Rock in Park & Rock am Ring: Jubilee festivals promise mega highlights!

Rock in Park & Rock am Ring: Jubilee festivals promise mega highlights!

The 2025 festival season is just around the corner, and the anticipation for the two largest rock events in Germany, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, is enormous. Matt Schwarz, the managing director of both festivals, has had a moving career. From the talent supervisor to the ladder, he worked up in the festival area and worked with international stars such as Metallica, Billie Eilish and Coldplay. Schwarz was boss of Germany from Live Nation for a long time and founded the Dreamhaus agency in 2022, which is active in collaboration with CTS Eventim. These developments are a good prerequisite for celebrating the upcoming anniversaries: Rock am Ring turns 40 years old and rock in the park can look back on 30 years, which is a big challenge for the organizers.

The past festival season is now behind us, and the focus is already on 2025. The expectations of the fans are high; Rock am Ring and Rock in the park already recorded impressive sales of approx. 80,000 or 60,000 tickets at the beginning of the advance booking. The sold -out "Easy Festival of the short paths" in Nuremberg attracts around 79,500 visitors on each of the three days, which underlines the success of the format. The new stages, including the Utopia and Mandora Stage, are greater and more modern to meet the requirements of the festival goers.

headliner and changes in line-up

In an exclusive interview with Matt Schwarz, it was also known that Linkin Park 2025 will not appear, since the band is planning their own stadium tour instead. As the new headliner, Bring Me The Horizon will be on stage, chosen by a fan voting. The booking process for the festivals includes important factors such as availability, fees, production details and the placement in the festival artwork. Despite increasing ticket prices for their own tours, it is important to the festival organizers to keep ticket prices affordable for many fans. The Fast Lane Pass already sold to two thirds shows that the demand for quick entry options is also great this year.

In addition, a new outdoor stage called Atmos Stage is introduced, which should also enrich the program. Sustainability and diversity play an important role in planning. The introduction of Cashless Payment in particular has received positive feedback from the visitors. The feedback shows that many fans prefer modern payment method.

The challenges of the festival industry

Despite the success of large events, smaller festivals are under pressure. A “festival death” can be observed because they often have difficulty keeping their fan community. Experts emphasize that smaller festivals are important for young bands. An analysis from Tagesschau shows that mega concerts of stars such as Beyoncé and Adele bring economic advantages and create new jobs, but at the same time contribute to the crisis of smaller festivals. High ticket prices and general austerity measures by consumers have a negative impact on ticket sales. In this context, the need for sustainable solutions is also emphasized to counteract the high emissions when arriving.

The industry faces the challenge of working in the long term despite increasing costs and a tough competition between big star gigs and local artists. The organizers and artists are required to make sustainable alternatives attractive in order to keep ticket prices in an acceptable framework.

with a promising line-up in the prospect and the focus on innovation and sustainability, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park 2025 are optimistic about the future. The festivals will not only celebrate anniversaries, but also pay more attention to the challenges of the modern event industry.

For more information, read the reports at Süddeutsche , and Tagesschau .