HEAVEN AND HELL Confirmed For Germany's WACKEN OPEN AIR Festival

HEAVEN AND HELL — the band featuring BLACK SABBATH members Tony Iommi (guitar), Ronnie James Dio (vocals), Geezer Butler (bass) and Vinny Appice (drums) — has been confirmed for this year's Wacken Open Air festival, set to take place July 30 - August 1, 2009 in Wacken, Germany.

The festival billing is shaping up as follows:

AMON AMARTH
AXEL RUDI PELL
BORKNAGAR
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
CALLEJON
CATHEDRAL
DRAGONFORCE
EINHERJER
EPICA
GWAR
HAMMERFALL
HEAVEN AND HELL
IN EXTREMO
IN FLAMES
KAMPFAR
KINGDOM OF SORROW
KORPIKLAANI
MACHINE HEAD
MOTÖRHEAD
NAPALM DEATH
NEVERMORE
TESTAMENT
TRISTANIA
TURISAS
VOLBEAT
WALLS OF JERICHO
WHIPLASH

ICS Festival Service GmbH, which organizes the Wacken Open Air festival, has announced that all 70,000 tickets have already been sold for this year's event. "Never before [has] a festival of this size [been] sold out two times within one year," they write in a statement. "But we are not chasing after records — we 'only' want to create a great festival for you and are working on it since more than 20 years now and standing in responsibility and duty for the best fans in the world! We thank you all for your amazing support and loyalty!"

In 2008, Wacken Open Air festival was honored with a Live Entertainment Award in the "Festival Of The Year" category. This award recognizes distinguished achievements in live entertainment and is given out by Live Entertainment Award (LEA) committee. The winners were announced on March 11, 2008.