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 and ...

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 ...

and

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording tec ...

, the first heavy metal bands such as

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define ...

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 and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Originally formed as ...

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 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 Harris ...

and

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * 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" or " headbangers", 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 ro ...

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, featu ...

and

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphas ...

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:

References

External links

All Metalfest - all metal festivals around the world

Heavy metal festivals in Europe

Festivalticker

Metalstorm.Net Search events

Metal festivals in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz

Lords of Metal ezine - gig guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heavy Metal Festivals Lists of rock festivals