Metal festivals vary widely in scale, programming, access, and visitor experience. The figures below compare attendance, stages, dates, tickets, camping, transport, and international reach at Wacken Open Air, Hellfest, Tuska, Bloodstock, and Inferno Metal Festival. Each statistic is tied to the named festival source and its stated period, so estimates, recurring descriptions, event editions, and scheduled dates are kept distinct.
Contents
- Festival scale at a glance
- Wacken Open Air by the numbers
- Hellfest and Tuska attendance
- Stages, programming, and event structure
- Bloodstock access and camping
- Bloodstock ticket and parking prices
- Dates and international audiences
Festival scale at a glance
The reported audience figures show several different models of metal festival scale. Hellfest says it welcomes over 280,000 attendees across 4 days, while Wacken Open Air says it draws 85,000 Metalheads each year. Tuska reported 60,000 metalheads at Suvilahti for its 2024 festival, and its Saturday one-day record was 23,000 visitors. These are not identical measurements: Hellfest gives a multi-day attendance figure, Wacken gives a recurring annual audience description, and Tuska gives an edition total plus a daily peak.
| Festival and period | Attendance or audience figure | Stated duration or context |
|---|---|---|
| Hellfest, recurring festival description | Over 280,000 attendees | Across 4 days |
| Wacken Open Air, recurring festival description | 85,000 Metalheads each year | Annual audience description |
| Tuska 2024 | 60,000 metalheads | 3 festival days |
| Tuska 2024 Saturday | 23,000 visitors | One-day record |
Source labels: Hellfest, “Experience”; Wacken Open Air, “Official travel partners”; Tuska, “TUSKA 2024 GATHERED 60 000 METALHEADS TO SUVILAHTI.”
Hellfest’s recurring description also places the festival 30 km southeast of Nantes and says the event was born in 2006. Those details provide geographic and historical context for its attendance figure, but they do not turn the attendance number into a forecast or a independently verified historical series.
Wacken Open Air by the numbers
Wacken Open Air’s site describes a footprint of more than 360 hectares and a total of 8 stages in its “The areas” information. The 2024 program introduced a 9th official stage, the LGH Clubstage. This means the standard stage count and the 2024 edition’s expanded official-stage count should be read separately: 8 is the stated total in the general areas description, while 9 applies to the 2024 program announcement.
The 2024 festival was identified as the 33rd edition. A separate announcement about that edition said the first 33 bands had been announced for the 33rd Wacken Open Air. The two numbers describe different things: one is the edition number, and the other is the size of an initial band announcement. The official Bullhead recap for W:O:A 2024 described the festival as lasting 7 days, and the Bullhead issue covering W:O:A 2024 was 50 pages long.
Wacken’s audience description is equally specific. The official travel-partner page says the festival brings together fans from over 80 nations each year and draws 85,000 Metalheads each year. The 2025 announcement said all 85,000 tickets had sold out. The Wacken 2025 recap then described 85,000 fans celebrating the 34th edition. These statements refer to separate editions and should not be combined into a single attendance trend.
Doro’s Wacken performance in 2016 was described as taking place in front of 85,000 people. That is a performance-specific audience statement from 2016, not a general claim about every Wacken event. It is useful alongside the recurring 85,000 audience description because both use the same scale, but the dates and contexts remain different.
The travel-partner page also displays 5 package images for its World Metal Camp travel offer. This is a count of displayed package images, not a count of packages, attendees, or countries. Wacken’s 2024 running-order announcement further said that the Wasteland and Wackinger support areas were part of the expanded running order. They are therefore part of the event’s stated support-area structure, rather than additional stages in the 8-stage general count or the 9-stage 2024 program count.
Hellfest and Tuska attendance
Hellfest’s “Experience” page gives the broadest attendance figure in this comparison: over 280,000 attendees across 4 days. It also says Hellfest books more than 180 bands each year and runs on 6 themed stages. Its stage mix is explicitly listed as Mainstages 1 and 2, Warzone, Valley, Altar, and Temple. That list accounts for the six named stages in the source’s recurring festival description.
The Hellfest figures describe a recurring event model rather than one dated edition in the supplied information. The location statement—30 km southeast of Nantes—helps identify the festival geographically, while the 2006 origin date marks when the festival was born. Neither fact should be interpreted as the date of the particular attendance measurement.
Tuska’s supplied 2024 recap is more edition-specific. It reported 60,000 metalheads gathered in Suvilahti and a Saturday one-day record of 23,000 visitors. The festival ran for 3 days. Its 2024 coverage highlighted 4 named major stages: Karhu Main Stage, Radio City Stage, Open Air II, and Tuska KVLT Stage. The four named stages are a highlighted subset or presentation of the coverage and should not be treated as a claim that no other performance areas existed.
The same Tuska source scheduled the next event for 27–29 June 2025. That is a scheduled date range, not a measured attendance period. The source also listed limited Early Crow 3-day tickets at €199 and published the 2024 recap on 30 June 2024. The publication date identifies when the recap appeared; it does not change the dates of the festival itself.
