Welcome to Rockville completed another year as North America’s largest rock festival with a 2025 attendance that totaled to 230,000 fans, breaking last year’s record of 200,000.
For the past five years of the event’s 14-year lifespan, the Daytona International Speedway has played host to the mammoth music festival. Throughout its four-day duration, over 150 bands shared five stages to create a weekend full of unforgettable moments.
The festival, produced by Danny Wimmer Presents, matched the sweltering Florida heat with its own scorching list of talent, making sure to pack every single day with literal and figurative rockstar acts.
12 mainstage headliners were divided between the four days, starting with Shinedown, Rob Zombie, and Three Days Grace — in a long-awaited reunion with original singer Adam Gontier — on Thursday, and continuing to Green Day, Good Charlotte — in their first East Coast performance since 2019 — and Sublime; Linkin Park, Incubus, and Pierce the Veil on Saturday; and Korn, Bad Omens, and Marilyn Manson on Sunday.
These 12 were barely a fraction of Welcome to Rockville’s massively stacked lineup, and the event was graced by countless electrifying performances by bands like Social Distortion, Knocked Loose, Halestorm, I Prevail, Jimmy Eat World, Beartooth, and more.
With so many incredible bands converging in one place, festival attendees also got to witness some equally incredible performances.
Shinedown’s First Welcome to Rockville Headline Includes Surprise Guests
The Florida-native hard rock band covered Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” in 2004 as a thank-you to Judy Van Zant, widow of lead singer. Over the years, Shinedown has performed their cover of the song at countless shows. This time, however, they wanted to make it even more special. To do so, they called to the stage Ricky Medlocke and Johnny Van Zant, Skynyrd’s guitarist and current lead singer.
Linkin Park Debuts New Track
The nu-metal band’s return to the rock scene came in 2024 with the introduction of new singer Emily Armstrong. In the months following the announcement, the band released From Zero, their first studio album since One More Light in 2017. The deluxe versions of the album dropped on May 16, 2025, the day before Linkin Park would headline at Welcome to Rockville. During their set, the band performed “Let You Fade” — one of the three new songs on the deluxe album — for the very first time live.
Green Day’s Supercharged Setlist
The kings of punk rock made their Welcome to Rockville debut with a staggering 20-song set spanning nearly their whole career, from Kerplunk (1991) to Saviors (2024). The setlist featured plenty of fan-favorites, including “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Basket Case,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and “American Idiot.”
Halestorm Previews New Album
The Grammy Award-winning band, originally founded by the Hale siblings, gave fans a special advanced look at their upcoming album Everest by debuting five new songs from the album during their appearance at Welcome to Rockville. These new tracks included “Fallen Star,” “WATCH OUT!,” “Rain Your Blood on Me,” “Everest,” and — in its first full band performance — “Darkness Always Wins.”
Shinedown and Three Days Grace Perform Tributes to Three Doors Down
While 3 Doors Down was initially scheduled as one of the main stage acts, the band had to pull out of the festival due to lead singer Brad Arnold’s cancer diagnosis. Welcome to Rockville was far from their only cancellation, though, and the band announced they would need to cancel the summer tour that was supposed to follow the festival. In tribute to the band and its lead singer, headliners Shinedown and Three Days Grace performed covers of “Kryptonite” and “Away from the Sun,” respectively.
Many Bands Mark “Firsts”
In addition to the numerous bands playing their first-ever Welcome to Rockville, there were also many bands playing shows for the first time in years. This list includes bands like Crossfade (playing one of their first shows in 13 years), Dry Kill Logic (playing their first show in 19 years), Body Count (playing their first Florida show since 2004), and Good Charlotte (playing their second show since 2019 and their only Southeast U.S. performance).
Welcome to Rockville had plenty to offer beyond just the music. The SiriusXM Zone: Octane Headbangers Happy Hour gave fans the chance to hang out with Octane hosts Jose Mangin, Shannon Gunz, and Caity Babs as they broadcasted live while talking to some of the lineup’s fan-favorites, including bands like Motionless in White, Beartooth, Hollywood Undead, Knocked Loose, and Sleeping with Sirens. These interviews, as well as various live performances, could be heard by fans all over the world on SiriusXM’s Rockville Radio takeover on Octane.
The Welcome to Rockville on-site experiences also included activities sponsored by groups like iHeartRadio, Bud Light, BeatBox, HeartSupport, Smirnoff, Blackcraft, Eargasm, Fxck Cancer, Red Bull, SiriusXM, Take Me Home Animal Charity, To Write Love on Her Arms, and more.
Following the record-breaking weekend, Danny Wimmer — founder of Danny Wimmer Presents — shared a thank you to the fans, the bands, and the pivotal Florida residents who made Welcome to Rockville possible, saying, “We’re deeply thankful to the teams at Daytona International Speedway Staff, AdventHealth Medical Professionals, VCEMS Workers, Volusia Sheriff’s Office, Daytona Beach Police Department, Daytona Beach Fire Department, and Florida Highway Patrol. Your partnership and support is invaluable.”
Wimmer also expressed his excitement for the festival’s 15th anniversary and assured fans that the 2026 dates for Welcome to Rockville will be announced soon.
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