Firestorm Rock Festival was perceived in 2021 with contracts being signed with landowners where the festival takes place later that year. In February 2022 The Purple Universe Team began working on the festival and remarkably by the 18th March 2022 had managed to research, negotiate and contract 32 bands to play at the Inaugural festival.
With most of this year’s line-up already announced (and going by the strength of it, it wouldn’t surprise us if tickets are flying out the door), last week saw a few pieces of news, all of which are massive in their own right. There’s a name change, Trooper beer are going to be there (along with sponsoring one of the stages) and if you’re in a band, you might get a chance to open one of the days!
Firestorm (Manchester) Rock Festival 2022, took place on the 12th-14th August at Whitebottom Farm, Etherow Country Park, Stockport, SK6 5JE
The festival ran to plan with over 1,000 people per day enjoying headliners such as Those Damn Crows, Phil Campbell & TBS, Stone Broken, Wayward Sons, FM, King King as well as Mason Hill, Inglorious, The Quireboys, The Treatment, Bad Touch, The Dust Coda to name but a few.
The afterglow saw social media and industry reviews explode with a plethora of positive reviews and culminating in over 65% of those that bought a ticket for the inaugural event purchase a ticket in the pre-sale for the 2023 event without any bands being announced! In its first year the festival was nominated and came runner up for the Festival of The Year, voted by those in the rock community and awarded by RockPoser.com (we kicked ourselves that we weren’t there!).
Stret, owner of The Purple Universe Group who own and operate Firevolt (Manchester) Rock Festival comments on the new name:
When Bev and I decided we were going for it we started to play around with names for the festival, I wanted to call it Fireball (I’m a Deep Purple Fan, go check it out, very underrated album in my opinion). We came across an existing festival down south somewhere which was something to do with Fire Balls more like a parade of fire if you like, so I came up with Firestorm. We did our due diligence searched Companies House, searched the Trademark , Social Media and trawled through the first 10 pages on a returned Google search but nothing came up apart from a metal band in , so we went with it and launched. School boy error… We didn’t the name!
At that time, we were all heads down and picking our battles to “make it all happen”. Then in or around April we received an email informing us of a potential name clash, the short of the long story is, the other party hadn’t used it for a number of years and this is why it probably didn’t come up in any searches.
We decided it would be better to have our own unique name and began the process of Trade marking Firevolt Festival.
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Firevolt have now added a name you’ve likely seen at a number of rock festival and bars over the years with Trooper beer brewed by Robinsons Brewery.
The collaboration between Firevolt Rock Festival & Robinsons Brewery will see the re-naming of the Barn Stage to the Trooper Stage and will run until the end of the 2024 festival with a first option to continue beyond that. Robinsons Brewery also intend to promote Firevolt Rock Festival, which is one of the UK fastest growing rock festivals, across its portfolio of managed houses, offering its clientele the chance to win Free tickets to Firevolt Rock Festival 2023.
Robinsons Brewery & Firevolt Rock Festival have also come together to offer one lucky winner 2 free tickets to see Iron Maiden in Manchester (Travel & Accommodation not included) this June plus 2 free weekend tickets with camping (tent not included) for Firevolt Rock Festival in 2023. To enter buy a pint or bottle of Trooper at your local bar, take a selfie with your drink and email it over to @purpleuniverse.co.uk to be in the draw.
Stret comments on the partnership:
I know we very much used the “Build it and they will come” mantra but to receive from such a large locally based business as Robinsons Brewery enquiring about the festival and the possibility of Trooper being involved was unbelievable! Both Robinsons and Trooper are ideal brand partners for our amazing rock community who I am sure will have lots of fun in ing this partnership, especially at the bar. I’m already thinking should we put a bar up on the top hill then we can “Run to the Hills” for a quick pint of Trooper. Seriously though it’s a big deal for us and we are more than thrilled to work with Robinsons Brewery, we are both based locally (Stockport, Greater Manchester) and as such we are both excited to further promote this great part of the UK.
Triece Davidson, National Sales Manager, Robinsons Brewery adds:
Firestorm Rock Festival blew up last year right across social media and especially within the rock community, when we looked over the reviews and positive we couldn’t believe this was its first year and more so it was in our back garden! We are a local brewery, and they are a new local festival that is set to grow, It was a no-brainer to Stret and offer our and of course work together to further promote Trooper within the rock community which have ed the brand since its launch. We are all excited to see the festival grow, it’s the perfect timing for us to be involved and look forward to not only being a part of that growth but also to enjoy the journey with Stret , Bev and the Firevolt Team.
Last and by no means least, the festival have also announced plans for a battle of the bands competition (think Metal to the Masses or StormBreakers). In association with Leaf Promotions and sponsored by Trooper, the competition will give new and emerging rock bands the opportunity to play the festival on either the Friday or Saturday (11th & 12th August 2023) with two slots up for grabs! The competition will take place at Rebellion Bar in Manchester on Sunday 25th June 2023.
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Stret expounds:
Last year’s competition was so hard to judge, and I have to thank Rich over at NWOCR for helping us finally arrive at our finalist, the huge amount of entries from their community was awesome and the talent very high. The three bands we picked as winners all performed so well at the festival, all were very well received on the day and it was a pleasure meeting them and in some small way being a part of their journey, hopefully we can invite them back to perform as a part of our line up in the near future.
Leaf Promotions are now taking applications from all bands who would like to be considered to qualify for this competition- please see below for information on how to apply, as well as the prizes which are on offer. Before applying make sure you can tick all of these boxes!
- Bands which fit in with the current line-up. Genre-wise, that covers multiple rock genres (heavy, classic, blues, alt, hard… etc)
- You must all be available to play live on Sunday June 25th, Friday August 11th & Saturday August 12th
- All band must be 18+
- You must be able to provide a video recording of your band playing live (at least one track)
- Please submit all applications to [email protected] for consideration.
Competition dates:
- Applications close on Sunday April 16th, 2023, at midnight.
- Ten qualifying bands will be chosen by a of industry professionals to go through to the next stage.
- Those ten bands will then be added to an online vote, hosted by Leaf Promotions and Firevolt Festival, with the four bands who receive the most votes qualifying for the live final on Sunday June 25th. Voting will end on Sunday May 21st, 2023, at midnight.
- The two winners in the final will go on to play the opening slots at Firevolt Festival, on either Friday August 11th or Saturday August 12th.
Prizes available:
- All bands who apply (who fit in with the genres above) will receive free weekend tickets for Firevolt Festival (one per member) and 50% off a further ticket per band member (large but limited number available and T&Cs apply).
- Finalists will receive two weekend tickets per band member, plus 10 weekend tickets per band (guestlist). Plus 50% off a further 10 weekend tickets per band.
- The two winners will receive two weekend tickets per band member, PLUS 20 weekend tickets per band (guestlist). Plus 50% off a further 20 weekend tickets per band.
- All prize tickets can be with or without camping included (no backstage access, except for performers).
- Additional prizes from Trooper beer to be confirmed
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