Linkin Park have returned with new members, a new album and a world tour, seven years after they pressed pause following the death of singer Chester Bennington.

The US rock band yesterday (5 September) held a live stream concert showcasing new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong (the veteran leader of power-rock outfit Dead Sara) and drummer Colin Brittain (Sueco, All Time Low). Brittain replaces founding member and drummer Rob Bourdon, who has left the band.

The new recruits join returning members Mike Shinoda (co-vocalist), Brad Delson (guitar), Dave Farrell aka Phoenix (bass) and Joe Hahn (DJ) in Linkin Park’s new lineup.

The livestream event was broadcast at London’s Shoreditch High Street Station and New York’s Times Square. Fans who were invited to attend were made to sign a waiver beforehand to ensure that the details weren’t shared until the event kicked off.

Linkin Park also announced a new album From Zero (due 15 November), which is their first record since 2017’s One More Light – the last to feature Bennington. The album is previewed by one single, The Emptiness Machine, which is on streaming platforms now.

“Linkin Park is one of the biggest touring rock bands of our time”

The six-piece will showcase the new album on a world tour consisting of six arena shows between September and November this year.

The Live Nation-produced tour will kick off on 11 September at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles and conclude exactly two months later at Coliseo Medplus in Bogota.

Other stops include Barclays Center in New York (US), Barclays Arena in Hamburg (DE), The O2 in London (UK) and Inspire Arena in Seoul (KR). American singer-songwriter Grandson will support the band on various dates.

One of the biggest rock groups of the 21st century, Linkin Park has grossed over $120 million during their career, according to Billboard Boxscore.

“Linkin Park is one of the biggest touring rock bands of our time,” John Marx, partner and agent at WME, which the band quietly joined earlier this year, told the publication. “The excitement their fans will have, being able to see and celebrate them after seven years, will be massive.”

Linkin Park are not the first band to continue after the death of their lead singer. Other notable acts to do so include The Doors (Jim Morrison), Queen (Freddie Mercury), AC/DC (Bon Scott), Stone Temple Pilots (Scott Weiland), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Ronnie Van Zant), Alice in Chains (Layne Staley), INXS (Michael Hutchence) and Thin Lizzy (Phil Lynott).

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Aerosmith have announced their retirement from touring as frontman Steven Tyler’s full recovery from a vocal cord injury was “not possible”.

“As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other,” the US rock band said in a statement published last Friday (2 August).

“He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury. We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side. Sadly, it is clear that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible,” it continues.

“We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision – as a band of brothers – to retire from the touring stage.”

Tyler suffered vocal cord damage during a concert at the UBS Arena in New York on 9 September 2023 – the third date on the band’s Peace Out farewell tour.

The 75-year-old received doctor’s orders not to sing for 30 days but it later emerged that the injury was “more serious than initially thought” and the band were forced to postpone the remainder of the 40-date North America tour.

Despite hopes Tyler could quickly recover, the postponements stretched into April 2024, when the band announced the tour would resume between September and February 2025.

The new 40-date Live Nation-produced run was to include rescheduled dates as well as three new shows but has now been cancelled.

The three Peace Out tour dates Aerosmith got in the books, at UBS Arena, PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh and Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia, earned nearly US$12.4 million, averaging nearly 18,000 tickets sold per show, according to Pollstar.

“He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury”

Aerosmith, comprising founding members Tyler, lead guitarist Joe Perry, bassist Tom Hamilton, guitarist Brad Whitford and founder drummer Joey Kramer, said it had been “the honour of our lives to have our music become part of yours”.

“It was 1970 when a spark of inspiration became Aerosmith,” the statement said. “Thanks to you, our Blue Army, that spark caught flame and has been burning for over five decades. Some of you have been with us since the beginning and all of you are the reason we made rock’n’roll history.”

The band said they were “grateful beyond words” for those who were set to see them on their farewell tour. “A final thank you to you – the best fans on planet Earth,” the statement said. “Play our music loud, now and always. Dream on. You’ve made our dreams come true.”

Queen guitarist Sir Brian May took to Instagram to share his feelings on the band’s retirement: “This has brought a tear to my eye. Aerosmith have been a huge part of my life, as they have been for millions of other rock fans.

“Steve Tyler stands as one of the greatest vocalists and frontmen of all time and it’s heartbreaking that his extraordinary voice has been so damaged. All things must pass, but the inspiring work of Aerosmith will live on – along with the memories of truly one of the most awesome bands to ever hit a stage.”

