The Sonisphere Festival is a series of summer music festivals which will take place across Europe from June 2009. The festival is owned and promoted by Kilimanjaro Live with financial backing from AEG. [1]

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Event history

The idea for Sonisphere was first conceived when Stuart Galbraith, was working for now business rivals and organisers of Download Festival, Live Nation. The plan was to hold a series of events that would 'translate into other territories'. The event did not begin to materialise however, until Galbraith left Live Nation for events company Kilamanjaro Live. Galbraith gained the support of influential metal band Metallica who will help curate the festival in coming years, however, rumours were quickly denied of them being signed to a multi million pound deal which would see them headline the festival for three years. ^[2] Galbraiths plans for future festivals are to expand the number of festivals making the event global rather than local to europe, expanding the UK event to a 3 day festival and increasing the UK capacity from 40,000 to 60,000. ^[3]

Sonisphere 2009

The 2009 Sonisphere festival tour will be made up of six one day festivals across Europe with an eighth festival in England spanning two days. The festival will have a core group of bands that will play each of the 6 dates with numerous extra bands added to each date individually. The locations for the 2009 festivals include Goffert Park, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Hockenheimring, Germany; The Forum, Barcelona, Spain; Folkets Park, Hultsfred, Sweden; Kirjurinluoto, Pori, Finland, and Knebworth House, Knebworth, England. Metallica have been announced as the main headliners for each of the 2009 Sonisphere Festivals.

The Netherlands

The Dutch edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday June 20, 2009 at Goffert Park, Nijmegen with headliners Metallica.

All bands confirmed for the festival include:

• Metallica
• Slipknot
• Korn
• Lamb of God
• Down
• Kamelot
• Pendulum

The following bands had cancelled their appearance:

• Mastodon
• The Sword

Mastodon couldn't make it to Sonisphere due to scheduling issues. This was announced on Sonisphere itself, although some heard the news whilst traveling. The Sword cancelled their show a few days before Sonisphere began.

Germany

The German edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday July 4, 2009 at Hockenheimring with headliners Metallica.

All bands confirmed for the festival so far include:

• Metallica
• Die Toten Hosen
• The Prodigy
• Anthrax
• In Extremo
• Down
• Lamb of God
• Mastodon

Spain

The Spanish edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday July 11, 2009 at The Forum, Barcelona with headliners Metallica.

All bands confirmed for the festival so far include:

• Metallica
• Slipknot
• Lamb of God
• Mastodon
• Down
• Machine Head
• Soziedad Alkohólika
• Gojira

Sweden

thumb The Swedish edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday July 18, 2009 at Folkets Park, Hultsfred with headliners Metallica.

All bands confirmed for the festival so far include:

• Metallica
• Adept
• Cradle of Filth
• Dead by April
• Primal Scream
• Lamb of God
• Mastodon
• Meshuggah
• Machine Head
• The (International) Noise Conspiracy
• The Cult
• The Hives

The following bands had cancelled their appearance:

• Anthrax

Finland

thumb The Finnish edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday July 25, 2009 at Kirjurinluoto, Pori with headliners Metallica.

All bands confirmed for the festival include:

• Metallica
• Linkin Park
• Machine Head
• Turisas
• Saxon
• Lamb of God
• Mastodon
• Diablo
• Nicole
• Los Bastardos Finlandeses

The following bands had cancelled their appearance:

• Anthrax

United Kingdom

The British edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place over two days on Saturday August 1 and Sunday August 2, 2009 at Knebworth House, Knebworth with headliners Linkin Park (Saturday ) and Metallica (Sunday ). The festival featured four stages of music over the weekend, with the main two being staggered staging, the others being within the Bohemia village. ^[4] The Bohemia stage (the third of four stages) was an undercover stage and was able to continue past the sound curfews placed upon the main stages.

