of the two main stages. You can just go side to side and watch both stages without going through the crowd. There’s food trucks, bars, water stations without a wait, comfy couches, and best of all the AC flushable potties! We’ve been at Aftershock the past two years and totally plan on making this an annual event for now on! We absolutely cannot wait for Aftershock 2026!
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