Heavy Metal Parking Lot

Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Directed by	John Heyn and Jeff Krulik
Release date	1986
Running time	17 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Heavy Metal Parking Lot is a documentary short produced by Jeff Krulik and John Heyn in 1986. It documents heavy metal music fans tailgating in the parking lot outside the Capital Centre (which was demolished in December 2002) in Landover, Maryland, on May 31, 1986, before a Judas Priest concert during their Fuel for Life tour (with opening act Dokken).

By the early 1990s, Heavy Metal Parking Lot had become an underground cult-classic, usually traded on bootleg VHS videotapes. It was reportedly a favorite on the Nirvana tour bus, among many other bands. Due to growing popular demand for the film, music-rights issues were finally sorted out with Judas Priest.

Krulik and Heyn attempted to follow up Heavy Metal Parking Lot with Monster Truck Parking Lot in 1988, which showed fans of a monster truck rally, but the film was unfinished and unreleased. They then created Neil Diamond Parking Lot (1996) which showed fans before a Neil Diamond concert at the same Capital Centre parking lot, ten years after the original. In 1999, they created Harry Potter Parking Lot.

Krulik and Heyn created and co-produced the 2004 TV series Parking Lot in association with Radical Media, which was broadcast on Trio. The series showed enthusiasts of various bands (like Phish) and activities (like surfing). Eight episodes were produced.

In May 2006, the documentary was finally released on DVD, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of its filming. The DVD version contains the original 17-minute film, as well as 2 hours of bonus features that were left out of the original version and finally an interview with the infamous "Zebra-man" (a 22-year-old at the time), whom Krulik and Heyn tracked down and interviewed in the summer of 1999, 13 years after the original filming.

...
Wikipedia