Qstock is an annual two-day music festival held at the end of July in Oulu, Finland.[2] The festival lineup includes some of the biggest names in both the domestic and international music scene, regardless of the genre. The first Qstock festival was organised in 2003.[1] The festival has quickly grown into the biggest summer event in northern Finland, with 40,000 visitors. As of July 2023, Qstock has been sold out nine times in a row.[3] The festival acts as sort of a successor of the former Kuusrock festival which was organised in Oulu from the 1970s until the early 1990s.
Qstock is owned by local ice hockey organisation Oulun Kärpät and the event's official, promotional vehicle is a white/yellow coloured VWKleinbus from 1965.
Qstock has its online TV channel called 'QTV' which releases new episodes throughout the Spring, with interviews from each summer's upcoming festival lineup. The full length episodes can be viewed via Qstock Festival's Youtube channel.
Lineup
2003
1st Qstock was organised in Oulu, 18 – 19 July 2003. The organisers expected the festival to get approximately 2,000 visitors, but eventually the number grew to approximately 7,000 visitors. The lineup included, amongst others; Sentenced, Negative and Radiopuhelimet.
2004
2nd Qstock was organised in Kuusisaari, Oulu, 23 – 24 July 2004.
In 2006 the festival capacity was significantly increased by bringing the main entrance closer to the city center. The visitor traffic rush at entrances was also decreased by organising ticket > wristband exchange spots in the city central.
2007
5th Qstock was organised in Oulu, 27 – 28 July 2007.
The 12th Qstock festival was organised in Kuusisaari & Raatti, Oulu, on 25 – 26 July 2014. The festival was sold out. Pre-announced festival headliners were Volbeat for Friday 25 and Megadeth for Saturday 26 July.
Oulu is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere and Vantaa, and the fourth largest urban area in the country after Helsinki, Tampere and Turku. Oulu's neighbouring municipalities are: Hailuoto, Ii, Kempele, Liminka, Lumijoki, Muhos, Pudasjärvi, Tyrnävä and Utajärvi.
The music of Finland can be roughly divided into folk music, classical and contemporary art music, and contemporary popular music.
Amorphis is a Finnish heavy metal band founded by Jan Rechberger, Tomi Koivusaari, and Esa Holopainen in 1990. Initially, the band was a death metal act, but on later albums they evolved into playing other genres, including progressive metal and folk metal. They frequently use the Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland, as a source for their lyrics.
Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current lineup consists of drummer Tommy Portimo, lead singer Tony Kakko, keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg, guitarist Elias Viljanen and bassist Pasi Kauppinen. All the musicians of the band's history except Portimo also acted as backing vocalists.
CMX, originally Cloaca Maxima, is a Finnish rock band. They originally played hardcore punk, but soon expanded to play a wide variety of rock formats, including progressive rock, heavy metal, and mainstream rock 'n' roll. Throughout their career, they have been influenced by progressive rock bands such as Rush, Yes, Tool and King Crimson. The progressive influence is most evident on their albums Dinosaurus Stereophonicus (2000) and Talvikuningas (2007).
Finnish rock refers to rock music made in Finland. The initial rock and roll boom of the 1950s was preceded by a long tradition of popular culture. Suomirock may refer to Finnish rock music in general or more narrowly rock music sung in the Finnish language.
Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, commonly shortened to Tuska, is a Finnish heavy metal festival taking place annually in Helsinki. The first Tuska took place in 1998 and the festival has since grown larger every year. The location of the festival has been in Kaisaniemi park in the middle of the city from 2001. However, since 2011, Tuska has taken place at the Suvilahti event field in the Kalasatama neighbourhood of the Sörnäinen district. The festival dates have always been in either June or July.
Oulu Music Video Festival was founded in 1994 by students of the Oulu School of Arts and Crafts. The festival's back bone is the Finnish Music Video Contest. The best Finnish music video is awarded with The Golden Pumpeli Award and the most promising young director is awarded with the Teen Pumpeli Award.
Sauna Open Air Metal Festival, shortly Sauna Open Air or just Sauna, was one of the largest music festivals dedicated only to heavy metal and related styles of rock music in the Nordic countries. It was first arranged in 2004 and takes place in the Ratinanniemi park in Tampere, Finland. From 8 June to 10 June 2006, over 20,000 people arrived to watch such bands as Cradle of Filth, Finntroll, Iggy & The Stooges, Lordi, Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P.
Summer Breeze Open Air is an annual German heavy metal music festival. It was first held in 1997. The festival had been held in Abtsgmünd until 2006 when it was moved to its new location of Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria. The festival draws around 40,000 attendees annually.
Ankkarock was a Finnish rock and metal festival held annually in Korso, Vantaa, in the Greater Helsinki area. It literally translates into Duckrock. The first Ankkarock was held in 1987. The festival was free of charge until 1998.
The Ilosaarirock Festival is an annual rock festival held on the second weekend of July in Joensuu, Eastern Finland. Founded in 1971, Ilosaarirock is the second oldest rock festival in Finland still active, and one of the oldest in Europe. In 2007 the event had 21,000 daily visitors. The festival sold out in advance every year from 1998 to 2011.
The Sonisphere Festival was a touring rock music festival which took place across Europe between the months of June and August. The festival was owned by John Jackson and Kilimanjaro Live. It was jointly promoted by K2 and Kilimanjaro Live. It hosted heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Slayer, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold and Babymetal.
Kesäkumi is a major annual Finnish campaign organized by the Finnish Red Cross, the Family Federation of Finland and Finnish radio station YleX. Held every summer since 1996, it aims to encourage young people to prevent the spread of STDs and informs and encourages them to safe sex through use of condoms, thus the name Kesäkumi.
Karjurock is a Finnish rock festival held annually in Nopperla farm in Uusikaupunki. Karjurock was first held in 2007, and since then, it has grown from a small village festival to attract 15,000 visitors.
The Human. :II: Nature. World Tour was the eighth world tour by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, in support of their ninth studio album, Human. :II: Nature.
References
1 2 "Historia"[History]. qstock.fi (in Finnish). 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
↑ "Qstock". VisitOulu.fi. Oulun Matkailu Oy. 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
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