Features
Foo Fighting For Mendig
German promoter Marek Lieberberg’s opening salvo in the battle of Germany’s big rock festivals was to announce his Rock am Ring will include Foo Fighters, Die Toten Hosen and Slipknot.
The promoter gets down with Germany's Die Toten Hosen at Rock Am Ring in 2005.
Lieberberg’s timely announcement of his headliners shows that legal hassles haven’t been all he’s been thinking about. With the festival taking place at a location other than its longtime home at the Nürburgring racing track, Lieberberg had to go to court to successfully win the right to continue using the Rock am Ring name. Within two weeks of confirming the new site, the former military base at Mendig for its 30th anniversary, he’s already naming who will be on the bill.
Other acts announced so far include Rise Against, In Flames, Lamb Of God, Papa Roach, Parkway Drive, and Motorhead.
It might be a heavy summer in Germany, as Ossy Hoppe and Stuart Galbraith’s event is called “Green Hell – Rockfestival am Nürburgring,” taking Rock am Ring’s old location. Lieberberg seems prepared for the next next fight: Who can run the most successful festival?
He’s already described Hoppe, Galbraith and DEAG chief Peter Schwenkow’s claim that their new Green Hell “will succeed Rock am Ring” as a “ridiculous claim by competitors to kidnap the tradition of our festival.”
Although both events – which are about 20 miles apart and scheduled for the same weekend June 5-7 – will aspire to be international events, Lieberberg may feel the issue will ultimately be settled by the local German market.
Apart from having Rock am Ring favourites Die Toten Hosen, the top German acts he’s announced include Turbostaat, Kraftklub,