Sharon Osbourne is reviving the festival she and Ozzy launched in 1996: three stops in 2027 — Milton Keynes, a homecoming at San Bernardino's Glen Helen where it all started, and a first-ever Mexico City edition. Early Bat tickets went on sale Friday.
The name on the poster is the same. The man it was named for won't be there.
Ozzfest returns in 2027, announced November 5 in an official release carried by Music Week and Blabbermouth: three single-day shows in three countries, promoted by Live Nation, with lineups curated by Sharon Osbourne and still to be revealed. It is the first Ozzfest since New Year's Eve 2018 at The Forum in Los Angeles — and the first since Ozzy Osbourne's death on July 22, 2025, at 76, weeks after his Back to the Beginning farewell concert.
"Ozzy was the first to launch his own traveling metal festival," Sharon Osbourne said in the announcement, "and Ozzfest will always remain an important part of Ozzy's legacy."
Three countries, three Saturdays
The run opens Saturday, July 10, 2027 at The National Bowl in Milton Keynes, the ground that hosted the first UK Ozzfest in 1998. Two months later it comes home: Saturday, September 11 at Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino, California — the site of the inaugural Ozzfest in 1996. It closes Saturday, September 18 at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, the festival's first edition in Mexico.
One detail worth straightening out: the release's own prose calls the Mexico City date a Friday. September 18, 2027 is a Saturday — and the festival's official poster lists all three shows as Saturdays, so Saturday is what stands.
These are three standalone one-day shows, not a traveling tour. Sharon has said a full touring format could follow in 2028 if the demand holds. Early "Bat" tickets for all three went on sale Friday, November 6 at 10 a.m. local time — before a single act has been announced. She has since told Hits Daily Double that roughly half the lineup is booked, with full lineups promised in the coming months.
Why Milton Keynes, not Villa Park
The UK show was meant to land at Villa Park in Birmingham — Ozzy's hometown ground, and the stage where he played his final show. Continuing construction means the stadium won't be ready for live shows next summer, so the show moved. "The choice was to move Ozzfest or postpone it for another year," Sharon said.
Live Nation's Andy Copping, who worked with Sharon on Back to the Beginning, is back alongside her for the return. "It was a huge honour to work with Sharon on Back to the Beginning," he said, "so I'm thrilled to be working with her again on Ozzfest and bringing it back to the UK, back to the National Bowl where it all got started."
The festival that changed how metal toured
Ozzfest started in 1996 because the establishment wouldn't book its founder. Shut out of Lollapalooza's main stage, Ozzy and Sharon built their own traveling festival — and it became the genre's proving ground, the stage that gave early, enormous exposure to Slipknot, System Of A Down and Disturbed, and a summer camp, in Sharon's telling, where new talent was the point rather than the opener nobody watched.
The last edition, on New Year's Eve 2018, was a single night at The Forum headlined by Ozzy himself, with Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson on the bill. Then his health closed the story — or so it read until this week. The 2027 announcement lands in the festival's 30th-anniversary year, and it makes a quiet argument: that Ozzfest was always bigger than a tour with one man's name worked into the title. Next summer, three crowds in three countries find out whether that's true.
What to watch now is the lineup. A festival selling tickets on a name and a legacy can hold attention for a while; the bills Sharon is curating will decide whether 2027 plays as a tribute or as a genuine new chapter. Either way, the poster is already up, the Bat tickets are already moving, and the horns, as ever, are back up.
Sources · 4 sources
- Music Week — "Ozzfest set for epic return to Milton Keynes National Bowl in 2027" (November 5, 2026) — the official announcement, Sharon Osbourne and Andy Copping quotes, Early Bat on-sale
- Blabbermouth — "OZZFEST To Return In 2027 With Three Shows In U.K., U.S. And Mexico" (November 5, 2026) — the full official release text, the 2018 Forum edition, the 2028 touring possibility
- Music Times — "Ozzfest Announces 2027 Return With Shows in England, California and Mexico City" (November 6, 2026) — on-sale timing in each host city; the Hits Daily Double report that roughly half the lineup is booked
- SPIN — "Ozzfest Rising Again For Three 2027 Dates" (November 5, 2026) — the festival's 1996 origins and the farewell-concert context
More from the Music desk — new announcements, returns and the stories behind them — lives on the Music front.
