Ozzy Osbourne‘s memory has been kept alive with a series of projects since the heavy metal icon’s death at 76 last July. But if manager and widow Sharon Osbourne has her way — and she almost always does — the spirit of Ozz will rise again next year with the long-awaited return of Ozzfest.
During a chat at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France this week as part of the MIDEM 2026 conference, Sharon again hinted that she is still planning to revive Ozzfest as a touring festival next year. “Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we’re gonna do it,” Osbourne said during a conversation with producer/manager Andy Copping (Download Festival).
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“Well, the last one we did was 2018. It was just a month before Ozzy got sick, and that was at the Forum in L.A. And there was no plans to stop it,” Sharon Osbourne said of what was the seeming swan song of the Ozz-topped hard rock festival that was held nearly annually from 1996 through 2018. “We were still gonna do it, but Ozzy couldn’t. And Ozzy and I would talk about it, and he’d say, ‘Do you think Ozzfest would work without me?’ And I’m, like, ‘Yeah, it’s a brand. It will work without you.’ And he said, ‘We should do it.'”
Last month, Sharon, 73, told Billboard that she’s been “talking to Live Nation about bringing [Ozzfest] back recently. It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people. We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”
And while Ozzfest was always hard rock/heavy metal/hardcore-focused, Osbourne said she’d like to “mix up the genres” the next time out.
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In addition to Ozzy and Black Sabbath, over the years Ozzfest hosted everyone from Slayer, Danzig and Biohazard in its first year to Pantera, Fear Factory, Foo Fighters, Soulfly, Tool, Megadeth, Limp Bizkit, Motorhead, System of a Down, Rob Zombie, Deftones, Primus, Godsmack, Slipknot, Incubus, P.O.D., Papa Roach, Mudvayne, Linkin Park, Bad Religion, Drowning Pool, Kittie, Otep and many more.
