Green Day opens Super Bowl LX with hometown set at Levi’s Stadium

Green Day took the field in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, to launch Super Bowl LX with an opening ceremony performance designed to celebrate the championship’s 60th edition. The Bay Area band’s appearance put a distinctly local stamp on the pregame show at Levi’s Stadium, pairing a hometown soundtrack with a league-produced tribute to the event’s history.

The performance arrives at a moment when Green Day’s catalog—built for arenas and big television moments—continues to travel well beyond rock radio, with “American Idiot”–era staples still functioning as mass-chorus anthems two decades on.

A 60th anniversary ceremony, not halftime

This was not the halftime show. Green Day’s role was to kick off the Super Bowl’s opening ceremony, a pregame segment staged before player introductions and the run-up to kickoff. The ceremony was framed around the league’s 60th Super Bowl milestone, with a presentation that included a cross-generational nod to past MVPs.

For the band, the placement matters: the opening ceremony is where the broadcast begins tightening its focus from all-day coverage into the “main event” rhythm—shorter segments, bigger production cues, and a countdown to the first kick.

When the performance happens relative to kickoff

Super Bowl scheduling often confuses viewers because “coverage begins” can start hours before the game, while the pregame ceremony and anthem sequence live much closer to kickoff. Green Day’s set sat in that late pregame window.

Key times in Eastern Time (ET):

• Green Day opening ceremony performance: around 6:00 p.m. ET

• Scheduled kickoff: 6:30 p.m. ET

• Typical window for the opening kickoff: a few minutes after 6:30 p.m. ET, once ceremonies conclude

That final stretch before kickoff usually includes on-field presentations, anthem performances, and the coin toss, with the broadcast timing calibrated so the ball goes in the air shortly after the posted kickoff time.

Why Green Day fits the moment

Green Day’s career has long been built around high-volume hooks and crowd-leading choruses—traits that translate particularly well to stadium settings where sound can diffuse and attention can be split. The band’s identity is also tightly linked to Northern California, making them a natural choice for a Super Bowl hosted in the Bay Area’s orbit.

The league’s decision to position them in the opening ceremony leans into that local connection while still tapping an act with broad mainstream recognition. In a Super Bowl built around maximizing shared cultural moments, the idea is straightforward: start the day’s biggest broadcast with a band that can land instantly, even for casual viewers.

The wider pregame lineup and pacing

Green Day’s appearance was part of a larger pregame structure that typically stacks several short performances and ceremonial moments back-to-back. In recent Super Bowls, that means musical performances interleaved with quick cuts to team arrivals, sideline shots, and broadcast features—each segment designed to build urgency as the stadium fills and the teams move toward warmups.

The rhythm is less “concert” and more “television sprint.” A band might only get a brief window, but the tradeoff is scale: a stadium crowd, a national audience, and a slot that’s positioned as the day’s official ignition.

What’s next for the band after Super Bowl weekend

The Super Bowl appearance also functions as a visibility spike in a touring cycle. Green Day have continued to play live dates into early 2026, and a moment like this tends to amplify demand for upcoming shows while keeping the band’s current-era releases in rotation alongside legacy hits.

Whether the opening ceremony becomes a one-off or part of a longer run of high-profile appearances, the immediate effect is clear: for one of the biggest sports stages in the world, the first big musical statement of the night came from a band playing close to home—and sounding like it.

Sources consulted: NFL, Associated Press, Reuters, Billboard