Rock Hard Festival is a heavy metal

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

organized and sponsored by the ''

Rock Hard "Rock Hard" is a single by the Beastie Boys, released by Def Jam Records on 12" in 1984. The track contains samples from the AC/DC song "Back in Black", which was used without obtaining legal permission, causing the record to be withdraw ...

'' magazine. First established in

Lichtenfels, Bavaria Lichtenfels is a town in the Upper Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany, the administrative seat of Lichtenfels district. It is chiefly known as the German "Basket City". Geography It is situated on the upper course of the river Main, about so ...

, Germany, in 1990 on an irregular basis, mostly for magazine anniversaries, it is held annually in

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...

, since 2003. Its 2016 edition was taken place on 13–15 May 2016. The 2003 festival was also initially planned for the 20th anniversary of the magazine as a single event. But the fans voted it as the best metal open-air in Germany and so they continued. The festival is still held at the amphitheater which is located directly at the Rhein-Herne-Kanal in the

Nordsternpark Nordsternpark (lit. ''North Star Park'') is a park in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. It is located on the compound of former mine of Zeche Nordstern. After the closure of the mine in 1993 the area was redeveloped. In 1997, the Bundesgartenschau (Feder ...

in Gelsenkirchen. The amphitheater has a maximum capacity of 7,000 people. The festival was the only festival with international metal bands in the

Ruhrgebiet The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

areaRock Hard Festival - Derwesten.de

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (''WAZ'') is a commercial newspaper from Essen, Germany, published by Funke Mediengruppe. History and profile ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' was founded by Erich Brost and first published 3 April 1 ...

, in German until the ''

Rock am Ring The (German for "Rock at the Ring") and ("Rock in the Park") festivals are two simultaneous rock music festivals held annually. While ''Rock am Ring'' takes place at the Nürburgring race track, ''Rock im Park'' takes place at the Zeppelinfeld ...

'' offshoot ''Rock im Revier'', which was organized by the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

operating company ''Deutsche Entertainment AG'' (DEAG), took place in Gelsenkirchen in 2015.Terminkollision in Gelsenkirchen: "Rock im Revier" wegen "Rock Hard" ohne Kreator - musikmarkt.de
in German

Kreator Kreator is a German thrash metal band from Essen, formed in 1982. Their current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Miland "Mille" Petrozza, drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil, lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö, and bassist Frédér ...

canceled the show at ''Rock im Revier'' for their headlining appearance at the smaller ''Rock Hard Festival''.

Lineups

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

External links

Official website

References

{{Coord missing, North Rhine-Westphalia 2003 establishments in Germany Heavy metal festivals in Germany Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia Gelsenkirchen