Fellow American rock band the Black Crowes, the tour’s opening act, said on X: “We are shocked and saddened by this news from earlier today. Nothing but much love and respect to our friends in Aerosmith. Heartfelt thanks for all of the incredible [memories].”

Formed in Boston in 1970, Aerosmith became a household name through smash hits such as Dream On, Sweet Emotion, Love in an Elevator, Walk This Way and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.

Having sold more than 150 million records worldwide, the quintet is the best-selling American hard rock band of all time.

They are also a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and a four-time Grammy Award-winning act.

Aerosmith are represented by Rod MacSween, ITB, in Europe and Christopher Dalston, CAA, worldwide.

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Forged in steel and wrapped in denim and leather, to outsiders it can seem like there’s an admirable immovability about the world of live metal. Ear-rattling volume. Banged heads. An often bruised and bloodied fanbase willing to stick by their favourites through thick and thin.

Beyond the hairy, tattooed surface of the scene, however, there are changes afoot. With the post-Covid hangover of delayed tours and customer uncertainty finally fading, fans and festivals are looking to the future, with a boom in new bands, innovations, and market players not seen for decades.

“I think the metal scene is at its healthiest point right now,” says Andy Copping, executive president of touring at Live Nation UK and lead booker for Download Festival, which celebrated its 21st edition this year, with 75,000 attendees.

“Heritage acts like Metallica, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC are doing bigger business than they’ve ever done. The next generation of headliners – Bring Me The Horizon, Lamb of God, Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine, Parkway Drive, Ghost – are lining up. And there’s a whole other generation on the rise: Lorna Shore, Loathe, Spiritbox, and Sleep Token [see page 54], who are absolutely taking the world by storm.”

Indeed, Metallica’s M72 World Tour – delivering two unique shows in each of nine cities – grossed an impressive $125.8m across its first 18 dates in 2023, with 1.2m tickets sold. Iron Maiden saw their highest-ever sales, 45 years into their career, including breaking records for an international act in Colombia with 42,000 tickets for their 24 November show at El Campín Stadium snapped up in 21 minutes. Bring Me The Horizon’s largely sold-out January UK/Ireland tour, meanwhile, saw the Sheffield contenders follow a long-awaited Download headline with 137,000 tickets over 11 shows.

“The metal scene is at its healthiest point right now”

“People say that rock is dead,” Copping continues. “But rock is never really dead. This is a genre that just keeps pumping and pumping. If you look back at [Download’s predecessor at Donington] Monsters of Rock, that festival didn’t move with the times. In the early 90s, it should’ve embraced bands like Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam but instead it just faded away.

“At Download, we’ve always been very conscious about keeping a finger on the pulse, and taking gambles on bands like Slipknot, who performed their first major festival headline in 2009, and Avenged Sevenfold, who first headlined in 2014 and will do so for a third time this year. Pushing the boundaries is important, whether that be booking ‘electronic’ acts like The Prodigy or Pendulum, or the ‘rock’ headliners we have for 2024. And we benefit from the fact that bands aren’t forced into pigeonholes anymore, like how it used to be that Motörhead fans couldn’t like Bon Jovi.”

Tomasz Ochab of Poland’s Knock Out promotions, whose annual Mystic Festival welcomed between 11,000 and 14,000 fans a day at the start of June, concurs. “There’s a growing openness from metal fans. We’re seeing black metallers Furia tour alongside techno act Zamilska, for instance, and audiences at festivals welcoming everything from punk and hardcore to dark folk and horror rap. That was unthinkable five years ago. Also, it’s possible to combine older and younger acts, like Megadeth and Enter Shikari, which may have to do with the increasingly multi-generational make-up of our audiences, with parents often alongside along their teenagers.”

“Fans are adopting a more genre-fluid attitude towards music consumption”

Breaking the Law
So-called ‘gatekeepers’ of the metal scene take pride in imagined exclusivity. True to Copping’s point, that cynicism has been replaced by excitement. With traditional genre boundaries continuing to blur, and even the heaviest and weirdest outliers engaged on social media, there is an increasing desire from metal fans to experiment and embrace acts outside the box.

