Kein Groezrock 2018 – Das Festival pausiert ein Jahr

Im belgischen Meerhout findet seit über zwei Jahrzehnten findet das Groezrock Festival statt, was mittlerweile mit über 20.000 Besuchern zu Europas größten Hardcore und Punk Open-Air zählt.

Die Veranstalter gaben nun zur großen Überraschung bekannt, dass das Groezrock 2018 erstmalig seit Beginn pausieren und nicht stattfinden wird. Als Gründe hierfür wird vor allem die Bereitschaft von freiwilligen Helfern genannt.

Das Festival-Team kündigte aber bereits an, dass im Herbst 2018 eine Indoor-Version des Groezrock stattfinden soll.

Es soll sich hierbei jedoch lediglich um eine Pause handeln und das Groezrock soll im April 2019 wieder regulär stattfinden.

Hier das ausführliche Statement:

Dear punk rock partner,

First and foremost, we would like to apologize for the long radio silence. We had some big decisions to make about GROEZROCK 2018. Today, finally, we can share these decisions with you.

GROEZROCK has always taken pride in the fact that it was completely organized by volunteers. And even though GROEZROCK 2017 was another success, it has become increasingly hard for some people involved with the festival to give it their all year after year. Which makes sense. Everyone involved has a fulltime job. Some of us have started families. Others have, sadly, lost touch with the punk and hardcore scene.

That is why some of the people involved with the festival since the very beginning have decided to no longer be a part of GROEZROCK. As much as we regret this decision, we also understand it and realize it was not an easy one to make.

Over the last couple of weeks we have tried to find solutions for all the challenges that came with this decision, but we haven’t yet. We need more time to put together a festival that lives up to our – and your – usual standards.

For this reason only we have decided to focus on the future instead. And here’s the bombshell: this means there will be no GROEZROCK in 2018. At least, not one like you’ve gotten used to over the past 26 years.

Let’s clarify one thing: we will be back in full force in 2019. As always, over the course of the last weekend of April. Just one year later than normal.

Also: since we don’t like to sit still, we are planning an indoor edition for the Fall of 2018. All suggestions are already welcome.

If the indoor edition will have the success we hope it will have, this might become a yearly event. On top of the regular festival.

The indoor edition will be an exciting mix of established bands and younger acts we are expecting a lot from. It is also the perfect opportunity to announce the lineup – including some headliners – for the open air festival’s next edition.

This was a very difficult decision to make, but we are more excited than ever about the future of GROEZROCK.

So this is most definitely not goodbye. Quite the contrary, there will be more GROEZROCK than ever!