Graspop Metal Meeting is a Belgian heavy metal festival held in Dessel each year since 1996. Despite the small size of the festival grounds (upholding a perimeter of only ~4 km) the festival draws a large number of spectators from around Europe, with a total of 152,000 visitors in the course of the 2015 edition
Graspop was not originally a heavy metal festival; rather, it was conceived as a local family rock festival, first organised in 1986. In 1995, the headliners were Joe Cocker and Simple Minds. However, due to the public being oversaturated with family festivals, the number of visitors had dropped to an all-time low.
Founder Peter Van Geel realized that mainstream rock music held insufficient appeal to festival visitors. Reflecting on the most memorable acts of the preceding years (Motörhead, Ramones, Paradise Lost, and so forth) and on his own musical preferences, he decided in favour of a drastic reorientation.
After discussions with Werchter festival promoter Herman Schueremans, Van Geel contacted Bob Schoenmaekers, the owner of the Biebob concert venue and metal club in nearby Vosselaar. A couple of years earlier, Schoenmaekers had set up his « Midsummer Metal Meeting » in Vosselaar and because of space limits, he was considering an open-air festival. The initial contact soon led to close collaboration. The duo decided to launch a brand-new metal festival under the name of « Graspop Metal Meeting ». The date of choice was to be the last weekend of June.
The new direction proved to be a successful one. The festival has seen a continually rising number of visitors over the years, and has been able to attract the most popular international bands in the genre. Since the festival’s inception in 1996, Iron Maiden has been the most frequent headliner with 10 appearances. Other bands which have prominently been featured are Hatebreed (9), Saxon (9), Sick of it All (9), Slayer (9), Cradle Of Filth (8), Epica (8), In Flames (8), Moonspell (8), My Dying Bride (8) and Within Temptation (8).
The current stages are :
- Main Stage 1 & 2 : The two main stages, host important bands and headlining acts. Before 2014, there was only one main stage.
- Marquee : A tent stage, which hosts mostly thrash metal, death metal, black metal or even stoner rock bands.
- Metal Dome : Host more intimist bands and local acts.
- Jupiler Stage : First held in 2014, it is a small open air stage, mostly dedicated to metalcore, hardcore and deathcore music.