London’s rock and metal multi-venue Camden Rocks festival may be making a comeback
Following the resurrection of the Barfly, the venue’s new owners set their sights on bringing back the nearby multi-venue weekender
One of London’s most exciting festivals is tipped to be making a comeback.
Camden Rocks, the multi-venue rock-and-metal-focussed event, is being considered for a revival, according to founder Chris McCormack.
McCormack, the former guitarist of alt-rockers 3 Colours Red who now co-owns the freshly re-opened Camden Barfly venue, is hoping to bring back the long-running festival, with the resurrected Barfly at its heart.
“Camden's still Camden,” McCormack told Shortlist at the grand re-opening of the Barfly.
“There's not many places you can pull off a festival like Camden Rocks. You can do it in Brighton, but you've got to get taxis everywhere.
“But Camden is very concentrated, you've got your great venues like The Underworld, The Black Heart, the big ones like Electric Ballroom and The Roundhouse. You’ve got all different size venues, it's great — when you're walking down the street any day of the week, you hear bands playing.
“It's important that the venues group together. We're not against each other, we're all part of the same thing, and that's what creates the scene in Camden.”
Big name bands
The festival last took place in 2019 with headliners Frank Turner and Ash. Over the years it also saw performances from bands including The Cribs, Sea Power, Bullet For My Valentine, PiL and The Damned, as well as hundreds of other acts across more than 20 Camden venues.
The Camden Rocks name currently lives on at venues across Camden, with spots like The Underworld hosting Camden Rocks club nights and gig showcases. But the plan would be to revive Camden Rocks as a multi-venue event — the festival previously operated with an open-doors wristband-entry system, with gig-goers able to wander from one venue to another (capacity allowing), to check out all the acts performing across its many stages.
A revival is very much in the early planning stages it seems, but with the Barfly’s re-opening adding fresh energy to Camden’s live scene, the return of Camden Rocks could help further boost the area’s reputation as one of London’s premier gigging hotspots.
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