Maggots rejoice: Knotfest Australia to debut in 2023 with Slipknot and Parkway Drive

The nine-piece American metal act Slipknot – which affectionately refers to its legion of fans as ‘maggots’ – has held its Knotfest event in eight countries previously, and Australia is next.

American metal band Slipknot, which will headline its self-curated heavy music festival Knotfest Australia when it debuts in March 2023. Picture: Jonathan Weiner

When the mask-wearing heavy metal band Slipknot brings its self-curated festival to Australia for the first time next year, chart-topping Byron Bay quintet Parkway Drive will be among the top-billed acts.

“For us, Slipknot sets the benchmark for every single aspect of the type of music that we create,” Parkway Drive frontman Winston McCall told The Australian. “They are the top-tier in terms of how far and how deep you can push yourself into the art that you create.”

The veteran nine-piece American metal act – which affectionately refers to its legion of fans as “maggots” – has held its Knotfest event in eight countries previously, including Japan, Mexico, Germany and Brazil, and its Australian debut will include three dates in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane next March.

Byron Bay band metal band Parkway Drive, which is among the performers announced for the heavy music festival Knotfest Australia, to debut in March 2023. Picture: Nic Walker

Designed as an immersive ‘dark carnival experience’, and said to include ‘stunning visuals, fire breathers and nightmarish creatures on stilts’, Knotfest sports a line-up that also includes Megadeth, Trivium and Northlane.

Parkway Drive formed in 2002, and from its early days of playing to fellow teenagers at Byron Bay High School, it now attracts hoards of black-shirted fans at mammoth European festivals such as Wacken Open Air in northern Germany, which the band headlined in 2019 before about 75,000 headbangers.

The northern NSW group recently earned its third consecutive ARIA No.1 chart debut with seventh album Darker Still, and these festival shows will give Australia’s biggest metal band the chance to compete alongside some of the world’s best heavy music acts.

For McCall, who recently returned home with his bandmates after a run of arena-sized concerts in Europe and the UK, the Knotfest Australia booking is another big step up.

“Anytime we get to play with Slipknot is great, but getting billed alongside them? I guess people are having faith that we can hold our own, up next to Slipknot – and damn right, we can,” said the frontman with a laugh. “But this is the time when you get to prove it, as well.”

Poster artwork for Knotfest Australia, a heavy metal festival to be held in March 2023. Picture: supplied

Unlike the US festival curators, whose public image has been shrouded in dark masks and boiler suits since it emerged from Iowa in 1995, Parkway Drive has never tried to hide their true selves: five surf-mad friends from Byron Bay who worked their way to global metal headliner status.

“The two of us are essentially aiming for a very similar outcome from the engagement of fans in the world we’re creating, but at two opposite ends of the spectrum,” said McCall. “I think that’s what makes the bill really special, because it’s about two different ways of playing a similar craft.”

Knotfest Australia will debut at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse on March 24, followed by Centennial Park in Sydney (March 25) and Brisbane Showgrounds (March 26).