Ozzfest organisers confirmed on Monday that the festival founded by Sharon Osbourne and her late husband Ozzy in the mid-1990s will return to the United States in 2027. A teaser posted to the festival's social accounts showed Ozzy with the Ozzfest logo, the U.K. and U.S. flags, and five words: "Ozzfest will come to the UK and US".
The American date follows reports of a 2027 U.K. edition at Villa Park in Birmingham — Ozzy's home city, and the ground where he played his final show, the "Back To The Beginning" gig, on July 5, 2025.
It will be the first Ozzfest since 2018, and the first without him. Jack Osbourne, who is helping put it together, has been candid about what that job actually involves. "It's been interesting, 'cause it's kind of like finding the old car in the shop and being, like, 'All right, let's get this engine going,'" he said on SiriusXM's Page Six Radio in August. The headliner and location, he added, would be announced within a couple of weeks.
The hard part is the booking, and it is hard for a reason that did not exist in 1996. "It's really difficult to kind of, like, 'All right, who's doing what?' 'Cause a lot of huge bands now are doing their own festivals, they're doing their own thing, so it's, like, 'All right, who's not got their own festival? Who's available? Who's reasonably priced?'" Jack said. "Because with all these huge festivals, artists are, like, 'Yeah, I'll do it for, like, 10 million dollars.' You're, like, 'Eh.'"
The 2027 edition will be a single day rather than a multi-day event — a deliberate return to the original format. Asked whether he looks for acts with a genuine line back to his father, Jack was unequivocal: "100%. And there's a lot of the huge artists now in the genre, they all kind of were on Ozzfest at a certain point." He listed DISTURBED, SLIPKNOT and SYSTEM OF A DOWN among them. The new-band tradition survives too: "That's still gonna be a big part of the lineup, is new artists. And we're gonna probably have a spot for at least one unsigned artist."
That was always Sharon Osbourne's argument for the thing existing. "It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people," she told Billboard in January. "We really started metal festivals in this country. It was never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids." For 2027 she wants to widen the net: "I'd like to mix up the genres."
The last Ozzfest, a one-night New Year's Eve show at The Forum in Los Angeles on December 31, 2018, drew 12,465 people. Sharon has said that if the demand holds, the festival could go back on the road in 2028.