(NCS contributor Didrik Mešiček wrote the following article, shining a spotlight on ten metal festivals from around the world that will take place during 2024.)
The long and winding tunnel that is winter is slowly coming to an end. The snow (by which I, of course, mean fog and endless rain) will retreat and make way for the joys of summer. Now, if you’re reading this in some place that actually sees sunlight more often than every three months and thinking, “Rain? What in the world is this twat on about?”, please send me your address. I’m coming to visit for an undisclosed amount of time.
The unequivocally good thing about summer, however, is that the festival season is in full swing and if you haven’t yet decided where you’re going this year I might have some useful suggestions for you. I’ve tried to include a varied array of geographical location and subgenres, but as customary at NCS, we’re not really as interested in the mainstream goings on and therefore I won’t be telling you to go to Wacken or Hellfest in this list.
Also, with this intro I now declare that summer has officially started (or ended, sorry, Aussies/Kiwis and other creatures of the southern hemisphere). You’re welcome.
March 30th-31st: DARK EASTER METAL MEETING (München, Germany)
If you’re really kvlt, hate the sun, regularly get accused of being a vampire, and desperately want to prolong the misery, this list is beginning with something just for you – Dark Easter Metal Meeting in, München, Germany. There’s admittedly not a lot of time to plan this trip as the festival takes place at the end of March, but it being in München, it makes it a fairly reachable location for a lot of Europeans.
This two-day festival features three stages – Backstage Werk, Backstage Halle and Backstage Club – and luckily no bands playing overlap and you can therefore, theoretically, see all of them. Since you’re, presumably, not insane, you’re likely not doing that and that’s why I’m here to tell you what you absolutely shouldn’t miss.
Firstly, the Georgian Psychonaut 4 (DSBM) who are absolutely enthralling live. If you don’t know the band and are about to listen you may be thrown off by the extreme high shrieks, but trust me that the band works incredibly well live. And seeing a band from Georgia is kvlt by itself. If you’re a bit tired of everything sounding more or less the same there’s the Hungarian Thy Catafalque (avant-garde bm-ish), a band that gets a lot of praise for their innovative style and releasing a vastly different album every time. There are also Cult of Fire, a Czech band with epic, atmospheric songs and a fascination with Indian traditions/religion; Sylvaine – a bm/blackgaze solo project by Kathrine Shepard; as well as the more well-known Norwegian classics like Kampfar (with a 30th anniversary show) and Taake; the legendary Swedish Tiamat; and the even more legendary German thrashers, Sodom. Because everything is better if you finish it off with some thrash.
Ticket price: 144.20 EUR/156.62 USD
Editor’s Note: As of this publication date, delayed due to the ineptitude of our editor, the 2024 edition of this festival has just ended, but be on the lookout for the 2025 edition.
https://backstage.eu/dark-easter-metal-meeting-2024.html
https://www.facebook.com/darkeastermetalmeeting/
April 11th-13th: HYPERSPACE METAL FESTIVAL (Vancouver, Canada)
Meanwhile, in North America this article begins with Hyperspace – a fairly small festival that has been growing in recent years and with this edition welcomes its biggest (and for this first time some European) bands so far, namely Flotsam and Jetsam, Týr (who will be playing on the day they release their new album, Battle Balads), and Æther Realm.
As the name might suggest, this is a festival that mainly focuses on power metal and more melodic-sounding bands, although it does feature some thrashier sounds and even a prog metal band. As Hyperspace takes place over three days, the first day is dedicated to smaller bands which will play at The Wise Hall, while Friday and Saturday take place in Vancouver’s most established metal venue – The Rickshaw Theatre.
Besides the aforementioned bigger bands, the lineup features several other gems such as the fantastic pirate band, The Dread Crew of Oddwood, everyone’s favourite metal princesses/flamingoes/hairy, deranged Norwegian blokes, Trollfest, as well as two interesting Canadian outfits, the local melodeath band Kayas and the prog metallers Osyron.
Ticket price: 98.57 CAD/66.97 EUR/72.93 USD
https://www.facebook.com/HyperspaceMetalFestival/
https://rickshawtheatre.com/show_listings/hyperspace-metal-festival-v/
April 18th-19th: THE METAL FEST (Quito, Ecuador)
Fancy a quick trip to South America? I sure would, I bet they don’t have fog there. What they do definitely have, though, is this absolutely stacked lineup of legendary bands in a two-day festival in Ecuador’s capital of Quito.
