Slovenia’s Annual MetalDays Festival Calls It Quits For Good

The MetalDays festival brought-in thousands of fans each year to Slovenia, but following various setbacks, organizers are calling it quits.

Originally, MetalDays was hosted in Lake Velenje under the name MetalCamp, but in 2013, the fest moved to Sotočje Tolmin and rebranded, allowing a larger capacity of 25,000 attendees. Over the past decade, MetalDays hosted big-name metal acts like Megadeth, Slayer, Hatebreed, Cannibal Corpse, and Sabaton, bringing metalheads to festival-reserved beaches.

However, organizers said problems began to unfold starting with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They were forced to postpone the event, and the following year was also called-off as the business did not have any savings. While they still held an event in 2022 — at a significantly smaller scale and capacity of just 7,000 — organizers still lost money and still owed fans refunds.

The following year proved to be another failure; the final two days of the festival were cancelled due to severe flooding at the venue.

Now, in a lengthy statement on their website, titled “The End,” organizers explained the situation over the past few years. They noted that 2022 was their last edition, as they’ve “reached the end of the road.”

“Unfortunately, we have found ourselves impacted by the financial losses caused by Covid-19 and the flooding in 2023, as well as the cost-of-living crisis and significant operational cost increases associated with running a festival like MetalDays,” organizers said.

While organizers attempted to sell their brand and company to major players in the industry like Live Nation, Festival Republic, and Superstruct Entertainment to keep the festival going, they were unsuccessful, and now, “it is just not economically feasible to continue.”

“We don’t want to pretend that everything was great,” organizers said. “We can’t ignore the infamous refund situation sparked by Covid-19-related cancellations, nor can we overlook the unpaid artists and partners affected by the 2023 cancellation due to flooding. But we also can’t let lies about us spread without presenting the truth.”

In four pages-worth of text, organizers explained their hardships, writing that shareholders took out loans of more than €500,000 to keep the event afloat.

“We made mistakes that, even though they occurred during unprecedented times, should not have been made by promoters with our level of expertise — we had to know better,” organizers continued. “We had to think like businessmen when COVID-19 started and we should have declared bankruptcy back then.”

While there are rumors that have spread about the festival, organizers said they “are at peace knowing we are’t scammers who plotted to steal visitors’ money” and it “was important to put the truth out there.”

“For us, MetalDays is a thing of the past, a beautiful memory,” organizers concluded. “When we return, it will be with something new, exciting, and capable of setting a new trend. And most importantly, funds must be available before the first ticket is sold. Until then, we wish you nothing but the best. We are at peace in our hearts, and we wish nothing less to all MetalDays supporters. As they say, “when one door closes, another opens.”

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This isn’t the first festival to fall to its demise this year;  in 2024 alone, over 60 Dutch festivals were cancelled, while 45 festivals across the U.K. were called-off. Ireland has seen the cancellation of major events like Body and Soul in County Westmeath and Wild Roots in County Sligo. Even in the U.S., festivals are struggling. Coachella, a once-coveted event, took one month to sell-out of its first weekend — marking the longest sellout for the first time in 10 years. The second weekend failed to sell out.