Hard Rock Returns To Festival Space

Hard Rock Rising Barcelona, in partnership with Live Nation, will take place July 24-25 at the city’s 60,000-capacity Parc del Forum, with headliners Kings of Leon and Aviici. The beachfront locale is also home to Spain’s Primavera Sound Festival.

Hard Rock’s longest foray into the festival sphere was with Hard Rock Calling in London’s Hyde Park, also in partnership with Live Nation, where it ran every summer from 2006-13, with a switch to the city’s Olympic Park in 2014 and the end of the company’s involvement.

“For eight years we had the Hard Rock Calling festival in London, practically at the doorstep of our Hard Rock Cafe there,” Hard Rock International exec James Buell told Pollstar. “It was a great experience and was great exposure for the brand, with major artists from Mumford & Sons to Bruce Springsteen. We asked how we could take that experience and replicate it on a larger scale.”

And Hard Rock is doing that with the two festivals this year, and a goal of expanding into Asia, India and South America in 2016, Buell said.

“For the Hard Rock Rising in Barcelona event, we are partnering with Live Nation as we have before. In Miami, it’s a solo promoter,” Buell explained. “Where it makes sense to partner with other brands, we will certainly look at that.”