METALLICA Is 'Contracted' To Host ORION MUSIC + MORE Festival In Detroit Two More Years

According to MLive.com, METALLICA has two years left on its contract with Detroit, Michigan to host the band's Orion Music + More festival.

"It's contracted," Detroit City Council member James Tate said, "And I think since it was a event so well-suited for the venue — for the type of event it was — it was perfect."

During a recent radio interview, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich was also asked if the group planned to stage a third installment of its Orion Music + More festival in Detroit next year, after bringing the show's second edition there last June.

The drummer replied, "Detroit was a great experience. We'd love to bring this thing back to Detroit. We've gotta sit down and look at the practical parts of it. And our good friends at (promoters) C3 (Presents) have gotta sit down and probably get their calculators out and all that stuff that we try to stay out of . . . It's not an easy thing to launch a festival, but we've had a lot of fun the last two years doing it, and we hope to bring it back to Detroit."

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield was asked by The Detroit Newsif the group planned to stage a third installment of its Orion Music + More festival in Detroit.

The guitarist/vocalist replied: "I sure hope so, that is the plan. The festival itself is not 100 percent greenlit yet. There's gotta be a powwow where all of us get together and make sure we're on the same page."

This year's Orion two-day event drew at least 20,000 people a day to see METALLICA, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, DEFTONES, SILVERSUN PICKUPS, RISE AGAINST and more.

METALLICA surprised fans at Orion Music + More on June 8 by playing its 1983 debut disc "Kill 'Em All" from beginning to end on a smaller stage at the event. METALLICA was officially announced to play a headlining set on June 9 to close out the festival, but hit the stage at 4:30 p.m. one day earlier for a 10-song set that started with "Hit The Lights" and finished out with "Metal Militia".

The afternoon slot was officially taken by an "act" called DEHAAN — which METALLICA fans may have recognized as the name of actor Dane DeHaan, who is starring in the band's 3D movie, "Metallica Through The Never". Another hint was dropped when Hetfield posted a message on Instagram which read, "Don't miss Dehaan! #MUYA #mff #UwillRegretMissingThem #IfUdoUmightKillEmAll #winkWink #getIt?"

Hetfield came onstage first to introduce "DEHAAN," after which the rest of the members of METALLICA came out and began playing.

At last year's Orion festival, METALLICA played both 1991's self-titled "black album" and 1984's "Ride The Lightning" in their entirety on separate nights.