KISS Announces Full Band Activities for 2026 ‘KISS Kruise: Land-Locked In Vegas’

The November 13–15 event at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas will feature the only live KISS shows of 2026, plus expanded fan experiences with all four members.

KISS has announced the full slate of band activities for the 2026 edition of ‘KISS Kruise: Land-Locked In Vegas,’ returning to Virgin Hotels Las Vegas on November 13, 15. The event, co-produced by Pophouse, Vibee and Topeka, will feature the only live KISS performances scheduled anywhere in the world for 2026, with Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer all participating in an expanded lineup of fan experiences.

The Only Live KISS Shows of 2026

KISS will perform two unmasked shows during the weekend, described as a rarely seen intimate setting for the band. The 2026 event builds directly on the first Land-Locked In Vegas installment, held last November, which drew fans from all 50 states and 32 countries. That inaugural edition featured acoustic and electric sets from the band, marking their first live appearances together since retiring from touring in 2023.

The 2026 weekend will also showcase a powerhouse lineup of special guests and performers, including an Ace Frehley all-star tribute with sit-ins from members of KISS and other surprise guests. Night Ranger, former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick, Slaughter, Faster Pussycat, Keel and Chris Jericho’s 1980s KISS cover band Kuarantine are all on the bill.

Band Activities: What Each Member Is Hosting

Each of the four KISS members will anchor a dedicated fan experience during the weekend. The activities range from intimate storytelling sessions to competitive events that put attendees directly in the spotlight alongside the band.

• Gene Simmons’s Private KISS Collection Show & Tell — rare pieces and previously untold stories, hosted by KISSbySienna’s Sienna Hernandez
• Paul Stanley’s KISS Cook-Off — Paul cooks a signature dish while fans compete to recreate it, supported by Chef Colin
• Tommy Thayer’s KISS Army Live Band Karaoke — fans sing KISS anthems live with Tommy on guitar, backed by Ace Frehley’s solo band
• Eric Singer’s KISS Kruiser Drum Off + Q&A — fans compete in a guest drum-off with Singer as judge, moderated by Modern Drummer’s David Frangioni

Expanded KISSperience and Returning Fan Favorites

Beyond the individual member events, the 2026 edition introduces an expanded immersive KISSperience. The programming includes artist panels and Q&As, a KISS look-alike contest, KISS karaoke, Ask Doc sessions with longtime manager Doc McGhee, artist meet-and-greets, late-night DJs, interactive exhibits, a merch store and a Future Of KISS panel.

Returning panelists include Simmons, Stanley, Thayer, Singer and McGhee, all of whom participated in last year’s event. Renowned KISS photographer Barry Levine is among the new special appearances announced for 2026. Last year’s event also featured legendary KISS producers Bob Ezrin and Eddie Kramer, photographer Lynn Goldsmith, and KISS Army founders Bill Starkey and Jay Evans.

What we know

• KISS Kruise: Land-Locked In Vegas 2026 will take place November 13, 15 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
• The event is co-produced by Pophouse, Vibee and Topeka.
• The 2026 event will feature the only live KISS shows in the world for that year.
• KISS will perform two unmasked shows during the weekend.
• The 2025 inaugural event drew fans from all 50 states and 32 countries.
• Last year’s event marked KISS’s first live appearances together since retiring from touring in 2023.
• Tommy Thayer’s karaoke event will be backed by Ace Frehley’s solo band.
• Eric Singer’s Drum Off Q&A will be moderated by Modern Drummer’s David Frangioni.

The take

KISS’s Land-Locked In Vegas concept is a logical evolution of the KISS Kruise model, which the band pioneered in 2011 as one of rock’s first large-scale fan-cruise experiences. The Kruise format always understood something fundamental: KISS fans don’t just want a concert, they want total immersion in the mythology. Translating that to a land-based hotel residency allows the band to reach fans who can’t commit to a week at sea while preserving the curated, access-heavy programming that made the cruises legendary.

The timing matters, too. KISS officially ended its End of the Road farewell tour in December 2023 in New York, closing out a touring career that spanned five decades. For a band of that stature, the challenge post-retirement is maintaining relevance and fan engagement without diluting the legacy. The Land-Locked format threads that needle by offering genuine scarcity: two unmasked shows that are, by design, the only KISS performances on earth in 2026. That scarcity drives demand in a way that a conventional residency or one-off reunion show simply wouldn’t.

Pophouse’s involvement is also worth noting in a broader industry context. The Swedish investment firm, backed by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, has been acquiring stakes in major music catalogs and artist brands. Their co-production role here signals that the KISS brand is being managed with long-term commercial architecture in mind, not just nostalgia. The Future Of KISS panel on the schedule suggests the band is actively framing what comes next, whether that involves the avatar technology KISS has previously discussed or other formats.

Why it matters

For classic rock fans, Land-Locked In Vegas represents one of the few remaining opportunities to see KISS perform live in any form. The band’s retirement from touring in 2023 closed a chapter that stretched back to 1973, and events like this carry genuine historical weight. The expanded programming, from the drum-off to the cook-off to the collection show-and-tell, also reflects a broader industry shift toward experiential fan engagement as a primary revenue and community-building model for legacy acts whose touring days are behind them.

What’s next

KISS Kruise: Land-Locked In Vegas is scheduled for November 13, 15, 2026 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The full weekend will include two unmasked KISS performances, individual band member events, the expanded KISSperience programming and performances from Night Ranger, Bruce Kulick, Slaughter, Faster Pussycat, Keel and Kuarantine. No ticket or registration details were included in the available announcements.

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