A video of a mosh pit at a heavy metal festival in France has caused a storm on social media – with people questioning whether it’s safe.
Music promoter Flo, who goes by @mymetalunicorn on TikTok, took to the platform to share a clip of the ‘extreme’ music festival Hellfest in Clisson, France.
During the short video, festival goers charged at each other during an intense mosh pit – a type of dancing where people slam into each other – or more specifically in this video, a ‘wall of death’.
The festival in France costs approximately £300 and promises four days filled with heavy metal and rock music and has previously attracted the likes of Johnny Depp.
Despite the festival happening in June, the clip is currently doing the rounds on social media with over 22 million people viewing it, but many have been left disturbed, with one questioning: ‘Can someone explain how this is enjoyable?’
A TikTok showing a ‘wall of death’ mosh pit at Hellfest in Clisson, France, has caused a storm online
Hellfest is one of the largest metal festivals in Europe, with four-day passes for the 2025 event already sold out.
This year, attendees, who are also referred to as ‘hellbangers’, enjoyed acts including Metallica, Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age.
Flo shared a clip of an intense mosh pit on TikTok, writing: ‘Slaughter to Prevail. Wall of Death at Hellfest.’
Slaughter to Prevail is a Russian deathcore band based in Florida, and prior to the event, the band said that they would be attempting their biggest ‘wall of death’ to date.
A wall of death is a form of moshing where the audience splits down the middle before each side charges at each other, according to LoudWire.
While people in the crowd may have had fun, onlookers on TikTok have been left shocked by the footage.
One said: I feel like this is what hell would look like.’ A second wrote: ‘Closest thing you’ll get to a real life enactment of ancient battles’.
Another added: ‘That doesn’t look safe’. ‘Omg I can’t breathe watching this,’ said another. A fifth added: ‘Anxiety is all I can say.’
Attendees charged at each other in what’s called a ‘wall of death’ mosh pit at the heavy metal festival
Viewers took to the comment section to share their thoughts on the clip, and many were shocked
It comes after heavy metal band Iron Maiden went viral for the opposite reason, being a ‘snooze fest’.
Thousands of metalheads ascended to Perth’s RAC Arena on Sunday, September 1 to watch the British group rock out on stage as part of their The Future Past Tour.
But video shows the band’s fanbase barely getting into the rowdy set as they performed their 2021 song Hell on Earth.
The heavy metal music genre often sees crowds moshing, crowd-surfing and forming circle pits at shows.
In the video, posted to TikTok, concertgoers barely banged their heads to the beat of the song while pyrotechnics lit the stage.
Fans flooded the comments, with many pointing out their shock over the crowd’s lacklustre atmosphere. ‘And the crowd goes mild,’ someone wrote.
‘The energy from that crowd would be enough to power a 7W light,’ said another. ‘Is that audience alive?,’ a third questioned.
‘Everyone standing there like meerkats. It’s Iron Maiden! C’mon people rock out, not even an arm in the air?’ one user added.
Earlier this year, Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson revealed he has had two titanium metal hips surgically implanted as he admitted that his years rocking out on stage were to blame.
The metal frontman, 65, joked that he had the operations so he could keep up with his fellow rock ‘n’ roller Mick Jagger, 80, according to the Mirror.
But he admitted that the actual reason was that, after his recent American tour, An Evening With Bruce Dickinson, he was barely able to walk.
Bruce told the publication: ‘I’ve cut down a little bit because both my hips have been replaced.
‘After all that jumping around on stage, they were f****d.
‘I had to have it done because on the last tour in America, it was getting to the point where I couldn’t walk after a show.’
The singer revealed it got so bad that he even struggled to go up a flight of stairs. Bruce had his first hip replacement in 2021 and went in for his second in 2023.
And this isn’t his first brush with serious health implications as he battled cancer nearly a decade ago.
The musician had treatment for a tumour on his tongue, the band’s website said at the time.
The cancer was diagnosed during a routine check-up just before Christmas 2014. He completed a seven-week course of chemotherapy and radiology.
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