by Chris A.
– Senior Photojournalist —
Rock On The Range is quickly becoming a legend in the world of big-time rock music festivals. In May 2014, nearly 100,000 people will pass through the turnstiles to attend this stellar music festival. Hosted in Columbus, Ohio, Rock On The Range offers a fan-friendly atmosphere and its success has spawned a franchise of sorts with festivals like “Carolina Rebellion” and “Rocklahoma” following the ROTR model. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery but Rock On The Range remains the big-daddy. The top-banana. The cats meow. The big shoe. Ask anyone. From the bands, to the fans, to the security guys in the yellow shirts, everyone agrees that attending Rock On The Range is a big deal and an incredible rock ‘n’ roll experience.
Here’s five undeniable reasons why Rock on the Range rules.
1. WELCOME TO COLUMBUS OHIO! Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, is an amazing place with exceptional restaurants, great hotels, friendly people and its easy to get around. Centrally located, Columbus is an easy car-ride from a dozen US states. Heck you’ll find people from all over the US and Canada’s at ROTR. The city has a very convenient airport plus the price for accommodations and services in and around the city is very reasonable. Columbus is also home to “The Ohio State University” and the campus area offers an interesting selection of diverse shops and places to get a bite to eat.
2. A COMFORTABLE, CONVENIENT, SAFE VENUE: Crew Stadium: With tons of parking, camping areas and easy access to Interstate 71, the stadium, normally home to the MLS team, Columbus Crew, is transformed into a three-stage rock n’ roll concert venue. Crew Stadium offers plenty of vendors with ample provisions on hand to cater to the needs of thousands of people. In addition stadium security, augmented by the Columbus Police Department, provide a safe yet low key protective stance. Concert goers move in mass from stage to stage and with ample stadium seating augmented by the massive, main stage, high-tech gigantic video monitors, every seat’s a winner.
3. EXCEPTIONAL CONCERT ORGANIZATION AND PLANNING: Putting on a three-day rock festival is a nightmare of logistics and planning. Rock On The Range is about as organized and well run as a huge rock festival can be. With the experienced, big-crowd staff of Crew Stadium, the venue knows how to safely and efficiently move people in and around the stadium grounds. With multiple stages, breaks between band sets are sufficient to permit thousands of fans to rotate from one stage in a safe and orderly manner to catch the acts they want to see. On the rock n’ roll side, the production staff is nothing short of amazing. From the bands to the roadies to lights and sounds, everyone’s working together to keep the show on time and on schedule.
4. YOU WANTED THE BEST AND YOU GET IT: As it prepares to embark on it’s eighth season, the lineup for the 2014 Rock On The Range hasn’t even been released. But fear not. The festival’s history demonstrates they doesn’t settle for second best in the talent department. Talk about spanning the globe of rock n’ roll, the list of performers that have rocked the capital city crowd at ROTR is a diverse who’s-who of rock n’ roll. ZZ Top, Stone Temple Pilots, Motley Crue, Avenged Sevenfold, Cheap Trick, Stone Sour, Rob Zombie, Slash, Halestorm, Marilyn Manson, Five Finger Death Punch, Pop Evil, In This Moment, and Alice in Chains and this list is a drop in the bucket!
5. THE BEST ROCK N ROLL AUDIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES: Bar none, every band at Rock On The Range raves about how they love to perform at this massive show. Some of these bands play hundreds of shows a year, yet ROTR stands out. Why? It’s organized, it’s professional and most of all, they dig the amazing fans. Affectionately called “Rangers” by show organizers and the bands, the Rangers love the massive annual party and they come out in droves to support the bands and party. It’s about as close to a rock n’ roll holiday in Columbus, Ohio as you can get without the Buckeyes being involved. With thousands and thousands of Rangers making the rock ‘n’ roll pilgrimage to Crew Stadium each year, its a massive party with a family reunion feel.
You can be a part of this epic festival! Rock On The Range 2014 is May 16th, 17th and 18th and it’s not too early to start making your plans to attend. Visit http://www.rockontherange.com and check out the “history” of the festival and prepare to be impressed. This is also the place for information on tickets. Keep your web browser pointed at www.hardrockhaven.net and we’ll keep you up to date on acts as they are announced for 2014 plus we’ll share some of the best information and photos from Rock On The Range, 2014 as it happens.
Rock on the Range Concert Photo Gallery
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I have attended 2008,10,11,12, and 13. Upsetting to know I unfortunately missed 2 years of the festival. It won’t happen again!
I agree with all sentiments expressed by Chris A. and want to add a couple more.
Value: Ticket prices have remained steady and only until recently have they increased. Even so $170 for the field or $100 for the stadium. In the 3 days of attending your guaranteed to see at a minimum 20+ National Acts. Basically it amounts to spending well below $10 a performance. Good luck going to individual shows for that price.
The other point I would mention is Diversity: ROTR doesn’t cater to any one particular genre of “Rock N Roll”. They do an excellent job of trying to appeal to the masses by bringing in a variety of musical acts. For example last year around the same time on one stage you had Ghost B.C. and on another stage was Skillet.
If you want to “mosh” and “crowd surf” you can, if you want to sit in the stadium and just “chill out” and get away from life you can do that as well. Every year the vibe has been electric and the people attending very courteous to one another. I could go on and on, but I’ll digress. If you haven’t attended, put it on your “bucket list” and I guarantee your first time won’t be your last.
\m/ Long live Rock N Roll \m/
My most interesting ROTR moment was this last year. Cheap Trick was on right before Korn. I got caught in a mosh during “I want you to want me”. Cant wait for this years event.
Biased? Absolutely, I love this festival and if you attend you will too!