Gohelle Fest

ℹ️ Festival currently on hold — association dissolved in 2020. The Gohelle Fest, a metal and rock festival organized between 2014 and 2017 in Loos-en-Gohelle and Sains-en-Gohelle, has not had an edition since 2017. The organizing association, Gohellefest (SIREN 798641023), was placed in judicial liquidation on January 24, 2020, by the Béthune court, then struck off on November 25, 2020, due to insufficient assets. To date, no relaunch of the festival has been publicly announced.

The Gohelle Fest: metal at the foot of the slag heaps

The Gohelle Fest was born in 2013 from a bold idea: to organize a metal festival at the foot of the 11/19 slag heaps in Loos-en-Gohelle, an emblematic site of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Three metal fans founded the Gohellefest association with the crazy ambition of bringing the legendary band Mötorhead to this site rich in working-class history.

International headliners

From its first edition in 2014, the Gohelle Fest made a strong impression by programming internationally renowned bands. The lineup featured metal legends such as Kreator, Napalm Death, Carcass, Obituary, Eluveitie, Rotting Christ, Tankard, Entombed AD, and Tagada Jones, placing the festival on the map of major metal events in France in the mid-2010s.

A demanding lineup

The Gohelle Fest stood out for its demanding and specialized lineup, blending international headliners with emerging bands from the French and European metal scene. Thrash metal, death metal, black metal, folk metal, and punk hardcore coexisted on stage, offering a rich musical palette to fans of extreme music.

A unique setting: the UNESCO mining basin

The originality of the Gohelle Fest lay in its exceptional setting. The 11/19 slag heaps in Loos-en-Gohelle, the highest slag heaps in Europe (186 m), offered a spectacular and meaningful backdrop for a metal festival. This industrial landscape, a symbol of labor and working-class solidarity, resonated with the raw energy and power of metal, creating a unique atmosphere.

From the mining basin to the metal scene

The Gohelle Fest embodied the cultural reconversion of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin. Where generations of miners had worked underground, music now vibrated on the surface. The festival demonstrated that industrial heritage could become a place for artistic creation and gathering, upholding the values of passion and determination that characterize both the mining world and the metal community.

A festival driven by passion

Entirely run by passionate volunteers, the Gohelle Fest was a human-scale festival that cultivated authenticity and conviviality. The Gohellefest association organized each edition with the aim of offering a quality experience to festival-goers, in a community spirit typical of the metal scene.

The end of an adventure

After four editions between 2014 and 2017, the festival was not renewed. The Gohellefest association, financially weakened, was placed in suspension of payments in November 2019, then in judicial liquidation by judgment of the Béthune court on January 24, 2020. The procedure was closed for insufficient assets on November 25, 2020, and the structure was definitively struck off. Note: another independent metal festival, the Haeresis Metal Fest, has been organized for several years in Sains-en-Gohelle (Salle Marguerite) by the Haeresis Productions association — this is not a continuation of the Gohelle Fest, but a distinct event. If a new edition of the Gohelle Fest were to emerge, the information would be relayed through the old official channels (Facebook page /www.gohellefest.fr) and by the specialized metal press.