FILE PHOTO - Put on hiatus because of the pandemic, the weekend-long Armstrong heavy metal festival will be returning to the small North Okanagan town this summer. Armstrong MetalFest will be held July 15 and 16, 2022, giving heavy metal fans across the region a reason to headbang.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Armstrong MetalFest
January 31, 2022 - 3:43 PM
Put on hiatus because of the pandemic, the weekend-long Armstrong heavy metal festival will be returning to the small North Okanagan town this summer.
Armstrong MetalFest will be held July 15 and 16 giving heavy metal fans across the region a reason to headbang.
"We are pleased to announce that we are planning on having a festival this year. We are planning a similar event to years past, but depending on the public health orders at the time of the festival may take a different physical form," Armstrong MetalFest said in a press release.
"We are working hard to solidify this year's lineup, and we feel it will be just the light many of us need to look forward to! If everything works out we will be adding additional non-music events during the rest, as well as ramping up other events such as Thrash Wrestling."
Organizers say its Western Canada's largest extreme music event. This summer's event will be the 12th annual festival, which sees around 700 heavy metal lovers camp out at the festival grounds for a weekend of music.
READ MORE: From farm to stadium: Armstrong Metal Fest's humble beginnings
The festival has attracted bands such as Kataklysm, Cattle Decapitation, Archspire, Nekrogoblikon and Beyond Creation, as well as emerging artists from across North America.
Around 30 bands will play at this year's festival which will also include wrestling events and a scavenger hunt. The festival will be following the B.C. Centre For Disease Control's guidelines.
"At the end of the revelry, the festival disappears without a trace, leaving the landscape as pristine as it has always been," the release reads.
The festival is the brainchild of Bretton Melanson and Jessie Valstar who originally started the festival on Melanson's parents Spallumcheen farm in 2009.
From there they formed the non-profit society West Metal Entertainment to organize the festival each year.
The pandemic cancelled the festival for the last two years but anyone with tickets from 2020 will have the choice of using them for one of the next three years of the festival through 2022 to 2024.
Presale tickets will be available in March 2022.
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