Epica are reviving Epic Metal Fest. It returns on 4 June 2027 in Maastricht, more than ten years after the last one, and this time it sits inside South of Heaven Festival rather than standing on its own.
The arrangement is the interesting part. Epica curate the Friday and headline it with a twenty fifth anniversary set, choosing the rest of the bill themselves, and the festival carries on through the weekend without them. A band getting a day rather than a slot, and picking who else plays it, is a different kind of booking from a reunion of their own event.
Two names so far. Lacuna Coil, who have been doing this as long as Epica have and from the same side of the genre, and Ad Infinitum, who are a good deal younger. More are promised.
Twenty five years puts the anniversary set somewhere around the founding rather than around the first album, which came in 2003. What they choose to play on it will say which date they are counting from.