In case that you are not familar with these festivals, here you can go:
1- The Hellfest: Situated in the french countryside Clisson appears to be a peaceful village that oozes tranquility. Juin arrives with its summer heat, and Clisson is transformed into a pandemonium of metal fans from all over the world; some 62,000 individuals who travel from all the corners of the globe to see legendary musicians to play their masterpieces live. The serenity dilapidates and is instead replaced with the collective desire for revelry. The Hellfest as well as raismesfest are considered as the biggest metal fests in France.

2-Wacken Open Air: To me, the biggest festival in Europe or maybe in the world, isn't it? About 61.500 people this year. Officially,Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) is the second biggest heavy metal music festival in Europe after the Download Festival. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany.
The festival was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and one of the most important in the world and included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia. W:O:A is usually held at the beginning of August and lasts three days, during which the festival-goers camp on several large camping grounds surrounding the actual festival area. The 70 or more artists perform across four separate stages over the course of the event. Wacken Open Air is held in such high esteem by artists and fans that some bands have been known to reform especially to perform there.[wiki]

3-Ozzfest: The festival was created in 1996, when organizers of musical festival Lollapalooza refused to let Ozzy Osbourne join the tour. The tour was very well-received, which prompted the Osbournes to have the festival become a yearly occurrence.

In 1998, Ozzfest ventured outside the United States for the first time, adding dates in Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Congo, and South Africa, which featured a different lineup. After 4 shows, however, Main Stage act Korn dropped out of the tour, due to the wife of one of the band members giving birth.Other Main Stage act Soulfly's set included a guest appearance by ex- New Kids on the Block frontman Benji Webb. The festival would eventually return to the US, appearing in 2001, 2002, and 2005.

In 2002, Ozzfest broke new ground by expanding its borders into central Europe. Included were 16 venues across Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Finland and Russia among other nations. The festival, however, was marked by the death of Drowning Pool frontman Dave Williams, who was found dead of an undiagnosed heart condition on their bus. Tommy Lee replaced the band for the rest of the tour.

On-stage footage of the Ozzfest 2004 tour was shown on MTV. They hosted a show titled Battle for Ozzfest where Ozzy and Sharon chose eight out of hundreds of bands to compete for a spot on the following year's Ozzfest. Ozzy selected one member of each band to "tag along" on the tour doing various tasks (some just to anger the contestants) and there were occasional meetings to decide which contestant was to leave that week for whatever reason. Marc Serrano from A Dozen Furies was the winner.

Ozzy said the 2006 shows will be the last Ozzfest in which he will make a "regular appearance" meaning that although Ozzfest will continue, it will no longer be a guarantee that Ozzy himself will perform.[wiki]

4-Summer Breeze: well, i think no need to add something, all that you've to do is clicking on the link and see what the site is all about.

5-Heathen Crusade II Metalfest: The First HEATHEN CRUSADE FESTIVAL was held on Saturday, January 21, 2006.performed by Moonsorrow, Primordial, Novembers Doom, Thyrfing and more. Gained a lot of popularity in the german and the international scene and received some awards.

6- Hole In The Sky Bergen Metal Fest: is a metal festival located in Bergen, Norway. It is held in the end of August each year. It was held for the first time in 1999, in honor of the then recently deceased Erik "Grim" Brødreskift - ex-member of Immortal. A fund in his name, the Erik Brødreskifts minnefond, was established at the same time, and the profit of ticket sales, goes into this fund. The purpose of the fund is to promote activities related to metal music in the Bergen area. Money from this fund will be dealt out for the first time in 2006.
The festival have had headliners like Immortal, Obituary, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Opeth, Anathema, Danzig, Samael, Satyricon and Taake.
Celtic Frost, Morbid Angel and Destruction are among the headliners for Hole in the Sky VII (2006).
The festival was named after a famous Black Sabbath song, which appears on their Sabotage album.

7-Graspop Metal Meeting: The first edition of Graspop was organised way back in 1986 as a local pop festival with mainly local acts. Two decades later, Graspop has evolved from a small-scale family affair to a major and internationally acclaimed metal event. This obviously didn't happen overnight.In 2004, the ninth Graspop Metal Meeting spanned three days. The campingfest opened the proceedings on Friday, while full programmes on three separate stages were scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday. Attendance climbed to 75,000, putting paid to those critics who had long claimed metal to be a fringe phenomenon in Belgium. Iced Earth and Exodus were top of the bill on Friday, while Alice Cooper, Cradle Of Filth and Agnostic Front closed on Saturday. On Sunday, Judas Priest celebrated the return of Rob Halford and Dimmu Borgir and Hatebreed blasted the crowd into oblivion with blistering sets.
The 2005 edition marked the tenth anniversary of the Graspop Metal Meeting and an amazing 80,000 metal fans thanked the organisers for ten long years of unremitting effort. The campingfest became a thing of the past as GMM now scheduled three full festival days on four stages that welcomed over 60 bands. After top acts like Slipknot, System Of A Down and Slayer had set the festival grounds ablaze, headliners Iron Maiden wrapped up the three-day anniversary party in style with a vintage 'early days' set.

