Now, obviously, those of you who pay attention to your CMU Daily have been wondering all night what the "surprise, groundbreaking, historic announcement" made in LA yesterday regard Ozzfest was (we told you it was coming, remember?). Well, the announcement was that tickets to this year's flagship US metal touring festival will be free. Which is quite ground breaking actually. And quite surprising. Not sure if it's really historic, but, as that great philosopher Meat Loaf once said, two out of three ain't bad. But yes, Ozzfest is going to be a free event this year, funded by sponsorship deals.
Announcing that plan, Mrs Sharon Osbourne told reporters yesterday: "For the last few years, ticket prices have steadily climbed as artists demand more and more money for summer tours. We certainly want everybody to make money; however, we also want the kids to be able to afford to come out and have an incredible experience. If we continued with the traditional touring festival model, we would have no choice but to raise ticket prices again this year".
Exact details of how the free tickets will be distributed are to be confirmed, as is the line up to the tour, although obviously Ozzy Osbourne will be one of the headliners (well I say obviously, he wasn't last year, but he will be this year). However some of the cities to be visited by Ozzfest this year have been confirmed, and they include San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston and Nashville.
I'm not sure whether there's any plans for a UK edition of Ozzfest this year. I had it in my head that it was last year that one of the days of Download was branded Ozzfest, but having checked that was 2005, with the legendary metal fest not making it to these shores in 2006.