VOA – Heavy Rock Festival (formerly VOA Fest and Vagos Open Air) was an open-air heavy metal/

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

held annually in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. The festival was held from 2009 in four different locations: the first four editions, from 2009 to 2012, were held in Calvão (a small town in the municipality of

Vagos Vagos () is a town and a municipality in Aveiro District, belonging to Centro Region of Portugal. The district capital, Aveiro, is its nearest large city. Its population in 2011 was 22,851 in an area of 164.92 km2, and it had 17,204 eligible ...

, near Aveiro), the next three (2013 to 2015) were held in the town of Vagos, the following two editions (2016 and 2017) were held in

Corroios Corroios () is a Freguesia (Portugal), civil parish in the concelho, municipality of Seixal Municipality, Seixal in the district of Setúbal District, Setúbal, Portugal. It is part of the Lisbon metropolitan area. The population in 2011 was 47,66 ...

, a city in the municipality of

Seixal Seixal () is a Portugal, Portuguese city and municipality, located in the district of Setúbal District, Setúbal, in the metropolitan area of Lisbon region, Lisbon. Its population includes 184,269 inhabitants (2011), in an area of that includes ...

, and after a year break the festival returned in 2019 in Lisbon. It was organized by Prime Artists, a Portuguese event promoter. The origins of a music festival in the Aveiro region are traced to a small event, called Rock in Ria, featuring a few Portuguese and international bands, but in 2009 that event gave way to a new full-fledged international festival which turned out to be one of the biggest heavy metal festivals in Portugal. In late 2015, it was then announced the festival would relocate from Vagos to the city of Corroios. The name of the festival was also changed from Vagos Open Air to VOA Fest. A few months later, the municipality of Vagos ensured the creation of a new heavy metal festival in the city, named

Vagos Metal Fest Vagos () is a town and a municipality in Aveiro District, belonging to Centro Region of Portugal. The district capital, Aveiro, is its nearest large city. Its population in 2011 was 22,851 in an area of 164.92 km2, and it had 17,204 eligible ...

. The new festival held the first edition in 2016, featuring

Dark Funeral Dark Funeral is a Swedish black metal band from Stockholm, founded by guitarists Blackmoon and Lord Ahriman in 1993. They emerged during the second wave of black metal. Their lyrical themes have traditionally pertained to Satanism and anti ...

and

Helloween Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg by members of bands Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool. The band has at times been called one of the most influential European heavy metal bands of the 1980s. Its first ...

as headliners. It is organized by Amazing Events, a Portuguese event promoter. In 2018, after a sabbatical year, Prime Artists announced on their

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page the return of the event for 2019. It returned to a two-day festival, on July 4 and 5, changed name (to VOA – Heavy Rock Festival), changed location and venue (moving to

Estádio do Restelo The Estádio do Restelo is a multi-purpose stadium in Lisbon, Portugal. The stadium has a capacity of 19,856 people and was built in 1956, in an old stone quarry. It is situated behind the Jerónimos Monastery in the Lisbon parish of Belém (Lis ...

in the city of Lisbon) and had

Slipknot The slip knot is a stopper knot which is easily undone by pulling the tail ( working end). The slip knot is related to the running knot, which will release when the standing end is pulled. Both knots are identical and are composed of a slipp ...

– one of the biggest names to ever perform in the festival – as one of the headliners."Slipknot atuam em julho em Lisboa no Voa - Heavy Rock Festival"
lipknot will perform in July in Lisbon at Voa - Heavy Rock Festival(in Portuguese), ''

Diário de Notícias () is a Portuguese weekly newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal. History and profile ''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in Lisbon on 29 December 1 ...

'', 23 October 2018. Retrieved on 23 October 2018. In 2022, the final festival took place in Estádio Nacional, in Oeiras.

Lineups

2009

2009 saw the first incarnation of the festival, a two-day event held on Friday, 7 August and Saturday, 8 August at GD Calvão's football ground (Campo de Futebol Padre Batista) in the village of Calvão, near Vagos.

2010

The 2010 edition was held on Friday, 6 August and Saturday, 7 August.

2011

The 2011 edition was held on Friday, 5 August and Saturday, 6 August.

2012

The 2012 edition was held on Friday, 3 August and Saturday, 4 August.

2013

The 2013 edition was held on Friday, 9 August and Saturday, 10 August. The festival was moved to Quinta do Ega, a place in the city of Vagos.

2014

The 2014 edition saw Vagos Open Air became a three-day festival with the addition of Sunday. It was held on Friday, 8 August, Saturday, 9 August and Sunday, 10 August.

2015

The 2015 edition was held on Friday, 7 August, Saturday, 8 August and Sunday, 9 August. It was the final edition in the municipality of Vagos.

2016

The 2016 edition was held on Friday, 5 August and Saturday, 6 August, returning to a two-day lineup. The festival was renamed VOA Fest and moved to Quinta da Marialva, a place in the city of Corroios, Seixal. A new festival called

was created exactly on the same location of the past editions.

2017

The 2017 edition returned to a three-day format. For the first time, the festival was held on two stages, as a new secondary stage was added (exclusive to Portuguese bands). It was held on Friday, 4 August, Saturday, 5 August and Sunday, 6 August.

2019

The 2019 edition returned to a two-day format. Renamed to VOA – Heavy Rock Festival, it was held on

, in the city of

, on Thursday, 4 July and Friday, 5 July. 2022 The last and final 2022 edition happened in Estádio Nacional, in Oeiras, on Thursday, 30 June, Friday, 1 July and Saturday, 2 July

External links

Prime Artists official website

VOA official website

References

{{Music of Portugal Music festivals in Portugal Heavy metal festivals in Portugal 2009 establishments in Portugal Music festivals established in 2009 Annual events in Portugal Summer in Portugal 2022 disestablishments in Portugal Music festivals disestablished in 2022