The 2018 edition of Heavy Montréal - Canada’s premier heavy music festival - took place July 28th and 29th at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Acts on the bill included Rob Zombie, Gojira, Marilyn Manson, Hollywood Undead, Emperor, Trivium, Underoath, Alestorm, Between The Buried And Me, Eyehategod, and many more.

Organizers have uploaded this recap video for Heavy Montréal 2018 Day 1:

Following the event, organizers issued the following wrap-up of this year's festival:

On July 28th and 29th, 2018 (and July 27th with Heavy In The City), black clothing and long hair were abundant as guests entered Parc Jean-Drapeau. With good reason, as this weekend marked the return, after a one-year break, of metal festival Heavy Montréal presented by Black Label. The lineup of the 9th edition featured more than fifty bands from all around the world to delight the ears and make the hair spin of more than 27,000 fans of extreme music.

Highlights - For this 9th edition, festival goers got to enjoy the power of local metal band Sword, Quebec metal scene pioneers Necrotic Mutation and the completely wild performance by heroic fantasy metal band Gloryhammer, as well as the presence of metal icons such as Rob Zombie, and black metal reverend Marilyn Manson. The latter delivered a performance worthy of his legendary status, brushing off the brief rain shower that occurred at the end of his show! And to finish on a high note, none other than nu metal bosses Limp Bizkit - replacing the originally scheduled Avenged Sevenfold - offered a robust, thrilling set, closing the night and the festival with their hit "Take A Look Around". Enough for the audience to be enthralled by these two days of metal of all kinds.

Good Food And Wrestling - This year successfully introduced the Yul Eat Gardens: four iconic Montreal restaurants: Kampai Garden, Lavanderia, Foodchain and Grumman ’78  with each their own décor and a large terrace, cooking signature dishes from their regular menu. A great way to refuel before bravely going into the pit again! This 9th edition also brought back Heavy Mania for the 5th consecutive year! Intensely enjoyed by festival goers, Heavy Mania’s two days of wrestling matches featured Quebec professional wrestlers who faced each other during epic fights. New this year: a simple elimination tournament during the whole festival, which had eight men competing to become the very first Heavy Mania champion!

A Safe Festival - To allow festival goers to safely enjoy the event, the Hirondelles once again flew over the festival site this year. As a reminder, the Hirondelles are intervention teams with the mission of increasing the safety of women and vulnerable persons. Additionally, since the weather was warm, we made sure to provide many water taps throughout the site, and water cannons regularly sprayed the audience close to the stages.

Acknowledgements - This wonderful edition of Heavy Montréal wouldn’t have been possible without the presence of festival goers – which 39% came of outside of Québec - of course, but also the support of our private and government partners, who we wish to thank: Many thanks to Black Label, Monster Energy, Casino de Montréal, Coca-Cola, Amex, Bacardi, Busbud, as well as to the Ministère du Tourisme, the Secrétariat à la région métropolitaine and Tourisme Montréal.

Heavy In Numbers:

- 9th year
- 51 bands
- 7 nationalities
- 4 Canadian bands
- 8 Quebec bands
- 2 days at Parc Jean-Drapeau and 1 day in the city
- 4 after-parties
- 4 stages
- 4 official Heavy Montréal accommodations