Top 10 Annual Metal Music Festivals

The Top Ten
1 Wacken Open Air (Wacken, Germany)

Its been running annually since 1990, and has featured some of metals biggest bands, and the best lineups ever. It averages a little over 86,000 metalheads I'm attendance. pretty much every popular Metal band has performed at Wacken at some point.Just last year, Judas Priest, Dream Theater, Opeth, Black Label Society, Rob Zombie, Cannibal Corpse, Annihilator, Sabaton, Queensryche, Death Angel, Sepultura, TSO, Cryptopsy, Epica, Bloodbath, Savatage, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, My Dying Bride, Stratovarius, Nuclear Assault, Kvelertak, At The Gates, Exhumer, Cradle of Filth, Avatar and more. You can't beat that.

2 Hellfest (Clisson, France)

Mostly metal with some hard rock and punk/hardcore. It has had attendance of 150,000 people! It has some of the biggest names like Judas Priest, Motörhead, Slipknot, Faith No More, Scorpions, Venom, Children Of Bodom, and many many more

3 Download Festival (Donington Park, UK)

An estimated attendence of 75,000. It also has some alternative and punk bands on the bill. A lot of popular bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Slayer, and Muse perform.

4 Maryland Deathfest (Baltimore, USA)

Been running since 2003, Maryland Deathfest hosts some of the more extreme bands. Last year, it hosted Venom, Napalm Death, Bloodbath, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Ghoul, and Razor. It features all forms of extreme metal and crust punk.

5 Knotfest (USA)

Various locations. I'm no fan of Slipknot, but I have to hand it to them. They put together great shows since 2012. Last year, it featured Judas Priest, Mastodon, Lamb of God, Cannibal Corpse, Clutch, Goatwhore, Helmet, The Sword, Korn, Trivium, At The Gates, Battlecross, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, Gwar, Corrosion of Conformity, and Slipknot themselves.

6 Gwar-BQ (Richmond, USA)
7 Graspop Metal Meeting (Belgium)
8 California Deathfest (Oakland, USA)
9 Obscene Extreme Festival (Czech Republic)

Features the most brutal death metal and grindcore bands.

10 Rock Am Ring (Germany)
The Contenders
11 Pulp Summer Slam (Philippines)

This is the biggest metal festival in the Philippines! From 12 noon to 03:00 the next day!

12 Hammersonic Festival (Indonesia)
13 Rockstadt Extreme Fest (Romania)
14 Carolina Rebellion (North Carolina, USA)
15 Volt Fesztival (Sopron, Hungary)

The perfect balance between big name acts and local bands.

16 Tuska Festival (Helsinki, Finland)
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