A historical journey

The embryo of what is Sweden Rock Festival today, saw the light of day already in 1992. Under the name of Sommarfestivalen i Olofström, the organizers wanted to offer music which was quite unusual on the Swedish festival scene at the time; classical rock, hard rock, folk music and blues. Two of the acts that first year were Nazareth and Wishbone Ash.  

In 1993 the festival moved to the neighbouring city of Karlshamn, and changed its name to Karlshamn Rock Festival. During the years of 1993-1997, the festival slowly changed into a pure rock festival, booking acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath (Tony Martin as singer), Bachman Turner Overdrive and Fleetwood Mac.

In 1998, the festival had outgrown its location and was moved to the current field in the village of Norje outside the city of Sölvesborg. The name Karlshamn Rock Festival was kept, and this first year in Norje offered bands like Blue Öyster Cult, Status Quo, Simple Minds (!) and Dee Snider.

In 1999, the name Sweden Rock Festival was born, and the hard-rock focus became clearer. Manowar, Mercyful Fate and Motörhead were some of the popular acts this year.

In 2001, the festival had a change of management, and since then it has slowly increased in size, with the maximum number of visitors set at 35 000, in order to still ensure service and quality. 

Today, Sweden Rock is one of the most famous rock- and metal festivals in the world, with visitors from over 50 different countries every year. Bands like Iron Maiden, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Guns n' Roses, Rush, Judas Priest, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Accept, Alice Cooper, Soundgarden, Mötley Crüe, Scorpions, Volbeat, ZZ Top, Sabaton, In Flames and many many more have all played at our festival.