KARLA TALLAS - RECOMMENDED SWEDEN ROCK - A PERFECTLY ORGANIZED FESTIVAL! | Page 2

SWEDEN ROCK
A PERFECTLY
ORGANIZED FESTIVAL!
Thanks to its maximum professional approach, Tony Martin as the singer), BACHMANN TURNER
Sweden Rock rightfully has earned the reputation OVERDRIVE and FLEETWOOD MAC.
as one of the best-organized festivals in the world
of music. Fans can enjoy the best possible mix of In 1998, the festival had outgrown its location and
classic rock, hard rock, metal, blues and other related was moved to the huge grass field by the Baltic Sea,
genres every year. I can only talk in superlatives outside the city of Sölvesborg, where the festival
about Sweden Rock, because I have only had still is located today. The name of Karlshamn Rock
positive experiences throughout my years of mutual Festival was kept, and this first year in Norje offered
collaboration with their team. bands like BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, STATUS QUO,
DEE SNIDER and SIMPLE MINDS. Inviting these
THE HISTORY representatives of synth pop-rock was a courageous
OF THE SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL step from the promoter’s side, as multi-genre
The first edition of what Sweden Rock eventually festivals weren’t as common as they are nowadays.
came to be first saw the light of day in 1992 under the Many of the orthodox rockers weren’t forced to
name Sommarfestivalen in the city of Olofström. The accept SIMPLE MINDS – on the contrary, the band
organizers wanted to offer music which was quite actually gained a nice amount of new fans.
unusual on the Swedish festival scene at the time:
classic rock, hard rock, folk music and blues. Two of In 1999, the name Sweden Rock Festival was born
the acts that year were NAZARETH and WISHBONE with hard rock coming into focus. Heavy metal was
ASH. on the rise again right at that time, so MANOWAR,
MERCYFUL FATE and MOTÖRHEAD were some of the
popular acts that year.
During the years 1993 - 1997, the festival moved to
the neighboring city of Karlshamn and changed its
name to Karlshamn Rock Festival. The festival slowly In 2001, the festival had a change of management,
transformed into a pure rock festival and booked and since then it has slowly increased in size, with the
acts like LYNYRD SKYNYRD, BLACK SABBATH (with maximum number of visitors set at 35,000 in order to
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