RockNess was an annual

music festival A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...

which took place in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

at Clune Farm, Dores, on the banks of

Loch Ness Loch Ness (; ) is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands. It takes its name from the River Ness, which flows from the northern end. Loch Ness is best known for claimed sightings of the cryptozoology, cryptozoological Loch Ness Mons ...

in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

. The festival was known as "the most beautiful festival in the world" and "the only festival with its own monster" due to its scenic location at

which is the alleged home of the cryptozoological

Loch Ness Monster The Loch Ness Monster (), known affectionately as Nessie, is a mythical creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or more humps protrud ...

. Despite the festival's name, it was not a rock festival exclusively, often showcasing dance, electronic, and hip-hop music. The inaugural Rockness festival took place on 24 June 2006. In June 2008,

AEG The initials AEG are used for or may refer to: Common meanings * AEG (German company) ; AEG) was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was established in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte El ...

took over as the main promoter of the festival. The festival grew in size each year until its final edition in 2013.

Beginnings

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of Sampling (music), samples from eclectic ...

took his '

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

Beach Party' to the shores of Loch Ness to create the first festival which was held on Saturday 24 June 2006. All of the 20,000 tickets were sold at price of £32.50. The festival had two stages, a main stage and big top, which were active throughout the day. It started at midday and both stages hosted different dance acts about every hour and a half. Acts included

X-Press 2 X-Press 2 are an English electronic dance music duo. The members are DJ Diesel (Darren House) and DJ Rocky (Darren Rock). Ashley Beedle left to pursue solo projects in 2009. They were DJ Award winners in 2002 and Ivor Novello winners in 2003 ...

Stanton Warriors Stanton Warriors are a British DJ and production duo consisting of Dominic Butler and Mark Yardley. Originally from the West Country, the duo have performed internationally with their infamous Stanton Sessions parties in Europe, North Americ ...

Scratch Perverts The Scratch Perverts are a collective of Turntablism, turntablist DJs from London, formed in 1996 by Tony Vegas, Prime Cuts and DJ Renegade. World DMC team champions in both 1999 and 2001. Additionally Prime Cuts won 2 consecutive ITF World Sc ...

Linus Loves Linus Loves is the alias of Scottish dance music remixer/producer Duncan Reid and, until 2005, a duo consisting of himself and Kevin McKay. Reid and McKay co-founded Breastfed Recordings together in 2002 with Myles MacInnes, known as Mylo. Mc ...

, Cagedbaby,

Audio Bullys Audio Bullys are a British electronic music project from London, originally consisting of Simon Franks and Tom Dinsdale. Franks and Dinsdale released their debut album '' Ego War'' in 2003, and two years later followed up with ''Generation'', ...

, Slam,

Mylo Myles MacInnes (born 10 May 1978), better known by his stage name Mylo, is a Scottish electronic musician and record producer. His 2004 album '' Destroy Rock & Roll'' peaked at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart. He is best known for his 2005 si ...

Carl Cox Carl Andrew Cox (born 29 July 1962) is a British house and techno club DJ, radio DJ, motorsport team owner and record producer. He is based in Frankston, Victoria, Australia. Cox has won and been nominated for numerous awards. He has perfor ...

with

headlining. The following year in 2007 the festival was greatly increased in size to accommodate over 35,000 festival goers over two days. It was in 2009 that the festival became a three-day festival.

Lineups

It was named best small festival at the

NME Awards The ''NME'' Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine ''NME'' (''New Musical Express''). The first awards show was held in 1953 as the ''NME'' Poll Winners Concerts, shortly after the founding o ...

in 2011 and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Cancellations

On 19 March 2014 organizers of the festival announced that "due to the addition of a number of events alongside the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games" there would be no Rockness held in 2014. Despite hopes of a return in 2015, organisers confirmed in January that the festival would again be cancelled. A new festival, ''Groove Loch Ness'', was held in the same venue on 22 August 2015. This was described as a "back-to-basics dance festival", with a single stage, headlined by

Groove Armada Groove Armada are an English electronic music duo, composed of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay. They achieved chart success with their singles " At the River", " I See You Baby" and " Superstylin'". The duo have released nine studio albums, four of ...

. About 4,500 people attended the one-day event.

Media sponsors

UK new music station,

XFM Radio X is a British national commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. The station launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station named Q102, before being renamed Xfm in 1992. The station b ...

was the official radio broadcast partner for the festival coverage until 2009 when the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

took over radio rights and also provided internet services.

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

broadcast highlights of the 2008 festival weekend on national television, bringing highlights of each band's set live. They also provided television coverage for 2009.Rock Ness Lands Channel 4 TV Deal, 14 March 2008
/ref> In January 2010, Rockness confirmed

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

as the official media sponsors, providing live coverage over the weekend as well as full TV Coverage. In addition to the official media sponsors as of April 2010 employment website Monster.co.uk was a sponsor for RockNess 2010.

References

External links

Official WebsiteRockNess on the BBC
{{Major British Music Festivals Music in Highland (council area) Music festivals in Scotland 2006 establishments in Scotland Recurring events established in 2006 Electronic music festivals in the United Kingdom Rock festivals in the United Kingdom Anschutz Corporation Loch Ness