Rockhal is 10!

By Sam Steen

One of Luxembourg’s favourite music venues, the Rockhal, will celebrate it’s tenth anniversary this Friday. The impressive music hall in Belval opened it’s doors in September 2005 and since then it has hosted hundreds of both international and local artists. 

Their birthday party reflects the diversity of the acts they have always booked and also showcases their willingness to promote and celebrate local talent. Thomas Roschek from the Rockhal’s marketing department and Paul Bradshaw, one of the venues bookers, took some time to tell Sam Steen all about the event.

The party takes place on Friday night but as mentioned above the date is a little off, “We actually had our 10th anniversary already because the first show at the Rockhal was on the 23rd of September with the Prodigy, who are, by the way, coming back next month, said Thomas, but we’re going to have quite a party with a few surprises and a really nice line-up.”

As well as the many bands and DJ’s who will perform on the night this will also be a great opportunity for gig goers to see and explore all of the different rooms at the venue and, Thomas explained, if they arrive early, they will also be able to see parts of the venue that are not normally open to the public, “We might sneak in to the backstage area a little bit because we will have guided tours, two times, at 4 and 5pm but what we can visit and what we can’t visit will be decided on the day because we have all the production running around and the bands will have already arrived, but we can have a little sneak”, he said.

After that things get going in all of the different parts of the Rockhal, “It’s open to the public at 8pm, that’s when the festivities commence”, said Paul, We have C2C, the big electro headliner, Salut C’est Cool which is French sort of Electro Trash and we have a lot of DJ’s in various places and that’s what I mean, we’re using various spaces of the Rockhal, we have the club being used, we have the main hall being used, the café being used and also the floor.”

C2C have played at the Rockhal before, they appeared at the Sonic Visions a few years ago and that performance still ranks among the festivals’ best ever, the four turntablists create a unique sound that mashes up the old and the new and that, when coupled with their impressive stage production, is breathtaking and memorable. 

'Salut C’est Cool' meanwhile are sure to create an incredible party atmosphere. The four musicians from Paris are no strangers to the stage as last year they were on the list of top ten most booked bands for festivals.

There will be DJ sets and surprise performances happening throughout the various different rooms but the Club will be particularly interesting to fans of the music scene here in Luxembourg.

“In the club we have two interesting projects with local bands. We have a mash up with Corbi which is a local hip hop act and Scarred which is a local metal act, so they’ll be doing a mash-up of sorts and playing on stage together and I’m very curious to see what happens so that should be quite interesting”, began Paul, adding, “Then we have a local band called Dillendub and they're playing their covers and variations of Luxembourg bands’ songs and with some surprises with some of the original singers and some of these bands no longer exist so that’s something I’m looking forward to.”

Demand for the event is set to be high so it’s recommended that tickets are bought in advance online so as to avoid queuing as much as possible but if all the above information isn’t enough to sway you, Paul has one final appeal, “There are food trucks as well so there’ll be good food, music, beer and it’s a Friday night too!”

Tickets are available at www.rockhal.lu

Birthday party line-up

Rockhal Cafe:20h00 : Ben Andrews 21h30 : Mike Blueprint 23h00 : Luxuriant Dj Crew 00h30 til End : Kuston B

Club:20h00 : Globalux 21h30 : Corbi vs Scarred 22h45 : Dillendub 23h30 : Gonzo00h30 til End : Sub Culture Mainhall:21h00 : DJ Klass22h15 : C2C Live 00h00 : Salut c’est Cool01h00 til End : Oliver D 

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