Mayo musicians make history as Fontaines D.C. announce Slane Castle headline show
Fontaines D.C. announced their upcoming headline performance at Slane Castle as they closed out their headline set at Electric Picnic on Sunday night. (Photo by Debbie Hickey/Getty Images)
Two Mayo men will be part of music history next summer as Fontaines D.C. will become the third Irish act to headline the iconic Slane Castle.
The Grammy Award-winning band will take to the stage at the Meath venue on , following in the footsteps of Irish music legends U2 and Thin Lizzy.
The band made the announcement on Sunday night as they closed out their headline set at Electric Picnic.
The news comes after an incredible weekend for the alternative post-punk band, who headlined Reading & Leeds Festival in the UK on Friday and Saturday.
Following headline performances across three consecutive nights, the band announced an impressive line-up of support acts for Slane on Monday morning, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Irish singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey and Irish alternative folk band Madra Salach.
Slane will be the band's biggest performance to date, with the venue capable of holding an 80,000-strong crowd.
It comes shortly after Fontaines D.C. announced their fifth studio album, , due to be released on October 16.
The album's lead single, , is currently sitting at number five on the Official Irish Singles Chart and number 11 on the UK Big Top 40.
Fontaines D.C. will become the latest in a long line of world-renowned acts to headline Slane, joining the likes of David Bowie, Queen, Oasis, Metallica and Harry Styles.
The 2026 Slane headliner was country music star Luke Combs, who performed across two nights in July to an estimated combined crowd of 160,000 people.
The announcement is also a significant moment for Mayo, with drummer Tom Coll, from Parke, and bassist Conor Deegan, from Castlebar, making up two-fifths of the acclaimed band.
The band’s other members are guitarist Conor Curley, from Emyvale in Monaghan, guitarist Carlos O’Connell, who grew up in Spain before moving to Dublin at 18, and lead singer Grian Chatten, who was born in Barrow-in-Furness in England and raised in Skerries, Dublin.
Tickets for Slane Castle will go on general sale on , at 10am, with prices starting from .
A pre-sale will begin at 10am on , and fans can register for access through the band's website until 9pm on .
Fontaines D.C will embark on a tour from , performing 22 shows across the US, Europe and the UK.
