Hellfest

Hellfest is the successor to the Fury Fest, which was held in 2002 and 2003 in Clisson and Nantes, respectively, and 2004 and 2005 in Le Mans. It is unrelated to the hardcore festival Hellfest, which ran in Syracuse, New York, in the United States from 1997 to 2005 or the Drakkar Productions black metal festival named "Drakkar Hellfest - Darkness and Hate", which took place in 2000 and 2001 in southern France and saw a third edition in 2002 in the Netherlands. In June 2009, conservative groups expressed concern about the festival's name and asked its sponsors to drop their support. Coca-Cola announced a few days later that they would no longer support the festival. In March 2010, two days before local elections, Prime Minister François Fillon and the leader of the conservative MPF Philippe de Villiers came to support Christophe Béchu, candidate for the regional elections of the Pays de la Loire for the then main French right-wing party UMP. In front of 1,500 people, Mr De Villiers reiterated his support for the candidate and attacked the metal music festival: "Our values are not like those of the Regional Council (PS); to be funding a satanic festival!". The same month, former minister and leader of the conservative Parti chrétien-démocrate Christine Boutin wrote to major brewery Kronenbourg asking them to stop supporting the festival. On 30 March, answering a question from PS Member of Parliament Patrick Roy during a "questions to the government" session, then minister of culture Frédéric Mitterrand declared to the Assemblée Nationale that detractors of the festival should calm down. On 9 June 2010, the AFC () sued the Hellfest, asking them not to allow people under 18 years old to attend the festival and to give them the titles of the songs to be played during the 2010 edition. On 14 June, the judge refused their demand. During the 2011 edition of the festival homage was paid to Patrick Roy, who had died two months prior. == History ==

Early years The first association was created in 2000 in Clisson as "CLS CREW", in order to organize concerts of hardcore and punk in the region of Nantes. The success of these concerts made it possible to launch the first festival in June 2002, named Fury Fest. It gathered 400 people to attend Agnostic Front in Clisson at the sports complex of Val-de-Moine. The festival continued the following years. It attracted 7,000 people to attend concerts of Sick of It All and Youth of Today (in) in 2003. The format changed to two days. Because no room was available in Clisson, the Hall of Trocardière (Rezé) hosted the second edition. The organization of the festival also changed: the "MAN.IN.FEST" association was created to take charge of the organization. In 2003, the festival had reached €30,000 in profit, allowing Benjamin Barbaud, one of the founders, to become an employee of the structure. In 2004, the festival moved to Le Mans and took place in the halls of the 24 Hours circuit where it attracted 21,000 spectators for bands such as Slipknot and Soulfly. After a deficit in 2004, the 2005 festival inherited liabilities so that the organizing team decided to give the rights of the festival to other promoters in order to focus on organization. This time 30,000 admissions were recorded at Le Mans over three days, as fans came to see acts such as Slayer, Motörhead and Anthrax, across three stages. But financial problems worsened, particularly with the disappearance of the promoters with €600,000 in receipts. These losses marked the end of the festival, at least temporarily. File:Hellfest2017 01.jpg|First entrance portal File:Hellfest2017 10.jpg|Overview File:Hellfest 2017 08.jpg|At night File:Hellfest2017DeepPurple 05.jpg|Deep Purple show File:Hellfest2017Slayer 03.jpg|Slayer show Cancellations for 2020 and 2021 editions On 8 April 2020, Benjamin Barbaud announced to Ouest-France that the 2020 edition of the festival would be cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ==References==