“Fans are adopting a more genre-fluid attitude towards music consumption, pushing the boundaries of what we’ve historically witnessed among metal enthusiasts,” says Chamie McCurry, general manager of the United States’ Danny Wimmer Productions (DWP), who kicked off 2024 with Welcome to Rockville festival breaking company records with over 200,000 in attendance at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway May 9-12.

Their Sonic Temple showcase, which welcomed 138,000 fans across four days in Columbus, Ohio, took place on the following weekend. While tested headliners Foo Fighters and Disturbed were key, the prominent inclusion of acts like Tennessee rapper Jelly Roll, Texan instrumentalists Polyphia and London grime-punks Bob Vylan prove the trend.

“This shift is driving the creation of pioneering hybrid styles within the metal genre, melding disparate sounds in ways that profoundly connect with audiences,” McCurry stresses. “Culturally, it’s seen in unexpected [phenomena] like the integration of metal merchandise into conventional fashion and in groundbreaking collaborations that defy traditional genre constraints.”

“Metal audiences’ tastes are evolving significantly, driven by those new acts”

It’s not just in the festival sphere. After the viral success of 2020 single Hypa Hypa, ‘electronicore’ sensations Electric Callboy skyrocketed post-pandemic, with their synth-heavy sounds inspiring a completely sold-out 2023 German tour [60,000 tickets], including a landmark hometown show at Cologne’s 20,000-cap Lanxess Arena, and an equally packed circuit of the UK’s 1,500-5,000-cap Academy venues. Callboy’s recent collaborators BABYMETAL continued their ‘Kawaii-metal’ expansion with 94 performances across 25 countries and total headline attendance of 240,000.

Andrea Pieroni of Italy’s MC2 Live continues to see the success of tried-and-tested acts (34,000 tickets sold-out for Iron Maiden in Milan, 42,000 sold-out for Rammstein in Padova, and 15,000 for Pantera in Bologna in 2023), but those on the cutting-edge like Bring Me The Horizon (10,000 sold- out), Electric Callboy, Polyphia and Lorna Shore (3,500 each sold out) in Milan are closing in.

“Metal audiences’ tastes are evolving significantly, driven by those new acts,” he tells IQ. “It’s interesting to see how modern bands use their platforms to explore complex themes and social issues. For instance, Lorna Shore’s 2023 album Pain Remains delves deep into existential [rumi- nation] and mental health. Fans resonate with that emotional depth, which in turn drives their important support for the live music industry.”

Julia Frank, head of booking at Wizard Live (and head of Frankfurt’s Green Party), is unsurprised at the trend towards progressiveness in the genre. Citing the 30,000+ tickets sold by Judas Priest across dates in Frankfurt, Munich, and Dortmund earlier this year, and five further German arena shows this summer – twice the numbers done on previous tours – as their greatest recent success, she emphasises how the Birmingham icons are emblematic of metal’s often-hidden heart.

“Others see the long hair, denim and leather, and think nothing’s changed since the 1980s. But it has…”

“Outsiders struggle to see it sometimes but metal has always had the most diverse, inclusive crowd,” she observes. “There’s more queer representation, more women in prominent places. [Motorcycle-straddling Priest frontman] Rob Halford has been a gay icon for what feels like forever. It’s been almost 15 years since Life of Agony’s Mina Caputo and Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace came out as trans.

“In other genres, those things still feel like big developments, but they’ve been going on in this world for a long time. The same thing applies with metalheads’ approach to issues like mental health, climate change, and safe spaces for women. Yes, we have some problematic individuals, but it’s a genre where people tend to have more consideration for each other. Others see the long hair, denim and leather, and think nothing’s changed since the 1980s. But it has…”

Fabian Umiker of Switzerland’s Mainland Promotions confirms metal’s swerve toward the cultural cutting-edge is something that promoters have to be aware of. Fans are buying tickets later, with several recent examples of 30%+ being purchased on the week of the show, for instance. And there is an increased pressure to reach the relevant demographic with targeted marketing.

“Usually in metal, bands have had to work up slowly as an opener or club band and painstakingly climb towards top billing,” Umiker explains. “Now, new bands who work intensely on social media, can blow up very quickly, reaching a big audience all over the world. It feels like a very interesting evolution in this genre, rarely seen since nu-metal bands like Linkin Park in the early-2000s.”

