It was founded by Walter Hoeijmakers and Jurgen van den Brand in 1999, who ran a stoner rock blog of the same name.

It evolved into a multi-day event beginning in 2006, and shortly after, tickets began to sell out for the festival in under an hour as its audience grew internationally.

[2] The festival has grown since its stoner rock origins and is now focused on various forms of experimental and extreme music: its motto in recent years has been "redefining heaviness.

The booking was made possible by founder Walter Hoeijmakers' relationship with Josh Homme, who had lived in Amsterdam for a brief period between the breakup of Kyuss and the start of Queens of the Stone Age.

Hoeijmakers, who is "still grateful to Homme for that," credits the show for being the moment when "people started to see Roadburn as a festival, while until then we were mainly a website about the thriving stoner, doom, and psychedelic rock scene.

[4] It was the first to feature multiple stages, and was headlined by Space Ritual and Electric Wizard; other bands included Sunn O))), High on Fire, and Brant Bjork and the Bros.[14][15] The 2006 edition, held on 21 and 22 April, was the first multi-day festival.

Enslaved headlined Saturday, replacing Celtic Frost at the last minute, who cancelled because frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer quit the band, leading to their eventual breakup.

The Icelandic volcanic eruptions shut down air travel throughout Europe, forcing bands such as Jesu and Candlemass to cancel.

The performers included Killing Joke, Chelsea Wolfe, Ulver covering '60s psychedelic rock and Yob doing two full album sets.

[35][36][37] Roadburn announced the reunited Loop as the main headliner for 2014, and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth as the year's guest curator.

[42] It featured a collaboration between Enslaved and Wardruna, performing Skuggsjá, a piece written by Bjørnson and Selvik for the 200th anniversary of the Constitution of Norway.

Fields of the Nephilim, Focus, Eyehategod, Sólstafir, Anathema, Russian Circles and Kayo Dot were among the other prominent performers.

The headliner was Baroness, and vocalist John Dyer Baizley was the curator, personally selecting Chelsea Wolfe, Oathbreaker, Amenra and Wear Your Wounds to perform on the same day as him.

[49] The Bug collaborated with Dylan Carlson of Earth, while David Tibet and Youth of Killing Joke joined forces.

Have a Nice Life performed Deathconsciousness and Triptykon played Celtic Frost's unreleased Requiem with the Metropole Orkest.

[59] Roadburn returned in 2022 from 21 to 24 April with a lineup curated by Milena Eva and Thomas Sciarone of the Dutch band GGGOLDDD.

Acts booked for 2020 finally played such as Julie Christmas, David Eugene Edwards, Brutus and Boy Harsher.

[64][65][66][67][68] The 2024 edition featured headliners The Jesus and Mary Chain, Chelsea Wolfe, Khanate, Lankum, Clipping and Health.

Blood Incantation played two sets, one focusing on their traditional death metal material while the other highlighted the band's electronic release Timewave Zero.

[76] Bandcamp praised how it "reliably coaxes landmark performances from the biggest and most intriguing names in extreme music, and regularly sells out in days, if not minutes.

"[77] The Independent called it a "Mecca for those seduced by the experimental dark arts of psychedelia and doom, a celebration of the avant-garde artists determined to push the boundaries of heavy music in extremis.

[78][79] Several bands have officially released "Live at Roadburn" performances as albums, including Wolves in the Throne Room, Ulver, Enslaved, Zola Jesus, Godflesh, Oranssi Pazuzu, Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle[80] and Fu Manchu.

[84] The festival attempted to reunite the American screamo band Orchid, offering the largest known reunion deal to them, but vocalist Jayson Green did not tell his bandmates about the requests.

[85] The Luxembourgish newspaper Woxx noted that Roadburn featured "many more women on stage than at usual metal festivals", a platforming of queer issues, and a relatively high amount of non-Western performers.