“Four nights of pure ruckus.”
It’s an intriguing offer, and that’s exactly what The Prodigy promised for their Warrior’s Dance Festival tour this year. Four day-long celebrations across four cities (Dublin, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh and Manchester), each hosting an array of musical talent – curated by the electronica giants themselves – to join them in melting the faces off of punters. First held in Tokyo in 2009, the Warrior’s Dance festival was a chance for The Prodigy to throw the biggest party imaginable, with the likes of Pendulum, Chase & Status, Skrillex and scores more performing in the years following – but it hasn’t been put on since 2013.
When it was announced that the festival was returning after thirteen years, tickets disappeared. Electronic and dance music is experiencing a peak in popularity right now, but The Prodigy have been ahead of the game since the 1990s. Even without having released an album since 2018 (‘No Tourists’), their position and influence on today’s music culture is immeasurable. Their anti-authoritarian themes and raging, addictive beats have stirred something in listeners of all ages for decades.
Manchester served as the final stop of the 2026 Warrior’s Dance run, held at Wythenshawe Park over the August bank holiday. This time The Prodigy brought five “kings of their game”: David Rodigan, Scarlxrd, Yousuke Yukimatsu, Andy C and Carl Cox. It was a send-off to the summer in true Mancunian style: loud and soaking wet.
Ska and reggae legend David Rodigan kicked things off with some old-school bangers, before Scarlxrd brought a tone switch so intense it genuinely seemed to catch the crowd off-guard, rushing onstage to a riotous shrieking set of trap metal. The bewilderment soon faded though, and before long mosh pits were swirling – it was unexpectedly one of the most invigorating performances of the evening. Yousuke Yukimatsu, the Japanese DJ who was propelled to worldwide infamy following his viral 2025 Tokyo Boiler Room set last year, performed in his typically disarming style. It was as soon as his last song (Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’) finished however that, rather poetically, the heavens opened and the report of a nearby electrical storm brought the Warrior’s Dance to a temporary standstill.
A bit of rain has never hampered a Mancunian crowd. After a brief huddle beneath raincoats, the party began again as blasted his identifiable blend of heavy metal and drum-and-bass to a swarm of people who immediately sprinted from their shelters. House and techno legend was the final support act, rejoining The Prodigy after supporting them on their earlier spring UK and Ireland tour this year. It was a stellar – albeit male-dominated – lineup and the hours preceding headliner’s arrival were nothing short of fantastic.
So then, it was time for . The tension in the crowd was truly palpable as the space transformed to mark their arrival: during the whole festival, large objects onstage had been conspicuously covered by large black tarps, a tattered banner hung from the rafters and a tall dark effigy loomed silently from within the crowd. It was ominous, dramatic and clearly effective: the crowd was roaring in anticipation before the band even took to the stage. When MC Maxim and founding member Liam Howlett eventually appeared to rolling bass and synths, the reception was enormous; then chaos began.
In true Prodigy style, they didn’t give the crowd a single second of respite before pelting them immediately with smash-hit ‘Omen’. Maxim was a domineering figure, clad in dark floating attire and streaked white face-paint, leaping across the stage and into the crowd. and ‘ came next, with the crowd lurching as strobe lights detonated. The tarp-covered objects were revealed to be giant laser-guns (very Prodigy-esque) which sent sizzling lights across the space. Howlett thrashed from his position further backstage. It was intense, dystopian and absolutely what the people wanted. I have never seen people dance harder.
Although with seven UK Number One albums under their belt, it was ‘Invaders Must Die’, ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’ and ‘The Day is My Enemy’ that provided the majority of the night’s setlist. Worldwide classic Firestarter was, unsurprisingly, met with one of the biggest receptions of the evening. The crowd went wild for late member Keith Flint as his voice reverberated across the park and it was in this moment that the effigy came to life, blasting green strobes from its eyes to sear an outline of Flint’s legendary outline onto the stage wall. It was a poignant moment and a nod to a missing legend.
The energy never wavered. ‘No Good’ was to follow which sent people into a frenzy, as did ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, which had Maxim commanding people to “GET DOWN!” before leaping up for the song’s climax. The stage cleared as they disappeared briefly before returning for an encore, which saw them run through a gauntlet of some of their biggest hits: Maxim snarled to ‘Breathe’, the beats crashed in ‘Warriors Dance’ and the otherworldly ‘Out of Space’ saw the strongest light-show of the night. “Liam wants to do one more!” Maxim announced to raucous cheers, before treating the audience to a finale rendition of the hypnotic ‘Comanche (The Big Gundown)’.
It was a sublime end for the return of the famed festival. This Warrior’s Dance proved that where The Prodigy goes, people follow, even after all this time. Next up, they’re performing on the North American festival circuit before embarking on a European tour over November.
Fingers crossed, the Warrior’s Dance festival is back again to stay. Here’s to the next one.