Sharon Osbourne has hinted that fans won’t have to wait much longer for news on the revived OzzFest – and confirmed the plan is still to bring it back to Birmingham’s Villa Park.
After teasing a 2027 return for the festival, beginning with two nights at the stadium where her late husband Ozzy Osbourne played his final show last July, Sharon said that an official announcement is edging nearer.
She told the new issue of Metal Hammer magazine: “It’s going to be at Villa Park again.”
The final call on whether OzzFest runs for one night or two at Villa Park will come down to what fans want.
She added: “Whether it’ll be two nights [in Birmingham], that’s up for the fans to tell me.”
Sharon confirmed discussions with potential performers are already underway but kept the details locked down.
She said: “Of course we’re speaking to people.
“I can’t let that out yet, but it’ll be soon.”
The revived OzzFest would mark the first edition since 2018 and the first since Ozzy’s death, making Villa Park – the site of his emotional Back to the Beginning farewell – a symbolic homecoming for the festival’s return.
Sharon has previously said the revived festival will ideally launch as a two-day event at Aston Villa’s Villa Park before heading to North America – with hopes to expand even further if fans want it.
The metal festival last appeared as a standalone event in 2018, followed by a one-off New Year’s Eve edition in 2019. Speaking at the MIDEM 2026 conference earlier this year, Sharon said the comeback was no longer a question mark.
She said: “Yes, absolutely. We’re gonna do it.”
Sharon previously admitted that Ozzy once questioned whether Ozzfest could survive without him.
She said their final conversation about it changed everything. “Ozzy and I would talk about it, and he’d say, ‘Do you think Ozzfest would work without me?’ And I’m, like, ‘Yeah, it’s a brand. It will work without you.’ And he said, ‘We should do it.’”
The festival’s official Instagram has been teasing a 2027 return, and Sharon has now revealed the plans in more detail.
Speaking on the new episode of The Osbournes podcast, she said: “We wanna do two days in Aston Villa and then come to America.
“And we wanna hear from everyone where we should go in America. And also we’ve gotta find a lot of young, new talent, because that’s what [Ozzy] would want.”
Her son Jack added that the plan is to follow the UK dates with “two days in North America somewhere,” with Sharon confirming the team will “see how it does” before committing to future years.
If the demand is strong, she says Ozzfest could return annually – and even resume its touring format as early as 2028.
Although the 2027 edition won’t travel city-to-city, Sharon said the long-term goal is to take Ozzfest back on the road.
She said: “If people want it, we’ll be there the following years.”
Sharon also reflected on what made Ozzfest stand out from other festivals.
She said: “It was more fun. When you go to other festivals, everybody’s so uptight. But that was always the thing about our festival. There was never anybody jockeying for position or thought they were better than anyone else. It was a summer camp.”
Sharon even hinted at future bookings, saying she wants to “see Rob Halford there,” suggesting Judas Priest could be on the wishlist.
She held early talks with Live Nation about the festival’s full-scale revival and said a modern Ozzfest would embrace a broader, more eclectic lineup to reflect how fans consume music today.
She said: “I’d like to mix up the genres.”
Ozzfest first launched in 1996 as a two-day event before expanding into a full touring festival the following year. At its peak in the late ’90s and early 2000s, it became a crucial platform for rising metal acts and a major showcase for established names. Its most recent edition in 2018 featured Ozzy, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and Korn’s Jonathan Davis.
