Could Metallica Actually Bring Back the Orion Music + More Festival?
Metallica is rattling the Orion Music + More saber again.
The group held two of the weekend festivals — 2012 in Atlantic City, N.J. and 2013 in Detroit — but stopped due to financial issues as well as other projects, including the Metallica Through The Never film in 2013. Now, however, drummer Lars Ulrich tells Music Week that the group would like to stage another Orion and maybe even turn it into an actual annual festival:
“Orion is our thing. At the right time and right place, we would definitely bring that back. We rolled the dice and neither of the set-ups we threw ourselves into was ultimately the right set-up. We gave it two shots in America and neither were right. I think we’ve talked about maybe doing something in Europe.”
Metallica frontman James Hetfield tells us that bringing back Orion isn’t just the band’s call, however:
“It’s kind of up to the promoters at this point…Our vote does count. We know that festivals don’t make money right away, for sure. It’s not that we’re out to make money. We’re at least out to break even, and it certainly has not broken even yet. It’s an expensive barbecue at this point…We love it. We love the concept.”
Metallica resumes its WorldWired Tour on February 1 in Portugal, with European dates announced through May 11.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