This definitely isn’t an underground affair and it seems to lean (at least this year) towards older, really well-established bands, featuring Anthrax, one of the coolest Norwegian 2nd wave black metal outfits, Emperor, the Brazilian Sepultura who seem to be on the verge of finishing their career, the first ever death metal band Possessed, as well as the German power metal legends Gamma Ray. Furthermore, bands that you absolutely have to see on this lineup include the likes of Amorphis, Dark Tranquillity and Soen.
This festival basically just seems like every metalhead’s bucket list, and with it not focusing on any specific subgenre you’re bound to find a few bands for which you’d sell your house to see them live. Which is presumably how much a plane ticket to Ecuador would cost for most of us. But don’t let that stop you. Money comes and goes, show memories are forever.
Ticket price: 73,65 EUR/ 79,91 USD
https://www.facebook.com/TheMetalFestEC/
May 24th-26th: MENA ROCK FESTIVAL (Hammamet, Tunisia)
The fourth festival on the list and the fourth continent as well. I hope Elon Musk reads this as I assume everyone else would have been out of money by now if they followed this entire list. Anyway, a metal festival in Africa is pretty cool by itself, and Hammamet, which is only about an hour away from Tunisia’s capital of Tunis, seems like a very nice coastal city that borders the Mediterranean sea. Imagine Marseille but about seven times cheaper. I presume, anyway. Do report back if you’ve visited.
The location is clearly nice and historical, but personally, I mainly care about the lineup and that doesn’t disappoint either. There’s a good amount of unknown, underground bands, among which I’d like to point out Locomuerte, an absolutely deranged, crossover thrash band with very good energy, the Egyptian death metal band Scarab, and of course, one of my personal favourite bands, the Canadian melodeath outfit, Aeternam. The headliners seem to have been chosen very well as well, with Dark Tranquillity, Ihsahn and Leprous finishing the days, each adding a different sort of proggy vibe to the festival.
Mena Rock sounds like a great idea for a short Mediterrean affordable holiday with some really good music and it’s great to see festivals expanding into Africa as well.
Ticket price: 289 TND/86 EUR/93,50 USD
https://www.facebook.com/mena.rock.festival/
https://www.menafestival.com/
June 21st-23th: KILKIM ŽAIBU (Ukmerge, Lithuania)
One of Europe’s most unique festivals, sometimes referred to as “poor man’s Midgardsblot,” Kilkim Žaibu combines metal with, let’s say, activities that metalheads tend to enjoy. You can find many people dressed in viking-y attire, living out their romanticised fantasies of being a raider. There are also competitions like sword-fighting or wrestling, workshops such as woodcarving or smithing, as well as small theatrical plays and similar things you can watch, all in a picturesque woodland location for a true pagan experience.
On the musical front, the festival usually provides solid lineups as well. In 2024 some of the highlights will include the Canadian black metallers, Panzerfaust, some more black metal in the form of two bands who are quickly rising in popularity, Gaerea and Blackbraid, as well as the iconic Rotting Christ.
Even though the festival does focus on black metal as you might have noticed from my mentions, they have also added some exciting bands from other subgenres such as Ensiferum, My Dying Bride and the Brazilian all-female death metal band, Crypta. Kilkim Žaibu is one of those festivals that you just have to check out at least once, and with it taking place yearly since 1999 you can be sure the organisers know what they’re doing and a good experience is guaranteed.
Ticket price: 85 EUR/92.50 USD
https://www.facebook.com/kilkimzaibu/?locale=sl_SI
https://www.kilkimzaibu.com/lt
June 26th-29th: BASINFIREFEST (Spálené Poříčí, Czechia)
This is a new festival in a town that you absolutely cannot pronounce correctly and it translates to burnt riverbed – Czechs are silly like that with their place-naming. And people-naming. Don’t believe me? The town’s mayor is called Jindřich Jindřich. But Czechs know things no one else knows when it comes to creating metal festivals with fantastic lineups and affordable prices, and I’ve honestly no idea how they’re in the green at the end of them at all.
Basinfirefest features one of the best festival lineups I’ve ever seen – it actually looks so good I’d have to really think about what bands to skip to have a rest and get some food. The variety of the various subgenres seems to be pretty good as well, as is the mix of older, legendary bands with some newer forces. Whether you just want some silly fun with Nanowar of Steel, a complex musical experience with Fleshgod Apocalypse, or just musical violence in the form of Kataklysm. This will actually only be the festival’s second edition but I have no doubt many more successful iterations will follow if they continue in a similar vein.
