Hair-Metal Mania Strikes Again At Rocklahoma

This year’s second annual Rocklahoma will feature performances from Warrant (featuring Jani Lane), Bret Michaels, LA Guns (featuring Tracii Guns), Enuff Z Nuff, Cinderella, Night Ranger and Tesla, among many others. The ’80s hair metal-themed festival will take place July 10-13 on a 400-acre field in Pryor, Okla.

“We have quite a few bands on this year’s lineup that are reuniting,” Creative Entertainment Unlimited president/CEO Brad White tells Billboard.com. “We’ve been able to go out and help some of these bands get back together.”

Other artists performing include Vain, House of Lords, Jet Boy, XYZ, Armored Saint, Kingdom Come, Triumph, Pretty Boy Floyd, Every Mother’s Nightmare, Tora Tora, Black N Blue, Trixter, Kix, Axe, Beautiful Creatures, Zebra and Lynch Mob.

“We basically went back through our old record collections and looked at our favorite bands from that era, and were able to put together what we felt was the strongest lineup,” White says.

White also expects at least two or three summer package tours to result from this year’s Rocklahoma. “Over the past week I’ve had a few calls asking if I could move one band here or there because they were trying to create some kind of package touring situation,” he explains.

Regional artists scheduled to perform on the two side stages are Jester, Sidekixx, Pair-A-Dice, Front Runner, Tommy Had a Vision, Valor, Gypsy Blue, Whitefoxx, Blue Tiger, Wild August, Messang, Paul Shortino, Mariah, Warryor, Bad Candy, Lorraine, Nasty Nasty, Real Steel, Cuttlass, Vyper, Mass, Bad Candy, Oney, Strikeforce, Herazz, Reckless, Heartless, Ron Keel, Warryor and Alibi, Texas Hippie Coalition, Darrio Lorano, Dirty Penny, Crooked X, Gypsy Pistoleros, Sweet FA, Banshee, Gods of Kansas, Lipstick Magazine, Pownd, Shadowside, Mindflow, Warmachine, Asphalt Valentine and Krucible (featuring Lance King).

Rocklahoma is booked by White, and is being produced in conjunction with Catch the Fever Music Festivals. The festival will take place on a field that can accommodate 50,000 festivalgoers, and has an amphitheater with approximately 6,200 assigned seats.

The final Rocklahoma 2008 lineup will total more than 80 bands performing on three stages. Three-day VIP passes, which include food, soda and beer, are currently on sale for $350 via feverfest.com. The three-day VIP passes also give fans access to the festival’s July 10 kick-off party, which will feature a performance by Michaels and his solo band. Non-VIP three-day passes cost $110, while single-day tickets cost $55.

Catch the Fever Music Festivals president/CEO Mark Nuessle tells Billboard.com that approximately 4,000 VIP passes have already been sold. The tickets went on sale about 90 days after last year’s inaugural event, which brought in about 30,000 festivalgoers per day and featured such acts as Poison, Ratt, Slaughter, Quiet Riot, LA Guns, Vince Neil, Faster Pussycat, Twisted Sister and Great White.

Nuessle declined to reveal how much money last year’s festival grossed, but said the event broke even and drew fans from all 50 states and 33 different countries. “It really sparked a wildfire for this music in general,” he observes.