Apollo Stage
Saturday	Sunday
Linkin Park Heaven & Hell FACT Anthrax Taking Back Sunday Alien Ant Farm	Metallica Nine Inch Nails Limp Bizkit Machine Head Lamb of God Killing Joke Buckcherry

Saturn Stage
Saturday	Sunday
Bullet For My Valentine Airbourne The Used Bjorn Again Skindred SOiL	Avenged Sevenfold Alice in Chains Feeder Mastodon Saxon Paradise Lost

Bohemia
Saturday	Sunday
The Wildhearts Thunder Fucked Up Rolo Tomassi Oceansize Coheed & Cambria Flood of Red Twin Atlantic Fighting With Wire Failsafe Glamour of the Kill Sylosis Blakfish Telegraphs	Hundred Reasons Zebrahead Pepper Architects Cancer Bats Little London Corey Taylor Lauren Harris Dead By April Attack! Attack! Rise to Remain

Jagermeister Stage
Saturday	Sunday
Young Guns Exit Ten Blackhole New Device Fin The Dead Formats	Heaven’s Basement The Defiled Young Guns The Crave Sharks Me Vs Hero Dear Superstar

• Dead By Sunrise appeared on the Apollo Stage on the Saturday night as part of Linkin Park's encore.
• Coheed and Cambria were late arriving, due to them missing their ferry and as such were moved onto the Bohemia stage to play a later slot originally intended for the band FACT. As such, FACT played the Apollo stage, to a less than warm reception.
• Blaas Of Glory, a gypsy style cover band performed a small set on the Saturn stage on the Saturday before Soil.
• Lamb of God's guitarist Mark Morton missed the band's slot on 2nd August as his wife was due to give birth around that time. Unearth's Buz McGrath filled in for him for the bands show at Sonisphere UK. ^[5]
  
• Nine Inch Nails performance was their last ever in Europe as they are set to retire at the end of their current tour after 20 years.
• Thunder played their last ever set as well after 20 years of performing.
• Anthrax played what was billed as a one off show with former vocalist John Bush as the originally intended vocalist, Dan Nelson, was no longer part of the band.
• Machine Head pulled out when Limp Bizkit's addition bumped them down the bill, however, they did return to play the fourth slot on the Apollo stage as Special Guests.

Band drop outs

• Frank Turner pulled out for undisclosed reasons, though he has claimed to fans that he was forced to chose between this festival and Leeds and Reading festivals, ultimately choosing the latter.
• The Sword pulled from the line-up because they were exhausted.
• Fear Factory cancelled tour dates for what they claimed to be recording of a new album, but was ultimately found out to be legal disputes over the use of the name Fear Factory.
• Thin Lizzy pulled out as the band parted ways with guitarist/vocalist John Sykes.
• The Chapman Family were removed from the line up for undisclosed reasons, though later appeared on the Reading/Leeds line up.
• Dinosaur Pile-Up were removed from the line up for undisclosed reasons, though later appeared on the Reading/Leeds line up.
• Dirty Little Rabbits pulled out before the festival due to their drummer suffering from exhaustion after months of touring with Slipknot.
• The Ataris pulled out after one of their members contracted swine flu. ^[6]
• Machine Head were originally billed to play the third spot of the Apollo stage on the Sunday, but pulled out after Limp Bizkit being added to their spot caused disputes over their placement. However, these disputes were settled and Machine Head did infact return to play 4th spot on the Apollo stage.

Sonisphere 2010

Sonisphere is set to return in 2010, though the locations are as of yet unknown apart from Knebworth which will hold host to Sonisphere again in 2010. It is expected that most, if not all of the 6 legs from 2009 will return. Also, the organisers are looking into other locations such as Poland, Greece and the Czech Republic to extend the festival. ^[7] In an interview with Stuart Galbraith before the 2009 events, he mentioned that he would like bands such as AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Muse or Foo Fighters to headline the 2010 event. ^[3]

See also

• Concerts at Knebworth House
• World Magnetic Tour

References

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