Rock Fest is ready to bring another stellar lineup of rock to audiences next week.
Described on its webpage as “Our Motherfest’n Reunion,” the festival promises three days of rock favorites as well as up-and-coming musicians.
Headlining on Thursday is Rob Zombie in his return to Rock Fest.
When not making films, Zombie is best known for horror and sci-fi themes in his music and is best known for songs like “More Human than Human” and “Creature of the Wheel.”
Friday brings heavy-metal fan favorite Five Finger Death Punch, known for songs like “Remember Everything” and “Wash It All Away.”
Metal band Bad Omens hits the stage in Cadott on Saturday, known for the songs “Just Pretend” and “The Worst in Me.”
There will also be a “Bonus Bash,” featuring bands that include Drowning Pool, Born of Osiris, A Killer’s Confession, Convictions and Left on Red.
“This will be our 31st rendition of Rock Fest, so it’ll be a big year,” said Rock Fest promoter Wade Asher. “We changed our branding a little bit and gave it a new and refreshed look, but we still have that nature of Rock Fest that everybody loves and knows.
“Rock Fest is about the music — that’s the number one thing for us. It’s an incredible lineup, with Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch and Bad Omens. It’s just really well lined-up this year.”
This isn’t to say, of course, that music will be all that will be taking place at the festival grounds.
“There’s going to be a full tournament-style kickboxing event that’s going to be on site,” explained Asher. The WFC tournament is said to feature over 100 fighters. He explained that there will also be photo ops, art installations, and more.
“There will be different activities that are going to be onsite that you normally wouldn’t see anywhere,” said Asher.
The event started about seven years after its country cousin, Country Fest, back in 1994. It was at that point specifically more for classic rock, said Asher, with the first Rock Fest attracting the likes of Eddie Money, REO Speedwagon and Cheap Trick. The festival has since evolved into the behemoth it currently is, which is now the largest rock and camping event in the country. In the last few years, Rock Fest has feature well-known names in the industry such as Jelly Roll, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Slipknot, Alice in Chains, Mötley Crüe, Korn, KISS and Pantera.
Despite the rock-heavy lineup in each Rock Fest, Asher stated he thinks it’s an asset to the festival to include artists outside the genre when making the lineup each year.
“We try to get a bit multi-genre and dabble in other stuff as well,” he said. “We have Ja Rule this year, for instance. We had Ice Cube one year; we had Snoop Dog in another. We want to give the fans just something a little bit more than they would expect.”
Asher takes pride in being able to bring some of the biggest names of music to a part of the country that might surprise some of the uninitiated.
“It’s definitely a destination festival — that’s for sure, in the middle of nowhere. They say they count as many cows on their way out here as they do people when they get here,” he said with a laugh. “But it feels pretty good — we’ve built an infrastructure over time, and now artists call us to come play, even the headliners. They know they’re going to have a good day and the fans are going to be great. It’s evolved into something special — something beyond my wildest dreams.”