“There’s always a risk that acts who blow up quickly become ‘disposable'”

Luuk van Gestel of Doomstar Booking echoes that caution: “There’s always a risk that acts who blow up quickly become ‘disposable.’ If you’re on TikTok, your album drops, you do a tour cycle, then a tour of way-too-big venues for way too much money. If you don’t draw a crowd, the moment’s already gone. And if you do draw one, you need to manage to pull off that trick again.”

Blood & Thunder
Increasingly, fans’ focus isn’t just on ground-breaking bands but the avenues through which they’re experienced. Events like France’s 60,000-capacity Hellfest and Germany’s 85,000-cap Wacken Open Air now routinely sell out in minutes, with the lure of reputation, onsite art installations, and online buzz ensuring fans’ interest.

Las Vegas’s Sick New World drew a reported 65,000 fans to a one-day event in 2023, with similar numbers in 2024 for a gathering of vintage nu-metal acts like System of a Down, Slipknot, and Korn, and bands influenced by that scene. Meanwhile, more boutique offerings like Norway’s multi-venue Inferno and Beyond The Gates black metal festivals and Czech Republic’s 20,000-cap Obscene Extreme continue to attract specialist crowds.

Scarborough’s Fortress Festival in the UK has been a remarkable recent success, transforming itself from a 650-cap startup to – at 1,750-cap – one of the biggest black metal gatherings in the world, in the space of two short years. “The UK black metal scene forced us into doing this, in a way,” offers Fortress organiser and booker for the UK’s Reaper Agency Gary Stephenson, of the sold-out 2024 event, which featured strong headliners Triptykon and Wolves In The Throne Room, alongside red-hot prospects Blackbraid and Gaerea. Almost 50% of available tickets for 2025 were sold the following day.

“The avenues for discovering new music are narrowing considerably”

“We’d booked numerous weekend black metal events around the UK, which sold out, so starting an event of this size and calibre was the only way to move forward. Our location is part of the appeal, reflecting a steer away from people’s appetites for multiple-day festivals in major cities. They’re crowded, expensive and, for many people, a chore to get to. In comparison, Scarborough is a quiet seaside town. Our venue is situated right on the North Sea, with beautiful views up to the town’s medieval castle.”

Tilburg’s revered (approx 4,500-cap) Roadburn Festival continues to build its brand as a brilliantly curated gathering all about discovery, originality and authenticity.

“The avenues for discovering new music are narrowing considerably,” says booker and head of publicity Becky Laverty. “Where there were once many magazines and digital outlets covering the music we programme, these are diminishing year-on-year. We receive lots of anecdotal feedback that Roadburn, and similar festivals, are replacing those traditional media outlets in terms of discovery and engagement with artists. Our audience is unusually invested in the music, art, and culture on offer.

“Bands and labels have embraced that appetite for the ‘different’ with merchandise offerings like Roadburn-only vinyl variants. Across the festival and band merchandise, and select label stalls, the average spend per attendee is around €75. There are high levels of loyalty to the event, too. Only 16% of attendees were ‘First-timers’ as per our post-festival survey for this year’s event. Comparatively, 57% had attended three or more editions, with half of those describing themselves as ‘Lifers’!”

“Roadburn is an integral part of the calendar now,” agrees Daan Holthuis of 3,000-cap main venue 013 Poppodium. “Thanks to the OFFROAD [local outreach] programme, every third week in April sees the whole city turned upside-down by a festival celebrating the cutting edge in heaviness!”

“Metal is struggling to attract new fans in Asia”

Warriors of the World
Promoters, booking agents, and bands everywhere will tell you that the greatest challenges facing metal’s live industry are not specific to metal: fuel costs following the war in Ukraine; inflation wreaking havoc where ticket prices are generally set a year before bills need to be paid; lack of confidence in a sector where the repeated failure of festivals has left customers sorely out of pocket; and a cost-of-living crisis that makes them reluctant to spend in the first place.

The inherently niche nature of the metal market does have its own pitfalls, though. And some specific solutions. Jesse Liu of Taipei’s ICON Promotions has been promoting heavy music in East Asia for 22 years but sees the genre struggling to compete with others in the region.

“Metal is struggling to attract new fans in Asia,” he says, frankly. “It’s hard to compete with genres like K-Pop, indie, and hip-hop here. As a result, it’s rare for tours here to break even. The fragmentation of the already limited metal fan- base here only adds to the problems for promoters. Suffocation fans won’t go to see a band like Tesseract. Tesseract fans won’t go to see a band like While She Sleeps. And so on. Having those pockets of a couple of hundred fans for each sub-genre means it can be very difficult for promoters to draw over 1,000 fans for a metal show – and, in turn, to attract bigger acts.

