Sonisphere Warms The Beach

Sonisphere co-chief Stuart Galbraith would have liked a sunnier setting than the cold and wet beach conditions near Helsinki harbour, but things soon warmed up when a 65,000-capacity crowd showed to see Metallica headline his first event of the season May 28.

Photo: Otto Oppi Christiansen

Lars Ulrich bangs one out with Metallica during Norway's Sonisphere.

Four days after the Finnish Sonisphere, the metal gods were in Oslo for the second, which pulled 35,000 to Valle-Hovin June 1.

Sandwiched between the two Sonispheres, Metallica topped the bill at Live Nation’s Sweden’s new Stockholm Fields May 30, which set a national festival attendance record with 51,863 fans.

Live Nation was also local promoter for the Finnish and Norwegian Sonispheres.

Next up for Sonisphere and Metallica was the German leg at Hamburg Stadium June 4, which – given recent events in the German market – throws up the unlikely combination of Marek Lieberberg and Ossy Hoppe’s Wizard Promotions as co-promoters.

DEAG, which acquired 75.1 percent of Wizard Promotions in July 2013 and last month took a majority holding in Galbraith’s UK-based Kilimanjaro Live, has joined them to take over Lieberberg’s Rock Am Ring old slot at the F1 race track at the Nürburgring.

The other acts helping the various Sonispheres with their successful start to the season included Slayer, Mastodon, Gojira, Danzig, and Cult Of Luna.