You and your friends won't be the only people at Knotfest.

The inaugural festival, hosted by Iowa-based band Slipknot, is sure to attract thousands from the area and elsewhere on Friday. The festival continues with a second date Saturday in Minnesota.

Slipknot, the heavy metal band known for wearing masks while it performs, formed in Des Moines in 1995. Over its career, the band has released four albums as well as singles including "Wait and Bleed," "Duality" and "Psychosocial."

The band hasn't released an album since 2010's "(sic)nesses," and frontman Corey Taylor told The World-Herald last year that the band wasn't planning to release an album until it healed after the death of bassist Paul Gray.

"To me, it makes more sense for us to play some shows and heal that wound as much as we can as a band," he said. "Then, maybe in a couple years, do another album. I know there's another album in us, and I know it's not going to happen right away.