Ozzy Osbourne has died, but his namesake traveling metal festival lives on. His widow and long-time manager Sharon Osbourne officially confirms the long-awaited return of Ozzfest, which rose to fame in the ’90s by featuring up-and-comers alongside huge acts.
See a complete list of Ozzfest dates, cities and venues below, along with an expanded look at 2027’s biggest music festivals and cruises. Lineups will be revealed “in the coming months.” For more information or tickets, visit the festival’s official site.
Ozzfest started in 1996 and initially continued through 2008. Thereafter, the event returned in 2010, 2013 and 2015-18. Osbourne’s reunions with Black Sabbath proved to be the highlight of several years. Two editions were also presented in combination with a tour founded by Slipknot.
When Will Ozzfest Finally Return?
Sharon Osbourne initially hinted at the return of Ozzfest just months after her husband’s death in July 2025. “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people,” she told Billboard. “We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent.”
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By March, she’d made the first mention of a possible kickoff location in Black Sabbath’s old UK stomping grounds. “Then we wanna hear from everyone where we should go in America,” Sharon said on The Osbournes podcast
Though it grew into national tours, the original Ozzfest was only a two-day festival held in October 1996 in Phoenix, Arizona, and Devore, California. The first tour, featuring 22 shows, kicked off in May 1997 in Bristow, Virginia. Ozzfest didn’t venture elsewhere until 1998, when Osbourne brought this festival to the United Kingdom. He’d return to the U.K. in 2001-02.
Watch Black Sabbath Reunite for ‘War Pigs’ at Ozzfest
Ironically, Ozzfest only happened because of a snub: Lollapalooza had defined the new era of touring musical festivals in the ’90s – but the organizers apparently wanted nothing to do with Ozzy Osbourne.
“They laughed at the idea,” Sharon Osbourne told the Guardian. “They all thought Ozzy was so uncool. So I thought, ‘Right, I’ll organize my own fucking festival.'”
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Ozzfest was soon out on the road. “Our strategy was to take all the undesirables, all the bands that couldn’t find an outlet anywhere else, and put them together, give them an audience,” Ozzy Osbourne wrote in his autobiography, I Am Ozzy.
The touring festival’s success eventually led to a string of related compilation albums – and even the perhaps inevitable reality-show tie-in, MTV’s Battle for Ozzfest.
What to Know About Ozzfest
Key headliners over the years included Metallica, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Pantera, Rob Zombie, Tool, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Jane’s Addiction and others. But Ozzfest wasn’t immune to controversy, including widespread protests over Marilyn Manson and a dust-up over Iron Maiden’s troubled appearance in 2005.
The penultimate annual edition, in 2007, wasn’t ticketed. “It’s free to get in, but we’re charging you to get out,” Ozzy Osbourne joked at a news conference after spray-painting “free” over the Ozzfest banner behind him.
The festival was later presented as the combined Ozzfest Meets Knotfest in 2016-17; Knotfest had been started in 2012 by Slipknot. The most recent iteration of Ozzfest, held in December 2018, was a one-day event at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
Ozzfest 2027 Tour Dates
7/10 – Milton Keynes, UK @ National Bowl
9/11 – San Bernardino, CA @ Glen Helen Amphitheater
9/18 – Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros
2027’s Biggest Music Festivals and Cruises
Here’s an expanded preview of 2027’s biggest music festivals and cruises, with confirmed dates and lineups.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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