Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Korn to Headline Louder Than Life Festival

Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, and Korn will headline the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky this fall.

Metallica will play two unique sets on different nights. The event will also feature performances from Judas Priest, Jane’s Addiction, Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Gojira, and many others. It will take place at the Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center, September 23rd to the 26th.

Single-day and weekend passes are on sale now. The event’s promoters say they will raise prices in the weeks to come. Some discounted tickets are available to military personnel. There are also camping packages that do not include admission into the festival.

Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell expressed his excitement for the Kentucky-based event in a statement, in which he quoted Mark Twain: “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” Farrell added, “And I’m on the lookout for the best drinking whiskey in Kentucky.”

“[Promoter Danny Wimmer Presents] has always considered Louisville home, so to be able to bring America’s Biggest Rock Festival back in 2021 means everything to us,” Wimmer said in a statement. “After a year filled with challenge after challenge, we worked incredibly hard to curate a lineup worth the wait for our fans. Weather got in the way of Nine Inch Nails in 2018, the pandemic derailed our plans for two big Metallica sets in 2020 – so to have them both back for 2021, along with KORN and the rest of this incredible lineup over four days, that’s the kind of ‘new normal’ that we’re all looking forward to.”

As far as Covid precautions go, the promoter says they will work with local officials to ensure compliance with whatever protocols are in place at the time of the event.

Louder Than Life lineup*:

Thursday, September 23:
Korn, Staind, Cypress Hill, Anthrax, Beartooth, Sevendust, Knocked Loose, Wage War, Helmet, Escape The Fate, Zero 9:36, Hyro The Hero, Teenage Wrist, Currents, Jeris Johnson, Another Day Dawns, Blame My Youth

Friday, September 24:
Metallica, Jane’s Addiction, Rise Against, Gojira, Killswitch Engage, Starset, Avatar, Fever 333, Turnstile, Cleopatrick, Dead Sara, ’68, The Blue Stones, South Of Eden, Tallah, Joyous Wolf, Contracult Collective

Saturday, September 25:
Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dogg, Machine Gun Kelly, Ghostemane, The Distillers, Asking Alexandria, Grandson, Code Orange, Ice Nine Kills, Spiritbox, Red, Butcher Babies, Bones UK, Diamante, Siiickbrain, UNITYTX, Dana Dentata, The Messenger Birds

Sunday, September 26:
Metallica, Judas Priest, Mudvayne, Seether, Pennywise, Skillet, Sabaton, The Hu, Badflower, Mammoth WVH, Fozzy, Red Fang, Ayron Jones, From Ashes To New, Avoid, Tempt, Dead Poet Society, Like Machines

* The festival’s promoters note that the lineup is subject to change.