“We all do the same thing, around the same time, in different areas, so why not work together”

“For instance, our most recent shows saw Tesseract play to 200 fans, and Haken to 120. To maximise appeal, I’ll normally promote co-headline tours where possible, but in terms of the rewards reaped, it’s rarely the case that two plus two equals four. The recent Klash of the Titans co-headline between In Flames and Kreator at Beijing’s Fu Lang Live- House and the Bandai Namco Shanghai Base was a success, with more than 2,000 tickets sold across both shows. But that was helped by the fact that neither band has played China for over ten years – and it involved a cost of roughly €15,000 for visas to allow the touring party of 22 to enter the country!”

More conventional metal markets are seeing their own squeeze, too, with many promoters commenting on the seemingly excessive increase in band fees, while booking agents point to a combination of (sometimes unrealistic) expectations from band management, increased touring costs in Europe compared to the US, and a cut-throat need to recoup losses sustained over Covid.

The United Festival Force (UFF) is an alliance of seven independent European metal festivals in the month of August to present a united front to agents and bands working in the same market. “It’s been a phenomenal benefit,” says Vicky Hungerford, director of Bloodstock Open Air in the UK.

“We all do the same thing, around the same time, in different areas, so why not work together? It’s about transparency in what we do and what we want to pay. Some of the agents were terrified when it started, but they’ve come to appreciate the positives in just how quickly we get things done. We talk every day. We’ve got a WhatsApp group where we discuss upcoming bands. And we’re all indie promoters who don’t have 1,500 different people to run something past when we want to make a decision. Metal people are well-suited to that setup as we’re all always fighting to be heard. We’re all fans. We’re all united by our passion for this music!”

“It’s taken six or seven years to get to a point where the results really are about how good the bands are rather than how many friends they’ve brought along”

We Will Rise
As the UK’s biggest dedicated metal festival (25,000-cap), Bloodstock isn’t just passionate about tackling challenges in the industry, but also securing its future. Their dedicated Metal 2 The Masses competition has provided a show- case for emerging talent at local battle-of-the-bands-style heats, with every winner receiving a slot on the festival’s New Blood Stage. While older fans demanding luxury aren’t in short supply – Bloodstock’s 1,500 VIP and 300 camper tickets sell out on the day of release – it’s a canny move that not only maintains a feed of new acts, but also builds Bloodstock’s brand amongst younger fans regionally, simultaneously supporting the venues who host the heats.

“It’s about investing in the future,” smiles Hungerford’s sister and co-director Rachael Greenwood. “With social media and TikTok, there is such oversaturation. This is a chance for bands to be really heard, with the local shows generally sold-out at 150-500-capacity venues around the UK and now into Europe. People are buying those tickets to watch bands they’ve never heard before! It’s taken six or seven years to get to a point where the results really are about how good the bands are rather than how many friends they’ve brought along, but local promoters are fully onboard now they’ve realised how good it is for their venues – the type that are often going to the wall.

“Everything is done at the festival’s cost – big top, infrastructure, crew – but seeing bands like Evil Scarecrow going on to draw crowds of well over 10,000 on our main stage fuels the passion we continue to have for the project. It’s investing in metal to keep the industry alive!”

Nigel Melder, senior promoter for Live Nation Australia, echoes the importance of thriving local scenes even on the other side of the world. “There’s been a shift where we’ve seen cities and scenes really getting behind their own more so than for a very long time. That’s led to increased international recognition [and] a lot of eyes globally turning to us as an exporter of the genre.”

“There are the heavyweights whose potential has yet to be truly tested”

As everyone IQ speaks to underlines, nothing is more important than the artists that provide the spark to keep the scene rolling. And they’re continuing to hit bigger highs, harder than ever. Jonathan Almond of Scotland’s Triple G Events highlights the whole host of talent who’ve already lit up 2024 and have the juggernaut momentum to take the genre even further than before.

“Look at a band like Ice Nine Kills. They’ve grown exponentially from selling 90-150 tickets regionally to 1,500 to 2,500 locally and supporting Metallica in stadia. Polaris have gone from opening 700-cap rooms to easily selling-out 1,300. Some have a slower burn, like Counterparts or Stray From The Path, both of whom have put in so much work going slowly from 120-300-cap rooms but now feel the satisfaction as they sell out 700.

