LINKIN Park closed the first day of the inaugural Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth last night (Saturday). The American nu-metal superstars took to the Apollo main stage just after 9pm and rattled through a set including their biggest hits from multi-milli

LINKIN Park closed the first day of the inaugural Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth last night (Saturday).

The American nu-metal superstars took to the Apollo main stage just after 9pm and rattled through a set including their biggest hits from multi-million selling albums Hybrid Theory, Meteora and Minutes to Midnight.

Taking the stage to a chorus of cheers, the Californian sextet dealt out hit after hit as the sun set over Knebworth Park.

After it had rained through sub-headliners Heaven & Hell's performance on the same stage earlier in the evening, it stayed dry for Linkin Park's show.

And Sonisphere's Saturday night headliners entertained the 35,000 fans inside Knebworth with classics such as Somewhere I Belong, Points of Authority, What I've Done, Numb, Breaking the Habit, Shadow of the Day, Crawling and In the End.

Frontman Chester Bennington's side project, Dead By Sunrise, also made their UK live debut during the encore.

They aired three new songs, including forthcoming single Crawl Back In, before Linkin Park returned to the stage to close the night's proceedings in the outdoor arena.

Their set finished with most recent hit New Divide, the theme song from the film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Faint and One Step Closer.

Metal legends Metallica are due to headline tonight (Sunday) at 8.45pm.

They will take to the Apollo stage after performances from the likes of Saxon, Feeder, Lamb of God, Alice In Chains, Avenged Sevenfold, Limp Bizkit, special guests - believed to be Machine Head, who had originally pulled out of Sonisphere - and Nine Inch Nails.