8-Download festival: The Download Festival is a three day rock/metal/punk festival held annually at the spiritual home of rock music in England - Donington Park, which hosted the Monsters of Rock Festivals between 1980 and 1996, and 2002's Ozzfest. It takes place in early summer, and is owned and managed by Live Nation, a company owned by Clear Channel Communications. Wiki.

9- Other: never heard of this festival, so let us know dear reader .

Hmm I dunno and I coud not say obectiv opinium, because I hawnt been in noin of them, but if i shood choose i say other because czceha nd Slovak Republics has great fest like old days so, but i can noty say nothing because I hawnt been to those fests, let vote those who had been there

well i havent been to all of them, and i am sure 98% of the people on here wont have been to all of them either - so people are just going to be voting for the one they went to an enjoyed last

one thing caught my attention though
you put download festival on there? that isnt a metal festival, its just a gathering of a bunch of over-rated commercial idiots with only a few decent bands. the people you get going there are more interested in Green Day then anything heavy metal
Bloodstock Open Air or Bloodstock Indoor is definatly the U.K.s biggest metal festival

I have only been to Wacken so I wont vote. But damn I loved it..

Well, unfortunately Dynamo Open Air isn't around anymore, but sure as hell that was THE BEST festival around. At its peak more than 120,000 people attended. Almost ALL the great metal bands have attended it. It started off as a FREE festival where bands played free of charge, later it only cost 0.5 euro and then evolved into an expensive festival due to greedy artists and record companies.

No festival in the world can even come close to thegood old Dynamo Open Air days.

There are a few great festivals in Sweden...Metaltown, Gates of Metal, etc, with some great bands coming, but they're pretty small compared to Hellfest and Wacken.

I choose a fest that's not on that list, the Mountains of Death fest in good ol' switzerland.

It's nothing big actually, let's say 100 people per show? Anyway, it's a 3 day long fest and all the good gore, grind and brutal death bands play there, this year we had Suffocation, Rottensound, Skinless and many more. Last year we even had Rompeprop, Pigsty, Haemorrhage and way way more!

Written by Baz Anderson on 16.10.2006 at 11:20

one thing caught my attention though
you put download festival on there? that isnt a metal festival, its just a gathering of a bunch of over-rated commercial idiots with only a few decent bands. the people you get going there are more interested in Green Day then anything heavy metal
Bloodstock Open Air or Bloodstock Indoor is definatly the U.K.s biggest metal festival

Yes i agree, Bloodstock is the U.K.s biggest independent metal fest, but did you see the billing of 2006?
Primal Fear
Axel Rudi Pell
Savage Circus
Majesty
Marshall Law
To-Mera
Eden
Steel Tormentor
Captive Audio
Awaken
My Dying Bride
Deathstars
Onslaught
Brainstorm
Machine Men
Omnium Gatherum
Tourettes Syndrome
Spellblast
illuminatus

I think it's not the billing of an international well-known fest which offers fans the opportunity to meet the bands at signing sessions plus socialise at a number of bars within the Assembly Rooms complex. However, i put another option (other) (specify), so take your time to choose . Ofcourse, i'll change some options from time to time and i'll keep your opinion in mind . Thanks

I've never been at any of those, but in Finland we have many good metal festivals, like Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, Sauna Open Air Metal Festival, Ilosaari Rock and other smaller festivals. In my opinion Finland's best festival is Tuska, and it happens in Helsinki (Hellsinki), and they've got many big bands (Arch Enemy(2006), Children Of Bodom (2003, 2005), Norther (2006), Wintersun (2006)) there and the people around there is great. Same thing can be said about Sauna Open Air, they mostly have a few bigger bands (Megadeth (2005), Slayer (2005), Cradle Of Filth (2006), Norther (2006)) and then there's a great atmosphere. But I guess it's nothing compered to bigger festivals like Wacken and so on..I hope I can visit one of them some day =)

Wacken wouuld get my vote, but now that Bullet for my valentine is confirmed it really loses a lot of respect from me. I weant this past year and it was great. I voted for Heathen Crusade because it has the best line-up I have seen in a while for a festival.

Well it's not really as big as something like Wacken but the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival is 3 nights of great bands some of the more well known bands to play it have been Nile, Suffocation, Necrophagist, Dragonforce, Cephalic Carnage, Obituary, Nightwish, Arch Enemy, Children of Bodom, Iced Earth, In Flames, Kataklysm, Cryptopsy, The Haunted, Dark Tranquillity, Six Feet Under, Mastodon, Strapping Young Lad, Dimmu Borgir, Meshuggah, Cannibal Corpse, Vital Remains, Lamb of God, Goatwhore, Shadows Fall, Hate Eternal, and Killswitch Engage. Another thing that makes the festival so great is that there's also always a shit load of upcomming metal and hardcore bands on it so it's not just big name bands and some lesser known bands that have been around for awhile. Another reason that I like this festival so much is that it includes such a wide variety of bands from different genres. Though I'd still take a festival like Wacken over this any day if I had the chance my vote still goes to other.