Stages, programming, and event structure
Stage counts help explain how festivals distribute programming, but the definitions vary. Hellfest states 6 themed stages and names all six. Wacken’s general areas page states 8 stages, while its 2024 program introduced a 9th official stage, LGH Clubstage. Tuska’s 2024 coverage highlighted 4 major stages by name. Inferno Metal Festival’s supplied 2024 announcement described 2 main stages across 4 days.
| Festival | Stated stage information | Programming or timing context |
|---|---|---|
| Hellfest | 6 themed stages | More than 180 bands each year |
| Wacken Open Air | 8 stages generally; 9 official stages in the 2024 program | 2024 was the 33rd edition |
| Tuska 2024 | 4 named major stages highlighted | 3 festival days |
| Inferno Metal Festival 2024 | 2 main stages | 28–31 March 2024 |
The counts are best used as structural indicators, not as a league table. Hellfest’s “more than 180 bands each year” is a recurring booking description. Wacken’s first 33 announced bands were a preliminary announcement for the 33rd edition, not the full bill. Tuska’s four named stages were highlighted in its 2024 coverage, while Inferno’s two main stages were part of a description that also specified a four-day format.
Wacken’s Wasteland and Wackinger areas illustrate another distinction: support areas can be part of the running order without being counted as official stages. Likewise, a displayed World Metal Camp package image is not a stage, ticket, or accommodation-capacity statistic. Keeping these categories separate prevents area, stage, lineup, and visitor figures from being added together without support.
Bloodstock access and camping
Bloodstock’s event information gives unusually concrete operational statistics. The festival provides 2 disability shuttle buses, and the shuttles are standard 17-seater minibuses. The accessible shuttle route is about 900 metres from the car park to the site entrance. These figures describe the access arrangement and route length; the 17-seat figure should not be read as total daily transport capacity because no number of journeys is supplied.
Showers are open from 7am to 7pm Thursday through Sunday, giving a 12-hour daily window on those four days. On Monday, showers open from 7am to 10am, a 3-hour window. Shower use costs £5.00. The same event information says 24-hour Samaritans are available in the MIDGARD campsite.
Campervan pitches measure 8m by 6m, and one Campervan Ticket is required per pitch. Every occupant staying on a campervan pitch must have a valid weekend camping ticket. These are eligibility and pitch-dimension rules, not capacity totals. Bloodstock also states that anyone under 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian aged 18 or over.
The accessibility information lists 2 accessible toilets behind the main-stage viewing platform. That count applies to the stated location and facility type. It should not be expanded into a total for every accessible toilet across the festival site because no broader total is supplied.
Bloodstock ticket and parking prices
Bloodstock’s ticket information distinguishes adult and child day tickets, dates, parking, and access windows. Adult Friday, Saturday, and Sunday day tickets are £99 each, while the adult Thursday day ticket is £59. Child Friday, Saturday, and Sunday day tickets are £59 each, and the child Thursday day ticket is £39.
| Bloodstock item | Stated price or access |
|---|---|
| Adult Friday, Saturday, or Sunday day ticket | £99 |
| Adult Thursday day ticket | £59 |
| Child Friday, Saturday, or Sunday day ticket | £59 |
| Child Thursday day ticket | £39 |
| Thursday day parking | £15 |
| Friday, Saturday, or Sunday day parking | £20 |
| Full weekend parking | £30 |
Thursday day tickets grant arena access from 4pm to 2am. Adult day tickets for Friday through Sunday grant arena access from 10am to 2am. These windows are stated access periods, not the complete duration of all festival activity. The Thursday window covers 10 hours, while the Friday-through-Sunday window covers 16 hours per stated day; those durations are direct conversions of the listed times and do not estimate time spent at the event.
Parking prices also vary by period. Thursday day parking is £15, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday day parking are £20 each, and full weekend parking is £30. The ticket source labels these as Bloodstock ticket and infrastructure information for 2026; the prices should therefore remain associated with that stated period rather than presented as timeless rates.
Dates and international audiences
Inferno Metal Festival 2024 ran from 28 to 31 March 2024. Its supplied festival announcement described a 4-day event with 2 main stages and said more than 50% of its audience comes from outside Norway. The audience percentage is a source-stated share, not a headcount, because no total attendance figure is supplied for Inferno in the available information.
Inferno’s international share can be compared conceptually with Wacken’s geographic reach, but the measurements differ. Inferno reports a percentage of its audience originating outside Norway. Wacken says fans from over 80 nations attend each year. One expresses audience origin as a proportion; the other expresses country reach as a count threshold. Neither supports an exact ranking of international attendance.
The date information across the festivals also uses different levels of specificity. Inferno’s 2024 dates are an observed event period, Tuska’s 27–29 June 2025 dates were scheduled dates, Wacken’s 2024 and 2025 references identify editions, and Hellfest’s recurring “4 days” description does not identify a particular year in the supplied source. Reading the dates this way keeps event schedules, edition labels, and recurring festival descriptions separate.