Bosphorus Open Air Metal Fest – Istanbul was brought to life in 2022 by Bosphorus Productions Company. This duo set a goal to create Türkiye's largest metal music festival brand abroad and to make Istanbul one of the centers of metal music. Every band and metal fan visiting Turkiye gets to experience Istanbul's unique beauty and learn the origin of the festival's name with our traditional Bosphorus Boat tour. The Bosphorus Music Festival, featuring prominent figures from the global metal music scene as speakers, is also part of the festival.

The 5th Bosphorus Open Air Metal Fest, which will be held in 2026, will meet metal fans on September 19-20. Bosphorus Open Air Metal Fest hosts prominent bands from the global metal scene. The festival, which will be held at Maximum UNIQ Open Air, will also celebrate its 5th anniversary.

After years of involvement in various aspects of Turkish metal music, Ibrahim Karakurt founded Bosphorus Productions company and is a promoter who organizes various events, primarily the Bosphorus Open Air Metal Fest.

He contributes to metal music through international partnerships. He also continues to run Turkey's first and only registered metal booking agency company as a partner of Portals Booking Agency.

Ankea Festival is an exploration into the world of alternative rock music and street art. Held for the first time in June 2026 in a post-industrial lakeside setting in Tampere, Finland, Ankea has already taken the European prog metal scene by storm with its bold approach to festival programming. Ankea hosts a total of 21 artists from 9 different countries, including the likes of This Will Destroy You, Sylvaine, Kælan Mikla, God Is An Astrounaut, Oranssi Pazuzu, SLIFT, Leprous and Katatonia (with an exclusive The Great Cold Distance 20th Anniversary setlist).

Sami Silvennoinen started Nahka Agency in 2023 with 15 years of experience in the live music industry under his belt. Booking and/or managing some of his favourite bands (incl. Wolfheart, Bloodred Hourglass, Warmen, Before The Dawn, Brymir and Luna Kills), Silvennoinen is also the guy behind Ankea Festival, CoolHead Live Festival and WTF Capital of Metal Showcase & Conference – all held annually in Finland.

Andkristni is Iceland’s oldest metal festival established in the year 2000 by members of Sólstafir and Forgarður Helvítis as a rebellion to the Christian festival held the same year. Since then the torch has been handed down generation after generation.
In 2023 members of Forsmán Viktor and Haukur took over and have hosted the festival, growing it year after year.
The year 2025 marked the 25th anniversary of the festival and was celebrated at Reykjavík’s downtown culture center Iðnó and was sold out.

Tolminator Metal Fest, founded in 2023 in Tolmin, Slovenia, takes place annually in late July in the heart of the Soča Valley - one of the most unique and beautiful festival locations in Europe, where two alpine rivers meet beneath the mountains.

Built on decades of experience in live promotion, the festival presents internationally recognized headliners alongside established and emerging artists from across the extreme metal spectrum. With three curated stages and a strict no-overlap policy, Tolminator ensures full audience engagement and maximum exposure for performing artists. The program spans death, black, thrash, grindcore, slam, hardcore, stoner, powerviolence, punk and more - old-school and new-school - reflecting both depth and diversity within the global heavy music scene.

Limited to 5,000 capacity, Tolminator delivers a boutique-scale experience with a strong community atmosphere. More than just a festival, it is the ultimate Metal summer vacation - daily oatie rampages down the Soča River, swimming and water sports, mountain hikes and extreme activities such as paragliding, all within walking distance of the festival grounds - and the sickest after parties each night.

Rooted in authenticity and driven by community, Tolminator brings together friends and metalheads from all over the world into one big, Metal-as-fuck family.

Matej Ahlin is co-founder and co-owner of Dirty Skunks (est. 2002) and Tolminator Metal Fest. Together with his long-time partner Črt Batagelj, he has been active in the metal and alternative scene for over two decades, organizing more than 1,000 shows with countless local and international artists.

In 2019 a new fierce beast raised its wicked head with the purpose of becoming not only a serious purveyor of the dark extreme metal underground but also the first festival of the year, taking place the first weekend in January when all is dark, cold and inhospitable - ORGIVM SATANICVM. The festival's aim was to challenge the senses with relentless black metal, depressive doom metal and intelligent takes on the dark extreme genres. Over the first two years the festival held host to such names as Mork, Koldbrann, Svarttjern, Totalselfhatred, Urarv, Acârash, Diablery and Strid before the world was put in quarantine mere months after the second edition of the festival. 

After three years of plague and emptiness, ORGIVM SATANICVM finally returned in 2024, thus letting us start the year as it should, with darkness, horror and a generally grim atmosphere. Over the course of two days there was gloomy and evil metal from both Norway and abroad, with a fairly broad musical range, all the way staying within the just perfectly unpleasant part of the spectrum, with bands such as 1349, Marduk and Jordsjuk - their first live performance ever! - at Parkteatret.

In 2025 and 2026, there was a higher focus on exclusive performances, including several debut concerts from Norwegian Black Metal veterans, namely Ruïm (with former Mayhem guitarist Rune "Blasphemer" Eriksen), Vathr (new band from former member of, among others, Immortal and several other early Bergen black metal bands Jørn Tunsberg), Doedsmaghird (basically a Dødheimsgard pseudonym) and Unholy Craft (with members from bands like Amulet, One Tail One Head, Malum and JR Ewing). In addition, many bands have played their first concerts in Norway in many years - or ever - at Orgivm.

Orgivm Satanicvm represents the opposite of some of the established festivals where many names on the posters often are regulars who "circulate", and can be experienced relatively often live by the average festival audience.

Festival manager Kjøtt, and Festival Coordinator Beyond the Gates 

Descibes herself as a festival nerd, and a community builder.  She has a big heart for volunteers and crowd management, and creating opportunities in culture for others. Cathrine has an IT-job by day, but have worked with culture development for many years, both by volunteering and by profession. Have been part of Hole In The Sky/ Beyond the Gates for 20 years, and a various of other festivals through the years.