Graspop Metal Meeting
| Graspop Metal Meeting | |
|---|---|
In Flames performs at Graspop 2008
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| Genre | Rock, heavy metal, punk |
| Dates | Usually last weekend in June |
| Location(s) | Dessel, Antwerp, Flemish Region, Belgium |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Website | |
| www.graspop.be | |
Coordinates: 51°13′48.15″N 5°05′2.36″E / 51.2300417°N 5.0839889°E
Graspop Metal Meeting is an annual metal festival in Dessel, Belgium that has taken place each year since 1996. Despite the small size of the festival grounds (upholding a perimeter of only ~4 km) the festival draws a large number of international spectators, with a total of 152,000 visitors in the course of the 2015 edition.
Graspop was not originally a heavy metal festival; rather, it was conceived as a local family Rock festival, first organised in 1986. In 1995, the headliners billed were Joe Cocker and Simple Minds. However, due to the public being oversaturated with family festivals, the number of visitors had dropped to an all-time low.
Founder Peter Van Geel realized that mainstream rock music held insufficient appeal to festival visitors. Reflecting on the most memorable acts of the preceding years (Motörhead, Ramones, Paradise Lost, and so forth) and on his own musical preferences, he decided in favour of a drastic reorientation.
After discussions with Werchter festival promoter Herman Schueremans, Van Geel contacted Bob Schoenmaekers, the owner of the Biebob concert venue and metal club in nearby Vosselaar. A couple of years earlier, Schoenmaekers had set up his "Midsummer Metal Meeting" in Vosselaar and because of space limits, he was considering an open-air festival. The initial contact soon led to close collaboration. The duo decided to launch a brand-new metal festival under the name of "Graspop Metal Meeting". The date of choice was to be the last weekend of June.
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