METALLICA To Headline Five U.S. Festivals In 2020, Performing Two Sets At Each Stop

METALLICA will headline all five of Danny Wimmer Presents' festivals next year: Epicenter, Welcome To Rockville, Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival , Louder Than Life and Aftershock. The band will play two separate headlining sets at each stop, marking METALLICA's only U.S. festival appearances of 2020. In addition to two appearances at each festival, METALLICA will also deliver a unique setlist for each performance, resulting in 10 different shows over the course of the year.

Says METALLICA: "You know we love a challenge, so when Danny Wimmer Presents invited us to headline all five of their spring/fall U.S. rock festivals, that sounded like great fun. But play two separate sets on two nights in the same weekend? Definitely count us in! In another METALLICA first, we'll be playing at all five of the Wimmer rock festivals in 2020 with two separate sets, one on Friday night, one on Sunday night."

"METALLICA isn't just another headliner," says Danny Wimmer, founder of Danny Wimmer Presents, the largest independent festival producer in the U.S. "When METALLICA takes the stage, it's an event. It's an experience. That's the same standard we've set for every DWP festival — from the first band to the last band, and everything that happens in between. I can't wait to bring the biggest band in the world to the biggest rock festivals in America. METALLICA paved this road that we travel. How many artists on the bill at these five festivals first picked up an instrument, or first started a band, because of METALLICA?"

The five festivals are:

* May 1-3 - Epicenter at its new location at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC
* May 8-10 - Welcome To Rockville at its new location at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL
* May 15-17 - Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival at MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus, OH
* September 18-20 - Louder Than Life at Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center in Louisville, KY
* October 9-11 - Aftershock at Discovery Park in Sacramento, CA

Tickets for all of the events will go on sale today (October 10) at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT for fan club members and past purchasers of tickets for Danny Wimmer Presents events. The general public on sale starts Monday, October 14 at 12 noon ET / 9 a.m. PT.

For each ticket sold through November 19, Danny Wimmer Presents will donate $.25 cents to All Within My Hands. And to further celebrate, every ticket purchased is an entry into the Golden Ticket contest. One lucky fan will win an all-expenses-paid trip to any of the above festivals of their choice with top-notch accommodations, exclusive festival access, Snake Pit and meet and greet passes, along with other cool swag.

Fans are automatically entered to win by purchasing a Weekend GA or Weekend VIP pass to any of the five festivals, by signing up for to be a Fifth Member, or by subscribing to any of the five Danny Wimmer Presents North American 2020 rock festival newsletters.

METALLICA launched its own short-lived Orion Music + More festival several years back and drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio it was the band's attempt to recreate a European-style happening. "We played Bonnaroo in Tennessee, and that was like the first time we did something that had that kind of European flavor in America, and we thought that maybe that kind of vibe could actually work in America, and maybe that we could carve out our own little niche and try to see if we could get something off the ground," he said.

To mark the 20th anniversary of METALLICA's first performance with the San Francisco Symphony, which resulted in the live "S&M" album and video, the band re-teamed with the symphony in early September for two shows for the grand opening of Chase Center, the new home of the Golden State Warriors.

A film of last month's concerts, called "S&M²", arrived in theaters worldwide on Wednesday (October 9).