Ticket price: 2346 CZK/93 EUR/101 USD
https://basinfirefest.cz/en/
https://www.facebook.com/BasinfirefestOfficial/
July 11th-13th: AREA 53 (Leoben, Austria)
Not a fan of Czech idyllic towns? Don’t worry, I have an Austrian one for you as well. A quaint Styrian town of about 25k people through which the river Mur meanders will be the home of the 6th edition of Area 53. I can neither confirm nor deny whether they have as many aliens as Area 51, but I can attest to another great lineup, with seemingly some more bands still to be announced.
The festival is giving a chance to some smaller bands that I can barely even find online, as well as a really good selection of medium-sized bands like the brilliant Spanish thrash metallers, Angelus Apatrida, the very silly Grailknights, and the German Orden Ogan, who are quite an elusive band and I don’t see them tour (at least outside of Germany) very often.
Amidst the headliners there’s a really good mix of subgenres and the organisers have generally booked bands that are in the peaks of their careers – with Decapitated not even making in the top six bands on the poster, you can see how stacked this is. Avantasia will also be making a rare appearance, while Jonas Renkse’s Katatonia is sure to bring a gentle, romantic and soothing touch to the entire festival and provide a bit of a break to what is otherwise bound to be a very energetic few days.
Ticket price: 129 EUR/140,20 USD
https://area53festival.at/
https://www.facebook.com/Area53Festival
July 24th-28th: TOLMINATOR (Tolmin, Slovenia)
Not a fan of Austrian idyllic towns? How about a Slovenian Alpine river? Tolminator takes place exactly where Metalcamp/Metaldays used to be but the festival is now limited to 5000 visitors, and with, I dare say, much more visitor-friendly organisers. It’s definitely not an exaggeration to say this is one of the prettiest festival locations in the world as the Soča river is about two minutes away from the main stage, while the underground stage is even being moved to the actual beach this year, which means you can absolutely watch bands while standing in the river or floating around carelessly on a massive pink flamingo.
Tolminator’s lineup leans towards extreme metal and has a very solid mix of great small and/or up-and-coming bands with legendary groups that are naturally saved for the evenings. The local Kamra is something no black metal fan should miss, while the Swedish LIK (with members of Katatonia and Bloodbath) are one of those smallish death metal acts that sounds very promising, and I’m (shockingly) even recommending an utterly ridiculous German deathcore band, Stillbirth.
Amongst the headliners, Dark Tranquillity and Primordial are what I can’t wait to tick off my bucket list, while there are thrash icons such as Exodus, Testament and Tankard booked for those of you whose main hobby in life is beer.
Ticket price: 170 EUR/ 184,28 USD
https://tolminator.com
https://www.facebook.com/TolminatorMetalFest/
August 15th-17th: ROCK CASTLE (Moravský Krumlov, Czechia)
Oh, look, we’ve come full circle, back to world’s metropolis of metal festivals – Czechia. Another absolutely stacked lineup that suggests the organisers must have some sort of a deal with the devil, which we, naturally approve of unequivocally. As the name suggests, the festival does actually take place in and around an actual chateau, and as you may or may not be aware, castles are pretty cool.
This is one for the less kvlt individuals among us and it does focus a bit more on the folk, power and symphonic metal subgenres with the odd melodeath or thrash inclusion. Did you know Dokken still exists? I didn’t but they’ll be playing at this festival along with a few more recently established bands such as Temperance and Ad Infinitum. The festival did a good job booking some bands that don’t tend to tour that much such as Bloodbound and Elvenking, while the festival’s main headliners Epica, Amon Amarth and Kreator are guaranteed to get the place shaking.
Ticket price: 2350 CZK/92,94 EUR/ 100,84 USD
https://www.rockcastle.cz/en/
https://www.facebook.com/rockcastle.cz/
November 16-17th: MxMF METAL FEST (Mexico City, Mexico)
Well, sadly at this point the summer will be well and truly over, and this is why I’m offering one last escape from the misery of November. And that escape is to Mexico where the the MxMF Metal Fest will be taking place over the weekend at the Velodromo Olimpico, which seems to be, from what I gather, a football stadium after having been moved from another Mexican city, Monterrey, after having spent seven years there. So bring some balls along with your regular festival must-haves for when the bands you don’t care for are on stage.
Of course, this isn’t one of those festivals that’s on this list due to its spectacular location but instead I just love that there are festivals popping up in places one wouldn’t necessarily think of right away. Furthermore, the lineup is really solid as well, featuring the likes of Crisix, a Spanish crossover thrash band with insane energy, the legendary band who coined the term black metal, Venom Inc., another ancient and cult band, Cirith Ungol, and, of course, lots of amazing headliners such as Katatonia, Enslaved, Satyricon, and At the Gates.
Ticket price: 2800 MXN/154,02 EUR/176,28 USD
https://www.facebook.com/MxMFMetalFest/