Rocklahoma Announces Attendance Figures

For those wondering, here is the release about the official Rocklahoma attendance figures:

Record crowds converged on Oklahoma May 28-30 for Rocklahoma 2010, making America’s biggest Memorial Day weekend party a huge success.  The three-day festival held at the premier destination “Catch The Fever” Festival Grounds in Pryor, Oklahoma kicked off summer with over 30,000 rock fans in attendance, record setting camping attendance and beautiful weather.  By the end of the three-day weekend, music fans had taken in 39 artists, an incredible VIP experience and all Rocklahoma merchandise was sold out with waiting lists for more.

The festival’s all-star roster of top rock artists from the past three decades included ZZ Top, Godsmack (whose new CD recently debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart), Tesla, Three Days Grace, Cinderella, Chevelle, Buckcherry, Theory of a Deadman, Saliva, Saving Abel, Fuel featuring Brett Scallions, Sevendust and many more. 

Artists performing at Rocklahoma enjoyed the weekend as much as the fans.  Tom Keifer of Cinderella proclaimed: “Rocklahoma was kick ass!  It was everything we had heard and more…awesome crowd and a great time!”

The press also had positive things to say about Rocklahoma 2010.  Rick Florino of ArtistDirect.com called it “middle America's loudest rock fest…with some of the best bands from the '70s, '80s, '90s and today.”

In their live coverage of the festival, Jennifer Chancellor of the Tulsa World noted: “Tens of thousands of music fans from across the country descended this weekend on 400 acres just northeast of this sleepy community with two things on their minds: Rock 'n' roll and partying.” 

Elsewhere, Tulsa’s CBS affiliate KOTV said: “Thousands of music fans from near and far have turned up to celebrate ‘Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Rock!’"

“We are so thrilled with Rocklahoma,” says Festival President, Mark Nuessle.  “2010 was a year of changes, from new event dates to line-up reinvention, and the response from the fans was amazing.  There was electricity in the air, and seeing thousands of people having a good time, interacting with one another and creating memories was something we will cherish as we set our sites on Rocklahoma 2011!”

Established in 2007 as a classic rock destination festival with the motto “life, liberty & the pursuit of rock,” Rocklahoma organizers teamed with AEG LIVE to revamp the 2010 event to encompass a much broader mix of classic, current and up-and-coming rock artists. 

On-site campers enjoyed a weekend party with amenities including access to restrooms and a shower house, a general store for campers, VIP reserved seating, hospitality areas and much more.

For additional information, please visit www.rocklahoma.com.

Comments

[sf]

ROK is DEAD!

[Alinhouston]

This being my 3rd Rocklahoma, I was quite disappointed in the quality of the bands. With the exception of ZZ Top, Godsmack, Cinderella and Taddy Porter, the bands' performances were subpar at best. Muddled sound and complete lack of any quality guitar player for the 3 days bring into question the promoters' judging of musical talent. I was excited about the wide array of musical styles, but you need some talent to back up the idea. Could have been so much better. And NO air conditioning for us VIPs? What did we pay for?

[Unsure in St Louis]

I've been to 3 of 4 years. The promoters can boast all they want but ticket sales aren’t indicative of success. The question is how many people will continue to return for mediocrity? 5 or 6 quality & enjoyable bands will not continue to draw in the years to come. Nelson, Stryper & Vixen proved that last year as their less-than-mediocrity drew poorly. Glad I skipped it. This year's attendence was nothing like the first year either.

I had a ‘good’ time this year but simply not enough for the $, effort & time invested making me unsure about next year or after. Rocklahoma did a lot of new things right by thinning down the lineup a bit, lowering the price and moving the date but they continue to make the same key mistakes after the first year. Could they for once announce the full lineup more than 2 weeks prior? Could they learn who Metallica, Ozzy, Priest, Maiden, Kiss, AC/DC, WASP, Van Halen/Roth/Hagar, GnR, original Crue, Megadeth, Sebastian Bach, Scorpions, Whitesnake, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, Aerosmith, The Nuge(nt), Motorhead, are? Christ, I’d even throw Bon Jovi in there and I’m sure there is a dozen more of this caliber available. These bands are all alive, still tour and would be marquis for the event. 2 side stages of crap don’t add up to 1 of these names. Get rid of one stage and invest in quality. ZZ Top was good, Godsmack was ok & Tesla was moderate but none should be Closers.

Rocklahoma was founded on 80’s, guitar oriented, drum solo’ing, vocal reaching, vibrant stage show f’in metal. The pansies today can’t provide that. Hey, 3 Days Grace…go home and play my bands on Guitar Hero ya hacks.

Please PLEASE get a solid lineup for next year and announce it early cause I don't trust you anymore and I'd really like to continue my attendence to 4 of 5 and then 5 of 6 and then 6 of 7.......

[Robert In TX]

I have gone to ROK every year. The first year was the best by far. It was a constant decline till the 2010 concert. I had a blast in 2010. Being a teen from the late 80's it would be extremely hard to top the orginal line up in 2007.

I enjoyed the 2010 show. The weather, line up and crowd was great. I had VP tickets (and have had in the past). What really would have put the 2010 experience closer to the 2007 line up would have been the "After Hours" parties that were common till the 2010 show.

The folks who in the past put up huge tents with live bands and held after show parties protested with the change in line up. Every year Pryor (pardon the pun) the crew I was with would party till the wee hours of the next mourning. With the change in format it fealt like the draw to the show was not as national and more local. The huge rowdy crowd seemed to dissappear when the concert ended.

Part of the problem with the change up of glam metal line up to a more modern line up was really with the veterans /pre-buy folks. The line up in the past had always been glam/80's rock. Starting at the 2007 show people would pre-buy tickets for the next years show. Even though the line up continued to be an 80's styled event the quality of the night ending acts dwindled.

In my opinion what killed the 80's line up was a lack of big names. In the past big names from the 80's filled the bill. Closers from the 07 show included Poison, Vince Neil and Twisted Sister. It included many other big names names from the 80's including Quiet Riot (this was really Kevin Dubrows last big show and they stoled the show).The problem started in 08 when what was 2'nd to close bands (from 07) became closers and in 09 the closers were 2'nd to close bands from 08. Many bands in 07 line up were also recycled into the 08 and 09 line up. I feel this had a big negative impact to the draw.

All in all I really enjoyed the 2010 line up. I think the line up change helped to bring in more people. I may be in the minority but I enjoyed having bigger named bands with a large crowd. Face it, bands like having a large crowd.

[Ryan Harmon]

It's not a mix when out of 27 bands, 24 are new! It's always been a HAIR METAL festival, and there was only ONE hair metal band in 2010: CINDERELLA! I love ZZ Top and Tesla, but they're not hair metal.