As we get closer to Pantera’s reunion tour or what many are calling the Pantera ‘celebration’ tour, the band is slowly starting to unveil plans for European arena shows and festival dates for spring/summer 2023. Despite no word of any U.S. performances yet, Pantera recently booked nine new European shows adding to their previously announced festival dates across Europe for next year. Between the end of May and June of 2023, Pantera now has a total of 13 European dates spread across several festival appearances and headlining arena shows. The band is currently gearing up for their upcoming Central and South American run slated for next month, with their first show set to kickoff at Mexico City’s Heavnen & Hell festival Friday December 2nd.
While at first glance these new European dates don’t appear to offer any news regarding the greater plans that Pantera has for their reunion tour, they could be indicative of a U.S. homecoming Pantera is planning in the form of a summer rock festival circuit or better yet a summer headlining tour. As far as U.S. rock festivals go, it’d be a fair bet to speculate that Danny Wimmer Presents (one of the U.S.’s biggest rock & metal festival promoters) will be eyeing Pantera as one of their main festival attractions for next year.
Provided DWPs festival lineups the past two years which have included nearly every top tier rock and metal band from Metallica, Lamb of God, KISS, Slipknot, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more, Pantera seem like the next best band to place a headliner in order for DWP to keep their momentum going.
Additionally, it would be the perfect opportunity for Pantera to kickoff a proper homecoming in the U.S., especially given DWP’s stature as a rock festival promoter/organizer. Of course this is all speculation and it’s quite possible that Pantera has entirely different plans for their U.S. shows next year, but if one thing is for certain the band will absolutely be playing across the U.S. in 2023, it’s just a matter of when and where.
Hopefully in the coming months there will be more info regarding the band’s plans for their U.S. dates. However, in the meantime it’ll be interesting to see how this reunion lineup actually fairs at next week’s Heaven & Hell festival.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quentinsinger/2022/11/23/pantera-reunion-announces-slew-of-european-dates-for-2023/