Helloween US Tour 2026: 40th Anniversary Hits North America

Helloween are heading to North America. The German power metal legends, pioneers of the genre since their Hamburg formation in 1984, have announced the North American leg of their 40 Years Anniversary Tour, with 16 dates across the United States and Canada running from April 7 through May 2, 2026. Finnish melodic metal force Beast In Black will support on every date.

The run follows a triumphant European leg that launched in October 2025 and saw the band sell out prime arenas across the continent. North America now gets its turn, and on the strength of that European showing, Helloween are arriving with arguably the most ambitious setlist of the reunion era.

The 40 Years Anniversary Tour: What This Run Means

Helloween were founded in Hamburg in 1984. Forty years later, the band that essentially invented European power metal, the twin-guitar gallop, the falsetto wail over double-bass, the epic album art, is celebrating with one of the most ambitious world tours in the genre’s history. The European leg opened to immediate acclaim not only for its scale but for a setlist pulling from nearly every era of the band’s catalog, including multiple songs performed live for the first time in decades.

For North American fans, this run carries particular weight. While Helloween have visited the continent several times since the 2021 “Pumpkins United” reunion brought Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen back into the fold, this 2026 leg is the first North American run explicitly framed as an anniversary celebration, and the first supported by material from Giants & Monsters, the 2025 studio record widely regarded as the strongest work of the reunion era.

All 2026 Helloween US & Canada Tour Dates

Tickets are available via Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Individual venue box offices may also carry tickets closer to each show date. Several markets are selling quickly — the New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco dates in particular tend to move fast for European metal acts of this profile.

Support Act: Beast In Black on All Dates

Opening every night of the North American run are Beast In Black, the Finnish melodic metal act fronted by Yannis Papadopoulos. The pairing is not subtle: Beast In Black are among the most ardent inheritors of the classic Helloween template, blending hard-edged riffs with soaring clean vocals and unabashedly anthemic songwriting. Fans of the headliner will find the support slot a natural warm-up rather than a detour: this is a genuine double-bill worth arriving early for.

Expected US Tour Setlist: What Helloween Are Playing in 2026

While setlists evolve across a world tour, the European opener at Luxembourg on October 17, 2025 gives a strong blueprint for what North American audiences can expect. The 22-song set was notable for its catalog depth: multiple songs performed live for the first time in decades, and several given their live debut entirely.

The acoustic mid-set segment has drawn particular attention, a deliberate gear-shift bringing a more intimate quality before the second-half intensity pushes back toward the anthems. Halloween, making a return after years off the setlist, is expected to close the main set as the singular title-track moment fans have been waiting years to see again.

Giants & Monsters: The Album Driving This Tour

The North American run is the first chance for most US and Canadian fans to hear material from Giants & Monsters in a live setting. Released in 2025 through Reigning Phoenix Music (RPM), the album follows 2021’s critically acclaimed self-titled reunion record.

Recorded with producers Charlie Bauerfeind and Dennis Ward and mixed at Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, Netherlands; the facility used by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Def Leppard, Giants & Monsters was built around the idea of seven distinct creative voices finally finding genuine collaborative chemistry. Drummer Dani Löble recorded using three separate drum kits to capture the ideal sonic character for each track.

As Deris put it, the pressure that defined the 2021 record: the weight of expectations around the Kiske/Hansen reunion had lifted, leaving room for real experimentation. The album’s centrepiece “Giants On The Run” runs past eight minutes, its sprawling central passage contributed by Deris and Hansen.

Helloween 2026 Lineup: Seven Members, Forty Years

The full seven-piece reunion lineup, intact since 2016:

• Michael Kiske — lead vocals
• Andi Deris — vocals
• Kai Hansen — guitar, vocals
• Michael Weikath — guitar
• Sascha Gerstner — guitar
• Markus Grosskopf — bass
• Dani Löble — drums

The dual-vocalist arrangement, Kiske and Deris trading and harmonising across a catalog spanning four decades, remains the tour’s central spectacle. Having the band’s founder (Hansen), the classic-era voice (Kiske), and the post-1994 era voice (Deris) sharing a stage is something that could not have been imagined before the 2017 “Pumpkins United” initiative broke the long-running estrangement between factions.

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