“Then there are the heavyweights whose potential has yet to be truly tested. Bad Omens went from Glasgow’s 300-capacity Cathouse to the 700-capacity Garage, selling out months in advance. They’ve since supported Bring Me The Horizon’s UK arena tour and just dropped out of a second stage headline at Download, but we’ve yet to find their ceiling. Likewise, Knocked Loose have made their way onto mainstream US mega-festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo, and just sold-out Glasgow’s 1,300-cap SWG3 without even breaking a sweat – and that was before new album You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To catapulted them even further into the stratosphere. It’s impossible not to feel excited as new bands get that kind of reaction. So, yeah, the future’s bright. And it’s heavy as hell!”

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Lisbon is set to gain a new 1,100-capacity music venue dedicated primarily to the genre of rock.

The venue, named Rock Station and located next to Estação do Oriente (one of Portugal’s main transport hubs), opens on 8 December with a concert from singer and composer José Cid.

The venue’s devotion to rock is modelled on one of Lisbon’s best-known clubs, Rock Rendez Vous, which was regarded as one of the most important music venues for rock music in Portugal during the 80s.

Rock Station’s founder, João Santos, a former sound technician and programming coordinator at Rock Rendez Vous, says he is aiming to make the new space “the great rock club in Lisbon”.

“It will be exactly like 35 years ago: when the band ends, people can stay inside until 4 am dancing to good rock music”

“It will have the same type of programming that we had at Rock Rendez Vous,” Santos told Expresso. “The idea is to include everyone who attended the old [Rock Rendez Vous] and introduce new bands as well.

“It will be exactly like 35 years ago: when the band ends, people can stay inside until 4 am dancing to good rock music,” adds Santos.

On Fridays and Saturdays, Rock Station will host performances from rock bands and during the week, external promoters can hire the space for concerts of any genre. Santos

The venue – which has “a generous stage with an area of ​​more of 800 m2 assisted by a team of resident professional technicians” – will host domestic and international artists.

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This year’s edition of Download in Germany, the second offshoot edition of the long-running UK rock festival brand, has been cancelled, with organisers citing production issues caused by a busy summer season.

Slipknot, Parkway Drive, Volbeat and The Prodigy were due to headline the event, which would’ve taken place over two days for the first time, from 23 and 24 June at the Hockenheimring, a motor racing circuit situated in the Rhine Valley near the town of Hockenheim.

“Despite the first-class line-up, the massive number of open-air events made organisation and implementation considerably more difficult this summer,” reads a statement from Download Germany organisers Live Nation GSA. “Unfortunately, the associated technical production obstacles proved to be insurmountable.”

Other major festivals that will not return in 2023 include Falls Festival (Australia), Rolling Loud (US), Summerburst (Sweden), Hills of Rock (Bulgaria), InMusic (Croatia), Wireless Germany, Hear Hear (Belgium) and Tempelhof Sounds and Tempelhof Sounds Presents (Germany).

FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans recently laid bare the post-pandemic financial struggles faced by festivals, estimating that only 20% are still profitable.

Koopmans revealed that FKP’s flagship festival Hurricane lost money in 2022 despite selling out and warned that the sector is being “overwhelmed by spiralling costs”.

“The associated technical production obstacles proved to be insurmountable”

“We’re struggling with it, trying to keep the costs under control,” he said. “But it’s incredibly difficult. Of course, we also have an extremely high break-even point.”

Fellow German promoter DreamHaus (Rock am Ring/Rock im Park) previously revealed that production costs increased 25–30% for this year’s festival season.

“There are not that many suppliers that can supply festivals of our size so we’re also in a corner, where we can take it or leave it,” said DreamHaus’s Catharine Krämer.

“We could lower the cost of the whole festival experience but this would have a significant impact on the whole quality of it.”

Download Germany is the fourth sister event (after Melbourne, Sydney and Paris) of the UK’s premier rock festival, which returns next week for a 20th edition.

The anniversary event, which takes place over four days for the first time ever, became the fastest-selling in Download’s history.

More than 60 acts have been confirmed for Download Festival 2023, including headliners Bring Me The Horizon, Slipknot and Metallica, with the latter playing two unique sets on the Thursday and Saturday nights.

