Rockstar Mayhem Festival
| Mayhem Festival | |
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| Genre | Heavy metal, metalcore, extreme metal, alternative metal, hard rock |
| Dates | June–August |
| Location(s) | United States, Canada |
| Years active | 2008–2015 |
| Founded by | Kevin Lyman, John Reese |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Mayhem Festival was a touring heavy metal festival that took place during the summer. The inaugural season took place in 2008; the festival has since become an annual event across the United States. Most years also include a single date in either Montreal or Toronto, Canada. The tour has been sponsored by the Rockstar Energy Company since the time of its inception. It was assembled by Vans Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, and by John Reese (who was Lyman's partner on the Taste of Chaos tour). On August 2, 2015, Reese confirmed that the 2015 staple of the festival will be the last one.
On a nearly annual basis, big-name guests are occasionally brought onto the tour as temporary replacements for the main acts who are forced to cancel a few dates. The first such occurrence was in 2009, when Mushroomhead performed instead of Bullet for My Valentine for three tour dates while they appeared at the European festival Wacken Open Air. In 2010, Avenged Sevenfold was added as an extra performer for two dates only, one of which was on the release date of their fifth album Nightmare. In 2011, Dethklok filled in for Megadeth on the festival's first day, while Testament replaced In Flames on the first two tour dates.
The festival has featured three separate stages each year since the time of its inception: the Main Stage, the Jägermeister Stage, and the third stage that has gone through sponsorship changes. It was known as the Hot Topic Stage from 2008-2009. Silver Star briefly replaced the Hot Topic sponsorship in 2010, while Revolver sponsored the stage for 2011.Sumerian Records took over sponsoship in 2012 and 2013 and a fourth stage has been added on the 2013 festival sponsored by Musicians Institute The Main Stage features four bands each year, while the side stages typically feature four or five each. A large selection of Battle of the Bands winners are chosen to open the Jägermeister Stage upon the various dates each year, one per venue.
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