The Power Trip Festival is finally almost here. The hard rock festival touches down in the California desert on Friday, October 6 and will run through Sunday, October 8. The much-anticipated festival will feature some of the biggest names in hard rock and heavy metal. The bill features Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Tool, and Metallica.
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Power Trip Festival takes place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Many music fans will recognize this as the annual home of Coachella. Additionally, the site has hosted the Stagecoach country music festival in recent years. In 2016, Desert Trip featuring legends like Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney took place there. In short, the festival will bring legendary bands to a storied setting.
However, the location and lineup aren’t what makes Power Trip so special. Most festivals see a laundry list of bands playing short sets. That’s not the care here. Instead, each of the bands will play full headline-length sets. Two bands will take the stage each night.
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Iron Maiden will kick the festival off Friday evening. Their appearance at Power Trip Festival will be their first show in the United States since October of last year. In a recent YouTube video, frontman Bruce Dickinson hinted that it will be a special night. “Something else will happen,” he said. “I can’t tell you what, but you’ll be happy.”
Guns N’ Roses will take the stage to close out the first night of the festival.
The second day of the Power Trip Festival will make attendees believe they died and went to classic rock heaven. Judas Priest will kick things off. Priest wasn’t originally on the bill. However, when Ozzy Osbourne had to cancel his appearance, the British rockers stepped up to the plate. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, the band is reportedly working on a new album. As a result, fans may hear new music.
AC/DC will take the stage for the first time since 2016 to finish the second day of the festival. Since then, Malcolm Young passed away and his cousin Stevie Young took his place. Additionally, Matt Laug will replace Phil Rudd on the drums.
If Saturday’s lineup is like waking up in classic rock heaven, Sunday’s lineup is tailor-made for the Gen X and Millennial crowd. Tool will kick things off with a headlining set of progressive metal goodness. Then, Metallica will take the stage to bring more than four decades of thrash metal expertise to their home state.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for P+ and MTV
