Hellfest
Hellfest's location
Hellfest festival ground map since 2023
The Hellfest festival ground map since 2023

CONTENTS:

LOCATION

From Ghent, or Belgium in general, we have to travel through France for a pretty long time. For this trip you should keep the péage in mind. You have to stop at a tollbooth a few times, keep a hold on your toll-ticket and pay up when asked by the machines. At this time it can come in handy to have a credit card. When you are finally in the neighborhood of the festival, and reach Clisson, there are almost no signs of the festival to be found, so you’ll probably have to search and drive around for a bit. You can try to ask Hellfest’s traffic control crew, but they generally don’t speak a word of English.

FESTIVAL AREA

Most of the festival area is the same each year, but since 2016, we noticed some small changes. The Warzone was moved to get a better flow towards and from the area, and the skate park is no longer blocking the main road as it used to pre-2016, but moved to a more remote location, next to the main wine-bar.

In the Metalcorner you can party all night with several (local) bands, DJs and movies. It already starts on Thursday evening with one hell of a pre-party, where you can bring your own booze and food, since it’s ‘officially’ on the camping site. For the people who have enough money there are also a few bars, a wine bar and some food stalls.

When you follow the road towards the festival site, you will arrive at the Hell City Square, which you will recognize as it is the first place you see when you pass the festival entrance. Here you can find cool building-like artwork inspired by Camden Street in London, toilets, an ATM, some of Hellfest’s partners, the info-point, the Extreme market and probably early-bird tickets for the next edition of Hellfest. At the Extreme Market you can find labels and distro’s that sell the merch of your favorite bands.

The festival site itself contains a big infield with several bars, Hellfest-food stalls and merchandise stalls. Then there are the different stages we already explained and the usual sanitary facilities. Between The Temple and The Valley and all the way opposite the mainstages there are normal flushing toilets and taps where you can find drinking water for free. There’s a ferris wheel, a forest where you can chill in the shadows of the trees, a skating ramp and next to the forest you can find several great food stalls.

And of course this wouldn’t be France if there weren’t any special wine bars, which you can find at several places in the festival area for the thirsty wine-lovers or elitist show-offs. Santé!

PRACTICAL INFO

In the case of great weather it’s nice to have a (dust)mask to cover your face from the dust. It can also be nice to put it under the water taps and get some refreshment on those hot summer days in Hell.

The Official Hellfest Merch stands are sold out rapidly, so it’s smart to get your Hellfest T-shirt or other merch at the beginning of the festival.

If you forgot your ear plugs: you can get them for free opposite the mainstages, and there’s a possibility to buy (better) ear plugs too.

It’s really great if you speak French, since almost none of the crew speaks English.

You can’t buy cigarettes anywhere on the festival site, because that’s prohibited in France. So bring a stash or deal with it.

It’s allowed to crowdsurf, but French people seem to barely understand the unwritten rules, so there’s a big chance you will just crash on your head.

FOOD & DRINKS

The prizes of the beverages are really ok at Hellfest. A Hellfest-cup is 28cl and costs €1. But watch out! This is no refund, you really buy the cup, so if you pay for new ones, you’ll have a lot of cups at the end of the festival. Sometimes you get a clean cup in return, but they can just fill up your dirty cup as well. Talking about filling the cups: a full cup of soda or beer (Kronenbourg) is €2,50 and wine €4. You pay €2 for a jug (150cl) which you can fill up for €13 for beer and €20 for wine. So if you don’t lose too many cups the prizes are ok, especially for a festival these days. Own drinks, cans and glass are prohibited on the festival site, but allowed on the camping site.

A really big advantage (especially for vegetarians or people with food allergies) is that you can bring your own food onto the festival site. This can seriously limit the amount of money you would spend at a festival, make it somewhat healthier, or you can bring snacks to fit into your busy time schedule. Between the entrance and the forest there are a lot of food stalls with a great range of food, including vegetarian and gluten-free options.

To buy your own food: there is a supermarket in Clisson, on about a 5 minute walk from the camping site. This supermarket is huge and we’re sure you can find almost anything you would need, so it’s really not necessary to bring your own food from home. You can also buy ice there, to keep your food/drinks cold. The beer in the supermarket is mainly sold in glass bottles. Therefore there’s a lot of glass on the camping site, so you might want to watch where you walk.

PAYCARD / MONEY

 

There are ATM’s at the Hell City Square and at the supermarket in Clisson, but there will be long queues and sometimes they are out of service so make sure to take enough cash with you. Also it can come in handy to have a credit card, since the supermarket sometimes doesn’t accept normal maestro cards.

Then there’s Hellfest’s cashless paycards. You can put money on them at the Hell City Square and on several locations on the festival infield. You can use this card to pay for your drinks at the Hellfest-bars and for the food at the Hellfest-snack stalls. You can NOT use them at the other food stalls, there you have to use cash.

CAMPING AREA

The camping at Hellfest is included in your ticket, and the area is located just next to the festival area.

You can enter the camping site starting Thursday at 2PM with your ticket.

SANITARY FACILITIES & WATER

There is NO free water at the camp site, you have to buy a “water point” credit to put on your bracelet to get unlimited water and to shower. The water points at the infield however, are for free.

The toilets at the camp site and Metal Corner are no Dixi’s, but cartboard boxes that stay reasonably fresh during the hot summer days and they smell a lot less than Dixi’s, thanks to the sawdust that’s thrown into the toilets. A big thanks to the heroes who sit behind those boxes and keep them clean. At the camp site there’s usually toilet paper, but at the festival site you’re smart to bring your own. All the way opposite the mainstages and in between The Temple and The Valley there are normal flushing toilets and water points.

PHONE CHARGING, INFO POINT

Next to the entrance, at the Hell City Street, you can charge your cellphone, but there are often very long queues and you can only charge it for 30 minutes, which makes that you’d better bring a powerbank or find an other way to charge your phone. The info point is located at the Hell City Square, and it also contains the Lost&Found.

GARBAGE & GARBAGE BINS, TRASH DEPOSIT

To keep the area clean you can get a “camping bag” with goodies at the camp site to use as a garbage bag. You can hand in your full garbage bags for a token that holds a possibility to win several prizes and VIP tickets for Hellfest 2024. There are 3 colors of garbage bags, to recycle. You can also put them at the camping “roads”, where the Hellfest crew will collect them. The French are really clean at the camp site ánd the festival site. There are a lot of garbage bins, the reusable Hellfest cups are great and the people really recycle, which results in a nice and clean festival area.

WHEN CAN WE START?

  • Parking: Thursday @ 12 PM
  • Camping: Thursday @ 2 PM, until Monday @ 12 PM.
  • Ticket office : Thursday @ 2PM
  • Festival: Friday @ 10 AM, until Sunday night 2 AM.

GET IN THE MOOD FOR HELL

IPHONE AND ANDROID APP

The official Hellfest app (iPhone en Android) can be downloaded for free on the AppStore and Android Market! With this app, you’ll be able to follow all the latest news about Hellfest 2023 before, during and after the festival. The application offers the following features:

  • Festival news
  • Notifications “Push” (on iPhone)
  • Full lineup
  • Photo and video galleries
  • Integrated Twitter app
  • Access to e-tickets
  • Personalize your Hellfest schedule by adding your favorite bands
  • Practical info (transport, camping etc.)
  • Sharing on Facebook and Twitter
  • Geolocalization

LINEUP OF HELLFEST 2023

LIVEBLOGS

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE