Rock Am Ring festival cancelled

Rock Am Ring
Rock Am Ring

Today’s third and final day of the Rock Am Ring festival has been cancelled after scores of people were injured by lightning strikes over the weekend.

At least 80 fans were hurt after heavy thunderstorms plagued the German festival site close to Mendig in the west of the country on Friday night.

The bad weather continued on Saturday and with further storms forecast for today, local authorities stepped in and revoked the festival’s licence to ensure the safety of fans.

Festival organisers say they fully accept the decision and have asked fans to leave the site by 12noon local time today.

At least one fan had to be resuscitated on Friday night after lightning struck the festival. Eight people were seriously injured forcing organisers to set up a hotline on 0261 1032345 for those concerned about relatives.

It’s the second straight year that lightning has caused injuries to music fans at the event. In 2015, 33 people were hurt when lightning hit the festival site twice.

Black Sabbath were due to close the event with a headline set.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.