This is an incomplete list of
heavy metal festivals
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival co ...
. The genre heavy metal (or simply metal) is a subgenre of
rock music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...
that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United States and the United Kingdom. With roots in
blues rock
Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes w ...
and
psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
, the first heavy metal bands such as
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...
and
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...
attracted large audiences, and during the late 1960s and mid-1970s these bands and others in their genre were featured at a number of historic rock festivals.
[Fast (2005), pp. 89–91; Weinstein (2000), pp. 7, 8, 23, 36, 103, 104.] Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in th ...
helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
influence.
[Walser (1993), p. 6.]["As much as Sabbath started it, Priest were the ones who took it out of the blues and straight into metal." Bowe, Brian J. ''Judas Priest: Metal Gods''. .]
After the genre fused with other related genres such as
punk rock in the late 1970s, bands in the
new wave of British heavy metal
The new wave of British heavy metal (commonly abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that started in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Journalist Geoff Barton coined the term i ...
such as
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...
and
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
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*
*
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peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
followed in a similar vein. Before the end of the decade, heavy metal fans became known as "
metalheads A metalhead is a member of the heavy metal subculture.
Metalhead may also refer to:
Music
* ''Metalhead'' (album), 1999 album by Saxon
* "Metalhead", a song by Blotto
* "Metalhead", a song from the 2008 Miss Kittin album ''BatBox''
* Metalheadz ...
" or "
headbangers
Headbanging is the action of violently shaking one's head in rhythm with music. It is common in the contemporary rock, punk and heavy metal music genres, where headbanging is often used by musicians on stage. Headbanging is also common in trad ...
", and there were festivals worldwide, both touring and stationary, dedicated to
heavy metal subgenres
A number of heavy metal genres have developed since the emergence of heavy metal (often shortened to ''metal'') during the late 1960s and early 1970s. At times, heavy metal genres may overlap or are difficult to distinguish, but they can be ide ...
and heavy metal itself. During the 1980s,
glam metal
Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam r ...
became a commercial force, while
Underground scenes and
extreme subgenres of metal such as
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
and
black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
remained
subcultural
A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...
phenomena, though they have their own dedicated festivals as well. Since the mid-1990s, popular styles have further expanded the definition of the genre.
Historical heavy metal festivals
Current heavy metal festivals
Africa
Botswana
Asia
India
Indonesia
Japan
Mongolia
Nepal
Europe
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
North America
Canada
Mexico
United States
Oceania
Australia
South America
Brazil
Colombia
Tours
The following is an incomplete list of traveling metal festivals, both active and defunct:
See also
*
List of music festivals
A list of music festivals around the world. A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, ...
*
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed a ...
References
External links
All Metalfest - all metal festivals around the worldHeavy metal festivals in EuropeFestivaltickerMetalstorm.Net Search eventsMetal festivals in Deutschland, Österreich und der SchweizLords of Metal ezine - gig guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heavy Metal Festivals
Lists of rock festivals