By Jeffery Fogg | This Is Topeka
Kansas City is about to get considerably louder.
Metallica has announced that its massive M72 World Tour will roll into Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday, May 29, 2027, and the metal legends aren’t coming alone.
Limp Bizkit and Swedish metal band Avatar will join Metallica for the Kansas City stadium show, creating a bill that stretches across several generations of heavy music.
The Kansas City stop is one of just 12 newly announced North American stadium dates added to the tour for 2027. The new run begins May 8 in Vancouver and ends June 19 in Salt Lake City. By the time Metallica reaches Arrowhead, the M72 tour will already have been running for more than four years.
When do Metallica tickets go on sale?
For Kansas City fans, there are several dates to remember.
Metallica Fan Club presales begin Monday, Sept. 21, with Legacy Members receiving access at 10 a.m. and Fifth Members at noon. A Kansas City local presale is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday, Sept. 25 at 10 a.m. Central Time.
The band is also offering enhanced experiences that can include options such as early entry, stage tours, access to the Snake Pit and other premium packages.
This isn’t a normal end-stage stadium concert
One of the things that has made the M72 tour unusual is its staging.
Instead of placing the band at one end of a football stadium, Metallica performs in the round, with the stage positioned around the center of the field.
That puts fans on essentially every side of the performance and allows the musicians to move around the stage throughout the show.
At the center is Metallica’s famous Snake Pit, putting a limited group of fans inside the performance area rather than simply in front of it.
At Arrowhead, that means one of America’s most recognizable football stadiums will essentially be transformed into a giant circular metal venue for the night.
A tour that apparently refuses to end
Metallica launched the M72 World Tour in April 2023 following the release of the band’s 72 Seasons album.
What began as another Metallica world tour has turned into something much larger.
Before the newly announced 2027 leg even begins, the tour has already played 99 shows in 26 countries, according to the Kansas City Chiefs’ announcement. Nearly 5 million fans have attended M72 performances.
The 2027 stadium run will begin after Metallica completes its Life Burns Faster residency at Sphere in Las Vegas, scheduled from October 2026 through March 2027.
Then the band goes right back on the road.
Metallica will hit Vancouver, San Diego, El Paso, San Antonio, Fayetteville and then Kansas City before continuing east.
And then there’s Limp Bizkit
For a certain generation of rock fans, the opening act could nearly headline a stadium on nostalgia alone.
Limp Bizkit emerged as one of the defining bands of the late-’90s and early-2000s nu-metal explosion, combining distorted guitars with hip-hop rhythms and Fred Durst’s unmistakable vocal style.
Songs including “Break Stuff,” “Nookie” and “Rollin’” became fixtures of the era.
Putting Limp Bizkit immediately before Metallica creates an interesting generational combination.
Metallica helped take thrash metal from underground clubs to stadiums during the 1980s and ’90s. Limp Bizkit belonged to the next major wave of heavy music that dominated radio, MTV and festivals around the turn of the millennium.
Then there’s Avatar, the Swedish metal band that brings a much more theatrical modern-metal element to the bill.
Metallica confirms that both Limp Bizkit and Avatar will appear at every show on the newly announced 2027 North American run.
More than four decades of Metallica
It’s difficult to overstate Metallica’s place in modern heavy music.
Formed in 1981, the band helped define thrash metal alongside bands including Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.
Albums such as Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets helped push the genre forward during the 1980s.
Then came 1991’s self-titled album—usually called The Black Album—and Metallica crossed completely into the mainstream.
“Enter Sandman,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “The Unforgiven” and “Wherever I May Roam” turned the band into one of the largest rock acts in the world.
Metallica was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
More than 45 years after the band’s formation, Metallica isn’t downsizing to theaters or performing a short nostalgia set.
They’re still booking football stadiums.
And next May, one of those stadiums is Arrowhead.
Metallica at Arrowhead Stadium
Metallica M72 World Tour
Saturday, May 29, 2027
Arrowhead Stadium — Kansas City, Missouri
With: Limp Bizkit and Avatar
Metallica Fan Club presale: Monday, Sept. 21
Local presale: Thursday, Sept. 24 at 10 a.m.
General public on-sale: Friday, Sept. 25 at 10 a.m.
A portion of the proceeds from every ticket sold on the tour will also support local charities through Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation, which funds workforce education, hunger relief, disaster relief and other community programs.
For fans in Topeka, Lawrence and northeast Kansas, this isn’t a cross-country road trip or even an overnight concert destination.
One of the world’s biggest metal bands is bringing one of the world’s biggest rock tours to Arrowhead—roughly an hour down the road.
And they’re bringing Limp Bizkit along for the ride.