Architects, Evanescence, Disturbed, Placebo, Parkway Drive and Ghost are also billed to perform at the event, set for 8–11 June at Donington Park in Leicestershire.

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C3 Presents has announced a brand new US festival for hard rock and alternative music fans called Sick New World.

System Of A Down, Korn, Deftones and Incubus are set to headline the one-day event, taking place on May 13 2023 at Las Vegas Festival Grounds.

Evanescence, Turnstile, Chevelle, Mr. Bungle, Papa Roach, Death Grips, Flyleaf, Placebo, Spiritbox and The Sisters of Mercy are also among the 50 acts billed for the festival, with general admission tickets starting from US$249.99.

C3 Presents’ festival portfolio already includes US festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits.

Sick New World follows two other brand-new rock festivals launched by C3 Presents parent Live Nation.

The promoter’s inaugural When We Were Young festival took place last month at Las Vegas Festival Grounds with headliners Paramore and My Chemical Romance.

Evanescence, Papa Roach, Flyleaf, Placebo and Spiritbox are also among the 50 acts billed for the festival

The 85,000-cap “emo nostalgia” festival was expanded to three days due to demand, and the 2023 edition sold out before the 2022 event had even started.

Next year’s instalment features a pop-punk twist featuring headliners Blink-182 and Green Day, who will be joined by the likes of 30 Seconds To Mars, The Offspring, Good Charlotte, 5 Seconds of Summer and All Time Low, Yellowcard, Rise Against, Sum 41, Pierce the Veil, Gym Class Heroes, Michelle Branch, Thrice, Rise Against, Simple Plan and New Found Glory.

In addition, Live Nation is also launching a new alternative music festival based in Atlantic City, New Jersey (US), called Adjacent.

Blink-182 and Paramore are set to headline the all-ages event, slated for 27 & 28 May 2023 (Memorial Day Weekend).

Turnstile, Japanese Breakfast, Coheed & Cambria, Bleachers, Jimmy Eat World, The Front Bottoms, IDLES and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness are also among the 40 bands that will perform across three stages.

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Rock the World – Save the World, the “first-ever 100% environmentally sustainable rock concert”, is taking place at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium on 15 November with a capacity of 6,000.

The concert is the brainchild of biofuel company Neutral Fuels, and is produced in partnership with non-profit environmental organisation One Tree Planted and eco-clothing manufacturer DGrade.

Organisers aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions, showing that it is possible to “enjoy mind-blowing rock without contributing to climate change.”

“Ordinarily, a rock concert with its massive sound, complex lighting and special effects, emits tons of carbon into the atmosphere using energy from the national grid,” says Neutral Fuels founder and chief executive Karl Feilder.

“Rock the World – Save the Planet is different. It will achieve net zero carbon emissions by using Neutral Fuels B100 net zero biofuel to power the entire event.”

“Ordinarily, a rock concert with its massive sound, complex lighting and special effects, emits tons of carbon into the atmosphere using energy from the national grid”

A recent report revealed the use of diesel generators to power live music events in the UK alone produces over one million tons of CO2 equivalent a year.

By partnering with One Tree Planted, the Neutral Fuels team hopes to neutralise “all unavoidable carbon expended on behalf of the event”, such as flights for bands, by planting trees to absorb emissions. Fans are encouraged to use public transport to travel to the event.

DGrade will collect all plastic used at the event to convert into sustainable yarn for producing clothes and accessories.

The event will feature performances from Filipino rock band Urbandub, pop rock bands Cueshé and Razorback and Dubai rock cover band Sandstorm, featuring Neutral Fuels’ Feilder.

Tickets are priced from AED125 (US$28) and are available to buy here.

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A Chilean edition of Brazilian mega festival Rock in Rio is in the works for 2021, confirms festival founder Roberto Medina.

Rock City-promoted Rock in Rio, founded by Medina in 1985, is the second highest-grossing festival in the world and the largest in South America. Rock City, in which Live Nation recently upped its shareholding to a majority stake, also operates a sister event in Lisbon, and formerly in Las Vegas and Madrid.

The Santiago de Chile edition marks the first expansion of the Rock in Rio festival brand within the Latin American region. Medina estimates investment needed for the new festival to be “nearly $150 million”.

The four-day event is billed for October 2021, just after the flagship Rio de Janeiro festival, with “practically the same line-up”. Drake, Foo Fighters, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden, Pink and Muse are among those playing Rock in Rio this year.

