Lieberberg Bows Out Of The Ring

German papers including Bild and Der Spiegel were positive about the festival’s new site at the former British and NATO military base at Rheindahlen, where Lieberberg has found an open parkland site. Rheindahlen is more like a small town than a military installation and much of the ground is covered by buildings, but many have been marked for demolition since the German federal government took over in 2013.

It’s in southern Germany near to Mönchengladbach and only about 30 miles from Pinkpop, on the other side of the Dutch border.

However, Lieberberg – who has a good relationship with Pinkpop owner Live Nation – has already cleared that with Live Nation president of European concerts John Reid.

“We have a fantastic relationship with Marek and the guys at MLK and do a lot of business together,” Reid explained. “There are several festivals within a couple of hours drive of each other in that part of Western Europe. There’s also a population of several tens of millions.

“Many of those festivals have been there and have thrived for years, because people are smart enough to separate out weekend scheduling, and different artist bookings,” he said.

Lieberberg previously had problems with The Ring but usually they’ve been resolved and Germany’s biggest festival has been staged there for the last 20 years. The situation changed in March when investment firm Capricorn Group bought the circuit out of bankruptcy for euro 100 million ($136 million) and immediately tried to negotiate new terms for its hire.

Lieberberg thought Capricorn was asking too much but rival promoter and DEAG chief Peter Schwenkow and a festival team of Wizard Promotions chief Ossy Hoppe, son Oliver and recently acquired UK promoter Stuart Galbraith stepped in to produce what was announced as “the successor to Rock am Ring.”

The new festival’s called “Green Hell – Rockfestival am Nürburgring” and it will take place on the first weekend in June, the slot that Rock am Ring previously occupied. Both sides are playing down what could appear to be all-out war between two of Germany’s biggest promoters, but Lieberberg apparently feels he has more reason to feel aggrieved.

Schwenkow told Bild “it isn’t war, it’s just competition,” while Lieberberg says his company “has not provoked the situation.”

“DEAG has chosen to compete and to kidnap our legacy, which will fail dramatically,” he told Pollstar. “Peter Schwenkow has never produced a festival, Ossy Hoppe has not done it for 10 years,” he said.

The German leg of Galbraith’s Sonisphere, which oddly enough had Lieberberg and Hoppe as local co-promoters, was at Hamburg Stadium June 4. Rock im Park, Rock am Ring’s sister festival that takes place at the Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg, did 70,000 per day.

The lineups for Rock am Ring and Rock im Park included Metallica, Iron Maiden, Die Fantastischen Vier, Nine Inch Nails, and Linkin Park.