The Upper Midwest’s biggest metal fest confirms returning headliners for 2025

Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch and Marilyn Manson top the lineup for the July 16-19 campout in Cadott, Wis.

The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 17, 2025 at 5:27PM
Shinedown performed at sundown during Rock Fest 2024 in Cadott, Wis. (Rock-Fest.com)

After experimenting with country headliner Jelly Roll last year, western Wisconsin’s enduring headbanger campout Rock Fest is sticking to the hard stuff in 2025.

Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch and Marilyn Manson — all of whom were also on the Rock Fest bill in 2019 — are atop the lineup unveiled Friday by organizers of the four-day music bash in Cadott, Wis., scheduled July 16-19.

Zombie played Xcel Energy Center last August and has seemed as popular as ever since the pandemic. FFDP has been touring with Metallica over the past two years. Manson returned to touring last year after a five-year hiatus, during which he and his career were hit by a wave of sexual-abuse allegations that have kept him off other festival lineups.

A large batch of younger hard-rock acts are also on the RF25 bill, including Bad Omen, Knocked Loose, Kublai Khan TX, In This Moment, Slaughter to Prevail, Crossfade, Sick Puppies and Poppy, along with a couple veteran rappers, Yelawolf and Ja Rule.

First held in 1994, Rock Fest takes place about two hours east of the Twin Cities on the same campgrounds and amphitheater site as the popular country music festival now rather curiously named Hoofbeat (fka simply Country Fest). That festival already announced its 2025 lineup, with Brooks & Dunn, Lainey Wilson, Riley Green, Tyler Hubbard and Chris Young among the performers scheduled June 25-28.

Tickets for Rock Fest are on sale now via rock-fest.com starting at $129 for a three-day general-admission pass. Single-day tickets will become available later if the weekend passes don’t sell out. Camping options start at $135 for four nights. Early-arriving campers will be treated to a Wednesday night pre-party headlined by ’90s rockers Eve 6.

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about the writer

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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