Metallica Announce Orion Music Festival

Metallica will bring the noise to Atlantic City this summer with the Orion Music + More Festival, a weekend of music, comedy and culture. Set for June 23rd and 24th in the seaside New Jersey town, the event will feature headlining sets from the band each evening, during which they will perform two of their most enduring albums in their entirety: their 1991 eponymous fifth release (“The Black Album”) one night and 1984’s Ride the Lightning the other.

The Orion Music + More Festival is the metal group’s first foray into festival production. Said drummer Lars Ulrich in a statement, “We’ve had the idea of doing our own lifestyle festival with lots of diverse music and fun and games for years. Finally this year, all the practical ducks lined up in a row, and we are beyond psyched to bring Orion to our fans, friends and the curious.”

So far, 16 rock and metal bands are slated to perform at Orion, including the Arctic Monkeys, Modest Mouse and Best Coast.

“After the most incredible of weeks ever in December 2011 celebrating our 30th anniversary at the Fillmore in San Francisco,” continued Ulrich, referencing the band’s star-studded residency, “bringing the spirit of that week, the looseness of that week, the possibilities of that week, the fan interactive elements of that week, and the (fill in your own blank here) of that week to a festival setting is so exciting we can hardly contain ourselves.”