Sonisphere Festival
The Sonisphere Festival was a touring rock music festival which took place across Europe between the months of June and August. The festival was owned by John Jackson and Kilimanjaro Live. It was jointly promoted by K2 and Kilimanjaro Live.[1] It hosted heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Slayer, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold and Babymetal (the latter group would make their UK debut at the 2014 event).
Sonisphere Festival
The festival has not taken place in the UK since 2014. Stuart Galbraith, chief executive officer of Kilimanjaro Live, revealed in 2018 that Sonisphere will not return to the UK, due to financial issues.[2]
Event history[edit]
The idea for Sonisphere was first conceived by John Jackson in the late 90s. Jackson chose the name Sonisphere, from a combination of Sonic and Sphere. In 2008 Stuart Galbraith had formed business partnership with AEG Live called Kilimanjaro Live. John Jackson approached Stuart Galbraith with the idea of a pan-world touring festival that aligned with Kilimanjaro Live's plan for a UK festival. John Jackson is the Creator and Director of Sonisphere and Galbraith the Producer.
The first run of festivals ran throughout the summer of 2009 at six venues, returning in 2010 and 2011 with 11 venues.
Plans for future festivals consist of increasing the number of festivals, making the event global rather than local to Europe, expanding the UK event into a 3-day festival, and increasing the UK capacity from 40,000 to 60,000 attendees.[3]
Sonisphere 2012[edit]
UK[edit]
Sonisphere Knebworth was scheduled to take place from 6 to 8 July 2012. On 20 February 2012, the headliners were announced as Kiss (Friday), Queen + Adam Lambert (Saturday) and Faith No More (Sunday). Several bands were set to play an album in its entirety, including Mastodon performing The Hunter, Glassjaw performing Worship and Tribute and Hundred Reasons performing Ideas Above Our Station. On 29 March the festival was cancelled with the organisers stating that co-ordinating the festival to an appropriate standard this year had proved more difficult than expected.[49]
Poland[edit]
Poland hosted Sonisphere on 10 May 2012, at Bemowo Airport.
Sonisphere 2013[edit]
UK[edit]
In December 2012, organisers announced the festival would make a return after cancelling that year's edition in Knebworth. However, on 21 December it was confirmed the event would be cancelled for the second year in succession, citing a struggle to secure a strong lineup for the festival.[53]
Sonisphere 2014[edit]
UK[edit]
It was announced on 12 November 2013, that Sonisphere would return to Knebworth, UK, from 4 to 6 July 2014. The festival would celebrate 40 years of Rock Music at Knebworth Park. Sonisphere would come to Hamburg, Germany on 4 June 2014.
On 2 December Iron Maiden (Saturday) and Metallica (Sunday) were announced as the first two headliners of the UK edition of Sonisphere. This would be Iron Maiden's final show of their highly successful Maiden England World Tour. It was also revealed when Metallica were announced, that fans booking weekend tickets would be eligible to vote for 17 of the 18 songs in Metallica's setlist (The 18th to be one of their new songs). On 11 December The Prodigy were announced to be headlining the Friday slot. On 6 January, Slayer, Mastodon, Alice in Chains, Ghost, Karnivool, Gojira and Airbourne were added to the lineup as undercard bookings. Then on 21 January, Limp Bizkit were revealed to be the special guests for The Prodigy on the Friday, with Dropkick Murphys, The Sisters of Mercy, Anthrax, Chas & Dave, The Devin Townsend Project, Carniflex, Silverstein, The Virgin Marys, Voodoo Six, TessaracT and Alestorm also appearing across the weekend.
For the first time at a UK festival, the pro wrestling company Progress Wrestling held three shows at The Satellite Stage on all three days. The shows were well received and considered on many music sites "Best at Sonisphere 2014", especially after a "Lego Deathmatch" was held on the final night.
Sonisphere also later revealed on their official Facebook page, that they plan to continue their tradition of having no stage clashes between the two main stages (Apollo & Saturn stages), but the other stages would run as normal.
The capacity of the 2014 UK festival was 60,000.[54]
Day 2 – Saturday 4 June
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