Valle Caudina Metal Fest

A night of metal in the heart of Valle Caudina

The Valle Caudina Metal Fest is a festival dedicated to the underground metal scene of Southern Italy, taking place in the Valle Caudina, the natural corridor connecting the provinces of Benevento and Avellino in Campania. The most frequent venue is the Municipality of Forchia, a small town in the province of Benevento about thirty kilometers from Naples and twenty-five from Benevento, where the festival is hosted at the Sporting Forchia on Via Misciuni. This is not a large open-air gathering, but a unique, focused, and intentionally raw evening: four live bands, a well-tuned sound system, and a passionate audience traveling from all over Campania and neighboring regions.

Since 2021: a response to the silence of local venues

The festival was born in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, when small local venues hosting live concerts were closed. The idea came from the Neapolitan band Jumpscare (melodic death metal) and their association Vault Lab, who decided to self-produce an event capable of restoring a stage to the extreme scene of Central and Southern Italy. Initially, the event was called Valle Caudina Metal Night, later becoming a Metal Fest as the number of bands and audience participation grew.

The name is an explicit tribute to the territory: the Valle Caudina is the area of the famous Caudine Forks, where, according to historical tradition, the Samnites humiliated the Roman army. An identity-based reference that the organizers chose also for its charge of strength and resistance, very close to the imagery of the genre.

A festival that moves between the Caudine municipalities

In its first editions, the festival moved between different municipalities in the valley, bringing music wherever there was an available and suitable space:

• 2021 — 1st edition: Municipal Theater of Airola (BN)
• 2nd and 3rd editions: Sporting Center of Forchia (BN)
• 2024 — 4th edition: Primary school auditorium in Beltiglio, Ceppaloni (BN), Saturday, November 23, with Aphelion, Downburst, Heruka, Jumpscare, and headliners Ravine
• 2025 — 5th edition: return to Sporting Forchia, Saturday, November 15, with Wild N' Wasted, Black Symmetry, Jumpscare, and Not Another Prayer
• 2026 — 6th edition: back to Forchia, Saturday, November 7

The open call for emerging bands

One of the elements that characterize the Valle Caudina Metal Fest is the free open call used each year to select an emerging band to join the lineup. Applications are submitted without registration fees, and the choice, the organizers explain, is based on musical quality and the originality of the project, evaluated through videos and presentation materials. For the fourth edition, about forty applications arrived from all over Italy: a number that speaks volumes about the vitality of a scene that has few opportunities to play live with professional equipment.

The festival is intentionally open to all variations of the genre: classic heavy metal, groove, thrash, black, death, progressive, and post-hardcore coexist on the same evening, without sectarianism.

Atmosphere, audience, and services

Admission is reserved for members of the Vault Lab association, and the ticket also serves as a monthly membership: a formula typical of self-managed entities, which allows for covering production costs and artist fees. The evening includes free parking, an on-site bar, and dining options in the immediate vicinity; in past editions, the outdoor area was also managed in collaboration with local motorcycle groups. Concerts start at 7:30 PM and continue into the night, with stalls from distributors, labels, and artisans invited by the organizers.

Forchia and the surrounding area

Forchia is a town of a few thousand inhabitants nestled between the Taburno and the Avella Mountains, in a position that makes it easily accessible from both the Naples metropolitan area and the Sannio region. Those arriving for the festival find a rural and quiet setting, far from the major summer festival circuits: it is precisely this contrast—a silent town in the Benevento province and a high-volume metal night—that gives the Valle Caudina Metal Fest its unique identity within the Campania landscape.