Hard is a national music festival, music cruise and concert brand founded in 2007. The event line-ups consist of alternative and electronic acts and emerging talents. The first Hard Music Festival was held on December 31, 2007 in

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...

and featured

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

, Peaches and

2 Live Crew 2 Live Crew is an American hip hop music, hip hop group from Miami, Florida, which had its greatest commercial success from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The group's most well-known line up was composed of Luther Campbell, Luke Campbell, Fr ...

. Hard is best known for the Hard Summer Music Festival and Hard Haunted Mansion, though also runs several smaller events and one-off shows. Hard is sometimes called "Hardfest" by fans, based on the event's website and social media shortcuts. Additional Hard brands include the Hard Summer, Hard Red Rocks, Hard at

Electric Daisy Carnival Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is currently t ...

, and the Holy Ship! electronic music cruise, and former events include Hard Day of The Dead, Hard 13, Turkey Soup and Hard Miami.

Live Nation Entertainment Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainme ...

acquired Hard in 2012.

Hard Summer Music Festival

Since 2008, Hard has run an annual Hard Summer Music Festival. The first was held on July 19, 2008 in Downtown Los Angeles at the

Shrine Exposition Hall The Shrine Exposition Hall is a multi-purpose event facility located in Los Angeles, California, adjacent to the Shrine Auditorium The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the ...

. In 2009, Hard Summer changed venues to The Forum. The Inglewood police department and fire marshals were forced to shut the event because it was declared a "hazard" by the fire department. In 2010, the venue changes to again to the Los Angeles State Historic Park, where it continued to be held until 2014, when it moved to the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area in

El Monte, California } El Monte (Spanish for "The Mountain") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city lies in the San Gabriel Valley, east of the city of Los Angeles. El Monte's slogan is "Welcome to Friendly El Monte" and is historically ...

. In 2015 Hard Summer once again switched venues to the Fairplex in

Pomona, California Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Polyte ...

. In 2016, Hard Summer moved to the Fontana

Auto Club Speedway Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previ ...

and hosted around 146,000 people. For its 10th anniversary in 2017, the festival was set to return to the Auto Club Speedway; however, after a notable decline in ticket sales, LiveNation moved the event to

Glen Helen Amphitheater The Glen Helen Amphitheater (originally Blockbuster Pavilion and formerly Hyundai Pavilion and San Manuel Amphitheater) is a 65,000-capacity amphitheater located in the hills of Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California. It is the la ...

in San Bernardino, California. About 80,000 people attended the two day weekend. Hard Summer 2018 returned to the

in August 2018, where it remained in 2019. In 2020, Hard Summer was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The festival resumed in 2021, and moved location to the NOS Event Center in San Bernardino, where it remained in 2022.

Hard Red Rocks

In March 2013, Hard Events announced that it would be hosting a new event in Colorado called Hard Red Rocks at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The event took place on August first of that year, and has returned to that event annually. Hard Red Rocks 2018 is set to take place on August second feature guests including

DJ Snake William Sami Étienne Grigahcine (born 13 June 1986), known by his stage name DJ Snake, is an Algerian French music producer and DJ, first achieving international recognition in 2013 by releasing an instrumentation-oriented single called " Turn D ...

, Virtual Self, Mija, GG MAGREE, and Hekler.

National and International Tours

2007 Hard New Year's Eve Music Festival

2010 Hard Summer Tour

August 2010 marked the launch of the Hard Summer Tour, as promoter Gary Richards decided to take the party on the road; 12 dates scattered across the United States and Canada; Incorporating hip-hop into the fold.

2011

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...

helped organise the event, seeking out the help of out Gary Richards from Hard to do so, stating: "I’ve always respected what ichardsdoes with Hard, and I thought that was exactly what we needed."''RollingStone.com'' "Trent Reznor Taps HARD Promoter For 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' Events"
December 12, 2011

2012 Hard presents Boys Noize Live

2014 Hard Straylia

References

External links

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About Hard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hard (Music Festival) Electronic music festivals in the United States Live Nation Entertainment Concert tours Music festivals established in 2007