Las Vegas and Fort Worth are set to host the hard rock festival Sick New World in 2025, marking a revival for the event after a planned 2024 return was canceled.
The festival, which gained prominence for securing performances by System of a Down – one of the band’s few appearances in recent years – was initially slated for April 2024 with Metallica and Linkin Park as headliners. Though, the event was scrapped due to “unforeseen circumstances,” reportedly stemming from financial issues related to talent acquisition. According to HITS Daily Double, the cancellation involved overpayments to headliners, allegedly totaling $5 million each.
Sick New World will now kick off at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on April 25, 2025, followed by an inaugural edition in Fort worth, Texas, at the Texas motor Speedway on October 24, 2025. System of a Down will headline both dates.
The 2025 lineup also includes Deftones, Korn, Slayer (performing Reign in Blood in its entirety), Bring Me the Horizon, Evanescence, The Prodigy, Knocked Loose, AFI, Mastodon, Ministry, Power trip, Failure, Filter, Melvins, Acid Bath, Danny Elfman, KMFDM, Coal Chamber, and Clutch.
The festival’s first iteration in 2023 was lauded by System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian, who told SPIN, “I had more fun there than I had on many, many other tours, and that’s why we’re doing it again… It was a blast. We rehearsed just enough to know our chops and then the rest, who the fuck knows? Let’s see what happens on stage.”
More data on lineups and ticket sales can be found on the festival’s website.
