3 INCHES OF BLOOD and DAATH have been confirmed for the second stage at this year's Ozzfest. The festival billing is now shaping up as follows:

Main Stage:

OZZY OSBOURNE
LAMB OF GOD
[to be announced]
LORDI

Second Stage – Non Rotating:

HATEBREED
[to be announced]
MONDO GENERATOR

Second Stage – Rotating:

NILE
ANKLA
CIRCUS DIABLO
THE SHOWDOWN
3 INCHES OF BLOOD
DAATH
[to be announced]
[to be announced]

The 24-city tour begins July 12 in Seattle. The dates are as follows:

Jul. 12 - White River Amphitheatre, Seattle, WA
Jul. 14 - Gorge, George, WA
Jul. 17 - Sleep Train Amphitheatre, Sacramento, CA
Jul. 19 - Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
Jul. 21 - Hyundai Pavilion, Devore, CA
Jul. 24 - Cricket Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ
Jul. 26 - Journal Pavilion, Albuquerque, NM
Jul. 28 - Coors Amphitheatre, Denver, CO
Jul. 30 - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Kansas City, MO
Aug. 02 - Smirnoff Music Center, Dallas, TX
Aug. 04 - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, San Antonio, TX
Aug. 06 - UMB Bank Pavilion, St. Louis, MO
Aug. 08 - Germain Amphitheatre, Columbus, OH
Aug. 10 - First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, IL
Aug. 12 - Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI
Aug. 14 - Verizon Wireless Music Theatre, Indianapolis, IN
Aug. 16 - PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ
Aug. 18 - New England Dodge Music Theatre, Hartford, CT
Aug. 20 - Tweeter Center, Boston, MA
Aug. 22 - Tweeter Center, Philadelphia, PA
Aug. 24 - Post Gazette Pavilion, Pittsburgh, PA
Aug. 26 - DTE Energy Music Theatre, Detroit, MI
Aug. 28 - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC
Aug. 30 - Sound Advice Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, FL

Ozzy and his wife Sharon created a stir back in February when they revealed Ozzfest would be a sponsor-driven, free event, and acts would be asked to play without being paid. Sharon Osbourne said during a press conference that doing the tour like this was unprecedented: "We're doing 25 shows across America, and it's the first time that actually a summer festival tour has gone out free. There's been millions of free one-off shows, but this is gonna be a 25-city tour. And we're having our second stage, as usual, and everything goes as normal, except it's free."

Ozzfest will utilize sponsors to offset the costs of producing and running the festival. To gain entry into the event, fans will go to Ozzfest.com or LiveNation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured. More details regarding the process are forthcoming.

Sharon said that rising artist fees would have forced Ozzfest organizers to raise ticket prices this year. While smaller acts have traditionally not received a fee, Sharon insisted that no one is getting paid this time: "We are giving people a stage, and we're giving them a chance to play in front of thousands of people. And we're giving them the chance on days off, they can go work wherever they wanna work, gig wherever they wanna gig. They can even play Ozzfest and then go off that night and do another gig, 'cause we start music from noon. But they can come, they can sell their merchandise, they can sell their music. But it's free. We're not paying anyone."

Sharon said that the tour already had "bands committed," adding, "We know there aren't any major headlining acts that would tour all summer for nothing, but we're confident we can turn some of the genre's biggest bands on to what we're doing and have them come out to play a date or two."

In a prepared statement, Sharon also said that the reason for doing the tour this way was simple: "We're reaching the same point we did years ago when kids no longer wanted to pay for overpriced CDs. As a result, they found alternative ways of getting music. That's what's happening with summer touring in this country, it's out-pricing itself. We started this and we want to keep it and we want to make it bigger and bigger each year by getting bigger sponsors to be involved with the festival and underwriting the festival."

Video footage of the news conference held February 6 by Ozzy and Sharon to announce that Ozzy will stage this year's Ozzfest as a first-of-its kind free event has been posted online at this location (Windows Media).