Report

Alcatraz Festival Was Anything But A Prison, It Was A Playground For Metalheads

I’ve been attending metal festivals for the better part of two decades and covering them as a music journalist for just over a decade. It’s been three years since I’ve attended one simply as a regular festivalgoer, with the last being Beyond the Gates in Bergen, Norway, in 2023.

After covering several festivals for Metalunderground.com since then, I decided to take another break from the hustle and bustle of covering a festival and simply soak in the metal again. I’ve never been to Belgium’s Alcatraz Festival before, so shelling out for passes was a no-brainer once I saw the stacked lineup they had announced for 2026.

I’m not going to go into great detail, but I’ll sum up what I think is most important to metal festival aficionados like me.

This year, the festival sold out, with a projected 70,000 people in attendance. These are not Wacken or Hellfest numbers, but regardless, that’s still a lot of people. However, it didn’t really feel like that many because of the layout of the grounds. There are four stages and tents, and they are mostly far apart from each other. You really don’t get a lot of sound bleeding from stage to stage.

There are also a sufficient number of portable toilets, and I only saw lines form a handful of times. Speaking of lines, the official band merchandise booth was one of the fastest merchandise booths I have ever experienced. The official festival merchandise store, however, was not so nice. The room was cramped, and you had to wait in line for at least 15 minutes just to get inside. There is definitely room for improvement here. Food and drink lines weren’t too bad either if you timed them around major acts playing at the same time.

The sound mix at every stage was really good from just about every angle. I stood just about everywhere inside these stages and tents: in the front row, around the perimeter, and in the middle. I don’t remember the sound lacking anywhere.

The food and drink selection was average. Alcatraz covered most of the ethnic food options available at major festivals, but the pizza was pre-made and frozen, with vendors simply reheating it. Most festivals I’ve attended offer pizzas and slices made from scratch.

Alcatraz uses a cashless system, which is becoming the norm nowadays. They are also really big on being a “zero-waste” festival. I believe it, because the grounds barely had any trash, and there were volunteers constantly going around and picking up garbage, even after you finished your meals at the large picnic tent!

And last but not least, what stood out to me the most were the actual people there. They were really nice! Random people would strike up conversations with you everywhere. It didn’t matter that I didn’t speak French, Dutch, or German; they would simply switch to English without batting an eye.

I would 100% come back to Alcatraz Festival again, hopefully as an accredited media type, to cover this fun and excellent metal festival in greater detail.

Alcatraz Festival 2027 will take place from August 5–8 in Kortrijk, Belgium. Some of the acts already announced include Europe, Mercyful Fate, Halestorm, Corrosion of Conformity, Katatonia, Beast in Black, DevilDriver, HammerFall, Dethklok, Kanonenfieber, and Madball.

Unfortunately, I was not able to take photos of the bands during the festival because I went non-accredited, but I created a walk through video of the grounds that you can check out below.