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DEAG cancels Rockavaria 2017

Just one of the three festivals launched by DEAG in 2015 will go ahead this year, following the cancellation of Rock im Revier and now Rockavaria

By Jon Chapple on 07 Feb 2017

Kiss, Rockavaria 2015, Global Concerts, DEAG

Kiss play Munich's Olympic Stadium at Rockavaria 2015


image © Sven (@el_loko74)

There will be no Rockavaria in 2017, promoter Global Concerts has confirmed.

Announcing the cancellation, Global Concerts’ managing director, Andrea Blahetek-Hauzenberger, says the Munich festival – one of three launched at great expense in 2015 by Global parent company Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) – failed to attract a line-up of a calibre that “meets our high expectations”. “We want to remain faithful to our intention to stage Rockavaria only if it is good enough,” he explains. “[This year] that is not true.”

Iggy Pop, Iron Maiden and German metal act Powerworld headlined Rockavaria 2016, while Muse, Kiss and Metallica topped the bill in its debut year.

“We want to remain faithful to our intention to stage Rockavaria only if [the line-up] is good enough”

DEAG posted a €23 million loss in 2015 owing to expenses incurred by the launch of Rockavaria, Rock in Vienna and Rock im Revier, in the Ruhr district.

Of the three, only Rock in Vienna will make it to its third year, following the cancellation last October of Rock im Revier (originally billed as Grüne Hölle Rock, taking place at the Nürburgring racing track).

Despite DEAG’s hopes of sustaining its own Rock am Ring/Rock im Park competitor in Bavaria seemingly slipping away, CEO Peter Schwenkow maintains the company’s festival strategy is intact. He tells MusikWoche Rockavaria is “like Knebworth – if we attract the right artists, it will, of course, continue”.

 


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