Nothing could be more welcome after a week of rain and cold winds than Camden’s most sprawling festival and every stoner/doom metal lovers’ favourite community gathering. Highly anticipated by attendees and bands making their debut alike, with Hermano headlining Friday, London’s own Green Lung promising a legendary show on Saturday and Clutch at the top of the poster scheduled for Sunday, Desertfest 2026 was the weekend I had been looking forward to the most this year. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
Sergeant Thunderhoof
With singer Josh Gallop casually swinging his mic around in circles whilst the doomy riffs chug on underneath, it can only be Sergeant Thunderhoof stretching their legs on the main stage of Electric Ballroom. There’s certainly a “downtuned” Black Sabbath comparison that could be made for some of their tracks which are packed full of fat grooves and chugs. The five piece command the stage, giving it their all to a reasonably packed out venue now that things get going! With a fairly meaty discography, there’s plenty of eras of the band to pick from with the setlist darting around various records from the last 10 years. For new fans, there was a lot to grab onto straight away – but as they exit the stage, the audience begins “booing”, which is odd amongst the cheering, wait… not “booing”, “hoofing”! Chanting “hoof, hoof, hoof” – which clearly means that the audience today have been thoroughly won over! Grace
Superseed
Even early on Friday afternoon, whilst a sizeable fraction of festival goers are likely still at work – it was a real challenge to get into The Dev, the smallest venue at the festival. Security were on the door with a one-in-one-out system to quell overflowing, but that didn’t slow Superseed down. Hailing from Bristol, they rocked out the room with their crunchy riffs, emanating around the L-shaped layout of the pub. The focus was on their 2025 record Tremor – an album that is fantastically well produced, and which translated well to the live stage. Because of the packed nature of the room, it was a challenge to engage with their stage presence visually. They could have been stark naked for all we know, or perhaps have been on stage with a live wolf, who knows? Despite that, a good time was had by all. Grace
Witchsorrow
Can you believe that the Underworld was a delightful warm escape from the London chill? And could we have had a better band to warm up neck and back and voice than Hampshire’s Witchsorrow? As heavy as the ceiling above us, their set is slow and intentional, each guitar tremolo, each scream, each drum beat dragging themselves as if out of a chasm to reach and move us. It’s quintessential doom – pessimistic, sinuous in its basslines, evoking gothic cemeteries and grand creatures moving in the night. After an 8 year hiatus from new releases, the trio have an album ready for the world, The Devil and All His Works, out July 3rd, from which they played ‘Bacchus’. Their set also marks my first spot of the day’s mascot, a guy in a hot dog costume, crowdsurfing within an inch of his life next to the pillars. Never change, London. Rux
Gnome
You know Gnome. Even if you don’t know Gnome, you’ve seen the tall red hats around Camden in the middle of the night, when your grip on sanity was already shaky. What started as a marketing ploy soon evolved into a non-ironic identity for the Belgian stoner band, who not only has heaps of talent to back up the hype, but also a goofy playfulness in melody that warrants the hats in the first place. I cannot overstate how much I love a band that lets their bassist take the lead for solos and Geoffrey Verhulst gets the house shaking and churning as any good Friday crowd at Desertfest should. While the start is the speed and impact of a 747 engine, it’s the second half where they reveal their true doom nature, with slow riffs and neck-breaking heavy distortion.The moshpit opens, the hot dog man does pushups, and Gnome loses hat and composure in their epic set of bangers. Rux
Cwfen
Desertfest sometimes turns into a witches’ sabbath, as many bands explore the dark and haunting themes of the craft and its beliefs. Cwfen is a Scottish force, with the Glaswegians representing and embodying the powerful forces harnessed in the rural Highlands. That power was released upon us in London through their commanding performance on the Underworld stage. Since the release of their debut album, Sorrows, their doom-gaze sound has been collecting many accolades and to no surprise. Listening to the intense and harrowing screams right in front of us almost carried the pain of the witch trials across the centuries. Cwfen remained grounded during their performance, withstanding the emotional waves of their sound like a tree in a violent thunderstorm. That darkness felt cozy and familiar, making for a stellar Friday set. Nat
Causa Sui
