Arctic Monkeys to play Metallica's new Orion festival

Metallica have announced they are putting on their own festival in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Held on the 23 and 24 June, Arctic Monkeys, The Gaslight Anthem and Modest Mouse are already booked to play.

The Orion festival will feature music, comedy and culture and the band themselves will perform on both days of the event.

Metallica will play 1984 album Ride The Lightning in its entirety one night and The Black Album the other.

The festival's full title is Orion Music + More and will also include "a lifestyle element" based on the band's own interests.

"We don't know how it's going work yet but the ideas are flowing and it's gonna be really fun," said front man James Hetfield.

Guitarist Kirk Hammett added: "It's gonna be an extension of our own interests and personalities and we basically want to share that."

More details on the interactive elements are set to be revealed soon.

Metallica aren't the first rock band to stage their own festival - Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon founded The Ozzfest tour in 1996.

Last held in 2010, Ozzy has appeared at the festival nine times.

Other acts announced so far for the Orion event are: Avenged Sevenfold, Cage The Elephant, Best Coast, Hot Snakes, Titus Andronicus, Gary Clark Jr, Lucero, Roky Erickson, The Black Angels, The Sword, A Place to Bury Strangers, and Liturgy.