Fans won't have to strain their budgets to attend this year's edition of Ozzfest [ tickets ]--organizers plan to give away tickets for free.

"For the last few years, ticket prices have steadily climbed as artists demand more and more money for summer tours," said Sharon Osbourne, tour namesake Ozzy Osbourne [ tickets ]'s wife and manager. "We certainly want everybody to make money; however, we also want the kids to be able to afford to come out and have an incredible experience. If we continued with the traditional touring festival model, we would have no choice but to raise ticket prices again this year."

Under Ozzfest's new business model, the tour--to be headlined by Ozzy--will be underwritten by various sponsorship deals.

Exactly how tickets will be distributed remains to be announced, but fans will eventually follow sponsored links at the Ozzfest website or tour promoter Live Nation's site to obtain tickets.

According to a press release issued Tuesday (2/6), Ozzfest will launch July 7 in Los Angeles. Other cities on the itinerary, which is still being hammered out, will include San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Denver; Albuquerque, NM; Phoenix; Dallas; San Antonio; Kansas City, MO; St. Louis; Chicago; Indianapolis; Columbus, OH; Pittsburgh; New York City; Boston; Philadelphia; Hartford, CT; Charlotte, NC; Atlanta; West Palm Beach, FL; and Nashville.

"We're reaching the same point we did years ago when kids no longer wanted to pay for overpriced CDs," Sharon Osbourne's statement explained. "As a result, they found alternative ways of getting music. That's what's happening with summer touring in this country, it's out-pricing itself. We started this and we want to keep it and we want to make it bigger and bigger each year by getting bigger sponsors to be involved with the festival and underwriting the festival. That's what it's about."

At this point, no other artists have been confirmed for the tour besides Ozzy. Among the dozens of artists who have performed on the tour since its 1996 debut are System of a Down, Linkin Park, Godsmack, Disturbed, Slipknot and Incubus.

"Ozzfest was created to keep this genre of music alive by showcasing new talent," Sharon Osbourne said. "You better believe we're going to keep perpetuating that by hand-picking compelling new bands that are hungry for Ozzfest's career-making exposure."