Any band that makes me think of All Them Witches is in for a good review from me. The Danish Causa Sui take the psychedelic up a notch with a set that feels as much improvised as it does carefully crafted. Blending in jazz and funk rhythms with the casualness of a conversation in the guitar of Jonas Munk, listening to them is a cosmic journey on a brightly coloured street with your best friends and favourite lovers. While I discovered them through their transcending From the Source, it is the 2013 album Euporie Tide that spawned some of their most beloved high-energy tracks, like ‘Homage’ and ‘Ju-ju Blues’, that fittingly encircle the set. Sexy and entrancing (in the literal trance-inducing meaning), this is one of the best gateway bands into psych-rock. Rux
Solace
Back to the Underworld now for some beards, beers, and beef! This can only be Solace who came all the way from New Jersey for this festival. Plenty bluesy and riffy to boot, this band are all rock no bullshit with the two guitarists Tommy and Mike taking full advantage of the massive Orange amp stacks behind them to maximize crunch gain, feedback, and FX. As they should! Band members seem humbled that the audience were so well-receiving of their tracks. It’s hard not to be entertained by these guys with the showmanship on display! And what they possibly lack in accuracy, they make up for in charisma and personality. It’s a shame that these guys are based so far away from us in London as who knows when they might be back – but such is the nature of a festival like this. Grace
Hashtronaut
I don’t know what I expected and by the end I still don’t know what to expect from Hashtronaut. Death metal, hardcore, stoner? Yes. Punk? Yes. And a Sleep-like quality all burst through the windows of the Dev and into my eardrums. There’s nothing slow and sleepy about them – more often than not, their set feels like an untamed horse you’re trying to keep a hold on, as it bucks with all the strength of a great typhoon. Denver, CO really has something in the water, to be brewing a whole new generation of rock bands ready to conquer international stages of all genres and audiences. Theirs is also the only encore I hear today, as the band is ready to pack up and go when the earnest praise of their crowd gets them back on for one last mosh-maker. Rux
Hällas
Dressed in capes and sparkling vintage tops, they dazzled us on stage, perfectly matching their glowing sound. It was as if we had all found ourselves in a hazy dream, overlooking a parallel universe and intensely watching the adventures of their main character, the fantastical knight Hällas. We all wondered if there would be enough time in their set to squeeze in one of their epic, lengthy tracks, but sadly, the tight timeframes of the festival didn’t allow them to completely take off without constraints. For that, we’ll just have to hope they return for their own headline show, which I really hope they do! Nat
Hermano
Do you have any idea how many legendary projects Kyuss spawned? Let me tell you: it’s ten. Ten world-spanning bands, from Queens of the Stone Age to Desertfest dears Brant Bjork Trio to a guilty pleasure of mine, Them Crooked Vultures to, of course, John Garcia’s current favourite child, Hermano. This is classic heavy rock, oozing glamour and delicious blues. Founded in 1998 (making me just barely older than the band and what have I achieved in this time?), there is something absolutely timeless about their sound. I can imagine a crowd in 1965 rocking out to this. I can see with my own eyes a packed Electric Ballroom moshing and surfing to this. You can live any sort of epic life to them as a soundtrack. You could base jump off Mount Everest or ask out the cutie on the barricade to ‘Señor Moreno’s Plan’, the adrenaline build up of it is inescapable. It’s a band for rush moments, when things suddenly speed up and you need Dandy Brown on bass to hold it down for you just enough to get your feet, throw back a shot of whiskey and jump right into the thick of it. Rux
Meatdripper
Walking into a very foggy Dev, you could hardly see the stage, but you could certainly hear what was going on. For this act, I was going in blind, turns out, quite literally. Only really following a recommendation from a friend who said I must see their Brummie pals, Meatdripper. In a half-sleepy state following Hällas’s bedtime story, I thought there was something wrong with my ears; the vocalist sounded like a croaky old lady from outer space, but in a really cool way. It’s hard to explain, you really just need to hear it. The vocals were surrounded by filthy, sludgy riffs with a sprinkle of punk-like attitude. This quartet is in their breakout year, and damn right they should be; this was a fun way to close out the first day. Nat
Thank you all for reading! See you tomorrow for more new stoner favourites, old doom friends and an epic Roundhouse headliner!