Sharon Osbourne Confirms Ozzfest Will ‘Absolutely’ Return in 2027

Sharon Osbourne has confirmed that Ozzfest, the pioneering heavy metal festival she co-founded with late husband Ozzy Osbourne, will return in 2027 after a nearly decade-long hiatus.

Speaking at the MIDEM 2026 music industry conference in Cannes, France, during a conversation with Download Festival producer and manager Andy Copping, Osbourne was unequivocal about the festival's future.

“Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we're gonna do it,” Osbourne said when asked about Ozzfest's return.

The last Ozzfest was held at the Forum in Los Angeles in 2018, just a month before Ozzy fell seriously ill. Osbourne, 73, said the hiatus was never planned.

“There was no plans to stop it. We were still gonna do it, but Ozzy couldn't,” she said. “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.'”

Ozzy Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, at age 76 of cardiac arrest and coronary artery disease, weeks after his final performance at the “Back to the Beginning” all-star show in Birmingham, England.

In a January 2026 interview with Billboard, Sharon revealed she had been in talks with Live Nation about reviving the festival. “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people,” she said. “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.”

Osbourne indicated the revived Ozzfest may expand beyond its traditional heavy metal and hard rock focus, saying she'd like to “mix up the genres” for the 2027 edition.

Ozzfest ran nearly annually from 1996 through 2018 and is credited with helping launch the careers of System of a Down, Disturbed, Slipknot, and many others. Past headliners and performers included Black Sabbath, Pantera, Tool, Slayer, Foo Fighters, Megadeth, Rob Zombie, Deftones, Linkin Park, and Limp Bizkit, among dozens more.

Following the release of Osbourne's MIDEM remarks, Ozzfest's official Instagram account posted a graphic reading: “Ozzfest Will Return…”

What remains unconfirmed: Specific dates, venues, cities, ticket pricing, and the 2027 lineup have not been announced. Whether the festival will be a single-location event or a multi-city touring format — as it was historically — has not been specified. The status of the Live Nation partnership has not been finalized publicly.