Heavy Metal Parking Lot is a video documentary produced by Jeff Krulik and John Heyn in 1986. It documents heavy metal music fans tailgating in the parking lot outside the Capital Centre (later renamed US Airways Arena, since demolished) in Landover, Maryland on May 31, 1986 before a Judas Priest concert (with opening act Dokken).
By the early 1990s, Heavy Metal Parking Lot had become an underground cult-classic, usually traded on bootleg VHS videotapes. HMPL was reportedly a favorite on the Nirvana tour bus. It is available on DVD in a 20th-anniversary edition.
Less Than Jake and American Hi-Fi parodied Heavy Metal Parking Lot in their Music Videos for the songs All My Best Friends are Metalheads and Flavor of the Weak. The Backstreet Boys also lampooned it in their music video for "Just Want You To Know". Film distributor Cowboy Pictures gave it a limited 35mm theatrical release in 2003, paired with Chris Smith's documentary Home Movie.
In 2004, Trio aired the TV series Parking Lot, which expanded on the 1986 documentary. Created & co-produced by the original filmmakers, John Heyn & Jeff Krulik (in association with Radical Media), eight episodes were broadcast before Trio TV went off the air in 2006. Parking Lot webisodes are available on Trio's website.
While widely available as a bootleg for years, the first known theatrical showing outside of Washington, D.C. was in 1997.