“Chile is a calm country with a stable economy, it seems like a logical step,” Medina told Chilean newspaper La Tercera. “800,000 people live in Lisbon, whereas Santiago has five million inhabitants in a country with a much bigger economy than Portugal.”

“Chile is a calm country with a stable economy, it seems like a logical step”

Medina also cites “great political and economic stability” in neighbouring Argentina as a major deterrent for a potential Argentinian branch.

“[Chile’s] proximity to Brazil is a positive,” states Medina, saying “almost 200,000 people” miss out on tickets for the Rio edition each year. Fans now have the option to attend the sister event a four-hour plane ride away. According to Medina, acts have traditionally played solo concerts in Santiago after their Rock in Rio appearance.

Medina also cites the positive economic impact the festival would bring to Santiago, estimated to be US$500 million over the four days.

Lollapalooza Chile, which has taken place in Santiago since 2011, is not viewed as competition for the Rock City festival. “The scale and approach [of the two events] are different,” explains Medina.

Rock in Rio takes place from 27 to 29 September and 3 to 6 October in Barra Olympic Park. Tickets will be available soon via Festicket.

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MF Live, the company behind cancelled Canadian rock festival Roxodus, has filed for bankruptcy.

The company, whose “sole purpose was to organise the Roxodus Music Fest”, owes over CA$18 million (US$13.8m) to around 200 creditors, including $5m ($3.8m) to ticketing provider Eventbrite and $11.1m ($8.5m) to contractors Taurus Site Services. MF Live’s assets equate to $154,000 ($118,000) in cash.

According to liquidator Grant Thornton Limited, “the event did not generate sufficient ticket sales to cover the expected costs, leaving MF Live Inc. insolvent.”

“We also understand that earlier wet weather posed certain challenges in preparing the site for the event and prevented MF Live Inc. from being able to host a safe event,” reads the document.

“The event did not generate sufficient ticket sales to cover the expected costs, leaving MF Live insolvent”

A statement on the festival’s website blames “rainy weather” for the cancellation of the festival, which was to feature performances from Nickelback, Blondie, Aerosmith and Kid Rock.

Last week, Eventbrite announced it would provide all ticketholders with a refund, while continuing “to aggressively pursue the return of funds from the festival’s creators.”

At the same time, MF Live co-founder Mike Dunphy denied all responsibility for issuing refunds. Dunphy also refuted rumours that he had “stolen monies”.

Dunphy and fellow MF Live founder Fab Loranger parted ways ten days before the festival’s cancellation and are no longer on speaking terms, according to an interview with CTV News.

The first meeting of the creditors is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. on 30 July at the Grant Thornton offices in Toronto.

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The Rockstar Energy Disrupt Festival, a Live Nation and Synergy Global Entertainment (SGE) touring festival, will make its debut across North America this summer.

The 25-city rock roadshow kicks off on 21 June in Dallas, Texas at the Dos Equis Pavilion (20,000-cap.) and make stops in Austin, Atlanta, Toronto and Denver, among others, before wrapping up on 28 July in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Isleta Amphitheatre (15,000-cap.).

The touring festival will feature unique line-ups in each city, with performances varying from artists including The Used, Thrice, Circa Survive, Sum 41, The Story So Far, Atreyu, Sleeping With Sirens and Andy Black.

Disrupt Festival will take place as a one-day event across two stages in each city it visits. The event will be the United States’ only major touring festival, following the final edition of travelling punk rock festival Warped Tour last year.

.@rockstarenergy Disrupt Festival is hitting 25 cities this summer! Passes on sale Friday at 10am! Passes, info & festival dates at https://t.co/XGBaHWmtY9#rockstarenergy #rockstarmusic #rockstardisrupt pic.twitter.com/Pn3fgx5ZbC

— RockstarDisrupt (@Rockstardisrupt) March 25, 2019

Warped Tour founder and promoter Kevin Lyman cited an increasingly competitive festival market, a lack of available talent and declining ticket sales as the reasons for the travelling festival’s cancellation after 24 years.

Fans who bring an empty can of Rockstar Energy Drink to recycle at the main gate will skip the queue and enter a prize draw to win a signed festival guitar and exclusive meet and greet with festival headliners.

Tickets for Disrupt Festival go on sale on Friday 29 March at 10 a.m. local time for each city. The full list of festival dates and line-up details by city are available here.

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