Festival guides: where to stay
The bed problem, solved for Europe's biggest rock and metal weekends - camping reality, hotels near the grounds and the smart city bases, festival by festival.
Wacken Open Air
Wacken, Germany · Late July - early August · 4 days
The world's biggest metal festival takes over a village of 2,000 people - around 85,000 fans, a dozen stages and a week of black-shirt pilgrimage in the Schleswig-Holstein countryside.
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Hellfest
Clisson, France · Mid-June · 4 days
France's extreme-music cathedral in the small wine town of Clisson - 60,000 fans a day, six stages and the most spectacular festival scenography in Europe.
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Download Festival
Castle Donington, United Kingdom · Mid-June · 3-5 days
The UK's home of rock and metal on the hallowed ground of Donington Park - Monsters of Rock's heir, with 80,000+ fans and the loudest weekend in Britain.
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Graspop Metal Meeting
Dessel, Belgium · Mid-late June · 4 days
Belgium's metal meeting: a compact, brilliantly organised 4-day festival in Dessel that regularly books the genre's biggest names on one bill.
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Rock am Ring
Nürburg, Germany · Early June · 3 days
Germany's legendary twin festival on the Nürburgring race track - 90,000 fans, three days, and one of Europe's strongest rock line-ups every year.
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Copenhell
Copenhagen, Denmark · Mid-June · 4 days
Metal with a skyline: Copenhell fills the post-industrial Refshaleøen docks of Copenhagen - a city festival where you headbang by the water and sleep in a real bed.
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Sweden Rock Festival
Sölvesborg, Sweden · Early June · 4 days
Scandinavia's classic-rock and metal institution in the fields outside Sölvesborg - a famously well-run festival where Saxon, deep cuts and Baltic-coast summer nights meet.
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Nova Rock
Nickelsdorf, Austria · Mid-June · 4 days
Austria's biggest rock weekend on the Pannonia Fields by the Hungarian border - four days, huge international bills and a flat, easy site.
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Resurrection Fest
Viveiro, Spain · Late June - early July · 4 days
Metal and hardcore on Galicia's Atlantic coast - Spain's heaviest week, where the campsite touches the beach and the rías supply the seafood.
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Tons of Rock
Oslo, Norway · Late June · 4 days
Norway's biggest festival takes over the Ekeberg hillside above the Oslofjord - stadium-size metal headliners with the city skyline as a backdrop.
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Mystic Festival
Gdańsk, Poland · Early June · 3-4 days
Poland's heavyweight metal gathering in the raw industrial scenery of the Gdańsk Shipyard - world-class bills at Baltic prices, minutes from the old town.
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Alcatraz Metal Festival
Kortrijk, Belgium · Mid-August · 3-4 days
Belgium's late-summer metal stronghold in Kortrijk - a compact, friendly site with a bill that runs from classic heavy to the deepest extreme.
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