Rock festival - Definition and Overview

A rock festival, or rock fest, is a large-scale outdoor rock music concert, featuring multiple acts, often spread out over several days. The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.

Today, many rock festivals are annual events sponsored by major corporations. Besides rock, many feature multiple genres of music such as pop, dance, and electronic.

See also music festivals.

Historic festivals

• Monterey Pop Festival (1967)
• Woodstock (1969),Woodstock 1994, and Woodstock 1999
• Altamont Speedway concert (1969)
• California Jam (1974)
• Live Aid (1985)
• Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto (2003)

Travelling festivals

A recent innovation is the travelling rock festival where many musical acts perform at multiple locations during a tour. Successful festivals are often held in subsequent years.

• Area Festival
• Curiosa
• Family Values Tour
• Lilith Fair
• Lollapalooza
• Ozzfest
• Warped Tour

Current festivals

The following is a list of major rock festivals that take place on a regular basis. Most are held at the same location on an annual basis. Some, like Farm Aid are held at different venues with each incarnation. North America

• All Tomorrow's Parties (California)
• Bonnaroo Music Festival (Manchester, Tennessee)
• Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (Indio, California)
• Edgefest (Canada)
• HFStival (Washington D.C.)
• Farm Aid (USA)

South America

• Rock in Rio, (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

• All Tomorrow's Parties (Camber Sands, East Sussex, England)
• Glastonbury festival (Pilton, Somerset, England)
• Isle of Wight Festival (Isle of Wight, England)
• Oxegen Festival (Kildare, Ireland)
• Reading and Leeds Festivals (Reading, Berkshire and Leeds, England)
• T in the Park (Kinross Scotland)
• V Festival (Chelmsford and Staffordshire, England)

Europe

• Aerodrome, (Wiener Neustadt, Austria)
• Nova Rock, (Nickelsdorf, Austria)
• Montreux Jazz Festival, (Montreux, Switzerland)
• Pinkpop Festival, (Landgraaf, Netherlands)
• Rock Werchter, (Werchter, Belgium)
• Roskilde Festival, (Roskilde, Denmark)

Australasia

• Big Day Out, (Australia and New Zealand)

Asia

• Fuji Rock Festival, (Naeba, Japan)