Since I haven't been to any I won't vote, and if I should vote I must've attended everyone of them. That's my voting policy.

I have only been in metal festivals in Finland, so Tuska Open Air gets my vote.

This year there were (including the clubs after the main event) bands like Anathema, Arch Enemy, Amorphis, Insomnium, Kiuas, Freedom Call, Korpiklaani, Celtic Frost, Sodom, Swallow the Sun, Opeth, Kalmah, Sonata Arctica, Omnium Gatherum, Stam1na, Wintersun...

Graspop Metal Meeting all the way
Flemish pride

Keep-it-true festival in Germany. I have been there 3 times and will go the next edition too with Laaz Rockit, Sabbat (UK), Lethal, Twisted Tower Dire,.... Always eighties metal and true metal with a lot of atmosphere and awesome gigs. I saw great bands there like Overlorde, Deadly Blessing, Shadowkeep, Heir Apparent,...

Headbangers-open-air festival: Also a true metal festival in Germany. It is an open air festival which looks like a garden-party. I have been there two times and saw bands I would have never seen if there wasn't this festival. Talking about Ravensthorne, Icaus Witch, Satan, .... I'll be there at the next edition as well.

About Graspop: I don't like this festival at all. Too less good bands, over and over again there are the same headliners and its incredible expensive...

Is there anyone that ever been at the GODS OF METAL????

nver been on a metal fest so i dont know, but i was on a gig of 4 bands. that counts? well anyway the bands were

Asrai
Callenish Circle
The Birthday Massacre
Paradise lost

i didnt knew about the first 3 support bands, but well it was fun

i haven´t been in any of them, perhaps that i may be going to next Wacken

Well only been to two of them so I won't vote. Wacken was probably a bit better towards the later stages however although earlier on the open air thing was not really my idea of the perfest Fest..

Well I havnt been to any big metalfests, so its hard to say which one is my favorite, but judging by the line-ups I would definitly have to say Wacken (duh) with bloodstock in second.

I've never been to any big metal festival, only our local. I think if everything will turn up allroght, i'll visit Wacken or Tuska.

Well i wish to go to wacken so i can die and rest i peace but i've been to non i've just seen videos and stuff
but every fest could be ass kicker X year and could not be that cool by next year
but wacken has always had good bands thought and bloodstock as well and hellfest has been masive

I've haven't been to an great festival either, but i'm going to Wacken! From what i've heard, everybody says that Wacken is the best festival you can go to. "A great atmosphere, great bands (most of the time) and great people". At least that's what i've heard from the festival.

For now I've been only on Metal camp festival, so I won't vote, but in the near future I'm planning to go to Wacken, Graspop and maybe even Tuska. I just have to get money

I voted wacken,even if i was a little bit disappointed with wacken 2009,this festival still done a lot for metal music and gave opportunity to watch many great bands.For me metal camp is also great festival.

I've never been to a fest....

I haven't been to any of those, but, from what I see usually Wacken has better line-ups. I definetly wouldn't vote for Ozzfest... A Heavy Metal festival that eggs arguably the greatest metal band, Iron Maiden, doesn't deserve to be the best.

Off the list i've only been to Summer Breeze many years ago. Been to Bloodstock the last few years and it's a great festival. The last Irish festival i was at i don't remember much of Have photos of Nifelheim, Unleashed and some others so i must of been able to stand long enough to see some bands. Next year going to Wacken. Only cause you have to go once. Prefer smaller festivals. I would highly recommend Bloodstock.

Written by Mindheist on 16.10.2006 at 23:42

Written by Baz Anderson on 16.10.2006 at 11:20

one thing caught my attention though
you put download festival on there? that isnt a metal festival, its just a gathering of a bunch of over-rated commercial idiots with only a few decent bands. the people you get going there are more interested in Green Day then anything heavy metal
Bloodstock Open Air or Bloodstock Indoor is definatly the U.K.s biggest metal festival

Yes i agree, Bloodstock is the U.K.s biggest independent metal fest, but did you see the billing of 2006?
Primal Fear
Axel Rudi Pell
Savage Circus
Majesty
Marshall Law
To-Mera
Eden
Steel Tormentor
Captive Audio
Awaken
My Dying Bride
Deathstars
Onslaught
Brainstorm
Machine Men
Omnium Gatherum
Tourettes Syndrome
Spellblast
illuminatus

I think it's not the billing of an international well-known fest which offers fans the opportunity to meet the bands at signing sessions plus socialise at a number of bars within the Assembly Rooms complex. However, i put another option (other) (specify), so take your time to choose . Ofcourse, i'll change some options from time to time and i'll keep your opinion in mind . Thanks

2006 it was still a small indoor festival. Look at the billings since it became an outdoor festival. It can easily compete with some of those on the continent.

Other : Metalfest!!!! My first festival I've ever attended at and still the best. Amon Amarth, Korpiklaani, Finntroll, Wintersun (although I missed them ), Decapitated, Vader, Persefone, Brainstorm, Megazetor...