Just two years old, Heavy Chicago, a metal-based music festival, reappears in Chicago. The performances will be held at the Avondale Music Hall from Nov. 1-3. 

PELICAN was just announced as a co-opener for night one on Nov. 1. Bongripper, a Chicago Doom band, will join them. These two bands will close out the night by ripping the roof off. 

Their performances will be preceded by Wraith, Avernus, and Motherless. 

Night two on Nov. 2 contains performances from Earth Crisis, Jasta, Legions of Doom, EarthBurner, The Crosses, Usurper, and Masonic Wave. The third night, Nov. 3, will finish a sweat-inducing and ecstatic festival with performances from Cynic, Toxic Holocaust, Profanatica, The Skull, Lurid, Exegesis, and a special guest that has yet to be announced. 

This new kind of festival was inaugurated into the Chicago Music scene in the fall of 2023. It was introduced by founders Dave Hornyak and Sean Duffy. 

Block Club Chicago says Hornyak “saw “an opening” for a different kind of “walkable” neighborhood music festival in Chicago, and for a way to shine a light on a stretch of businesses still recovering from COVID-19.”

There are music festivals upon music festivals here in the city but none that were mainly focused on the heavy metal and thrasher genre. There is of course RiotFest but even then, they are more concerned with punk rather than metal. 

It was time for a heavy metal renaissance and that’s just what has happened. This deliriously hard-core music festival, Heavy Chicago will be at the Avondale Music Hall from Nov. 1-3. Tickets are available for purchase now. HeavyChicago.seetickets.us

Location: Avondale Music Hall 

Address: 3336 N Milwaukee Ave

Doors Open: 5:30 p.m. every day of the festival

Ages: 17+