Features
Schwenkow Happy With Both Fests
The last weekend of May turned out fine for German promoter Peter Schwenkow as his firm says more than 92,000 fans per day visited its twinned Rockavaria and Rock Im Revier festivals.
Both festivals’ lineups included Metallica, Muse, KISS, Incubus, Faith No More, Judas Priest, and Limp Bizkit.
The festivals also scored well with the media as regional paper Augsburger Allgemeine said they were “a triumph” while Munich paper TZ was also very positive. The DEAG chief was particularly pleased to see 43,000 show for Rock Im Revier May 29-31, which has been dogged with controversy since it was announced and has already had to change its name and site.
It had started life as “The Ring – Green Hell Rock” on the Nürburgring, but shifted to Gelsenkirchen’s
Photo: Hauzenberger
in Munich May 29-31.
Schwenkow says DEAG shelled out $3.8 million in artists’ advances and other costs and the Nürburgring failed to pay its share. He told Pollstar that he’ll seek euro 2 million ($2.18 million).
The working relationship between DEAG and The Ring didn’t last a year, having caused a fuss when it began because it took the slot that rival promoter Marek Lieberberg had used for his Rock am Ring for nearly 30 years. That sparked off a legal battle over Lieberberg’s right to use the “Rock am Ring” name at another venue, which was settled in August when the Koblenz court first became involved with this German festival saga.
Lieberberg won the day and this year’s already-sold-out Rock am Ring will be at a former military airfield at Mendig June 5-7 with headliners Foo Fighters, Slipknot, and
The proverbial icing on the cake for Schwenkow was the news that Ossy Hoppe’s Wizard Promotions, a partner in the twinned fests and 75.1 owned by DEAG since July 2013, has done close to 400,000 tickets for four shows from Bohse Onkelz at the Hockenheimring (June 19-20, and June 26-27).