Hellfest 2015 - 10th Edition

Every year, on June 21 is the "Fête de la Musique", or "Make Music Day", an all-day celebration of music originating from France.

For a weekend at the same time of the year, "metalheads" from all over the world are converging on Clisson, a quiet village of  Loire-Atlantique (formerly Brittany). A lovely village with its 7000 inhabitants, its castle, its river, its architecture inspired from Tuscany and one of the biggest music festival in France (if not the biggest!).

The Hellfest is billed as an "extreme music festival". Well, it's a bit more than that: the programme features a variety of heavy metal, hard rock, punk and hardcore acts, from the genre's pioneers to rising stars.





Need a list?

Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Kiss, Aerosmith, Candlemass, Slayer, Alice Cooper, Guns N' Roses, Saint Vitus, In Flames, Opeth, Emperor, Deep Purple, Machine Hear, Status Quo, Ghost B.C., Megadeth, Behemoth, Black Label Society, Meshuggah and so many others...

Another amazing thing about the fest, is the people!
Against all prejudices on metalheads, they don't offer goats as sacrifice! They are actually really friendly, helpful and easy to spot in a train.
Staying at the camping for the night is part of the festival spirit! If you need anything, just shout it: a tent mallet, where is Philippe or simply an "apéro". You neighbours will try their best to help you, offer you a beer or start shouting back, it's an extremely relaxing atmosphere (especially after 4am).

This year was quite a special year: it was the 10th edition of the Hellfest!
Successor of the Fury Fest, the Hellfest grew from 30.000 visitors in 2004, to more than 150.000 since 2014.

The site itself grew as well, when they changed of location in 2012, allowing the creation of 2 additional stages, for a total of 6 stages. The 2 main stages are reserved for the headliners but present an interesting variety of genres. The Temple and Altar are the lair of death and black metal band. A great place to start the day is the Valley, where one can wake up to the captivating sound of doom, drone and psychedelic music. Finally, the Warzone deserves its name: this area a bit aside of the fest is reserved for punk and hardcore bands.

For this 10th edition, the Hellfest crew paid tribute to its history with a 15 minutes long firework, in music, really a great moment!

To summarise, here are a few figures about the festival, in case you are not convinced yet:

• 3 days
• 6 stages
• 21ha festival site
• 10ha camping site
• 160 bands
• 150.000 metalheads
• 3.000 volunteers
• 260 m3 of beer
• 1 Ferris wheel

So, maybe see you there next year?