The Offspring have incited what they hope is “the biggest moshpit to a Taylor Swift song ever” during their set at Hellfest.
- READ MORE: The Offspring: “We wanted to make a record that was quintessentially us, and we fucking nailed it”
The punk icons made the attempt during their set at the French metal festival on Sunday (June 21), when they closed out the 2026 edition with a raucous headline set.
After breaking out tracks including ‘Come Out and Play’, ‘All I Want’, ‘Want You Bad’, and ‘Staring at the Sun’, Dexter Holland and co. introduced an unexpected cover into their set: Taylor Swift’s 2008 hit ‘Love Story’.
Before launching into the track midway through their 17-song set, the frontman told the festival crowd that he wanted them to start moshing during the song – and likely be the ever audience to do so.
“We’re going to have the biggest mosh pit to a Taylor Swift song ever,” he said. “You guys are going to help us, we’re going to make history tonight.”
From there, the band jumped into the ‘Fearless’ cut, putting their own pop-punk spin on it as huge groups of people opened up the pit. Check it out below.
That wasn’t the only cover on the night either, as the band also broke out a brief snippet of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’, followed by a full blown rendition of Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Crazy Train’.
They also covered Edvard Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’, before wrapping things up with fan favourites ‘Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)’, ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’, ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’ and ‘Self Esteem’.
The Offspring’s Hellfest setlist was:
‘Come Out and Play’
‘All I Want’
‘Want You Bad’
‘Staring at the Sun’
‘Hammerhead’
‘Bad Habit’
‘Paranoid’ (Black Sabbath cover)
‘Crazy Train’ (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ (Edvard Grieg cover)
‘Love Story’ (Taylor Swift cover)
‘Hit That / Original Prankster’
‘Gotta Get Away’
‘Why Don’t You Get a Job?’
‘Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)’
‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’
‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’
‘Self Esteem’
Other headliners at Hellfest 2026 included Bring Me The Horizon on Thursday (June 18), Iron Maiden on Friday (19), and Limp Bizkit on Saturday (20).
This weekend, The Offspring will be playing a huge outdoor show at London’s Crystal Palace Park, with special guests Dropkick Murphys, Pennywise, PUP and Destroy Boys. Set for Sunday (June 26), the band said of the upcoming show: “Nobody rocks like the UK rocks. This is gonna be a great day out.” Visit here for tickets.
Before the Hellfest slot, the band wrapped up their ‘Supercharged Worldwide In ‘25’ North American tour, where they reunited with the star of the ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’ video on stage in Los Angeles.
That tour came in support of The Offspring’s 11th and most recent studio album, ‘Supercharged’, and Noodles and Holland spoke to NME previously about the LP and said they “wanted to make a record that was quintessentially Offspring”.
In the interview, they also recalled taking to the stage with Ed Sheeran and Brian May, and how they saw Yungblud as their “hype-man” when he played live with them.