Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers rumoured for Sonisphere 2012

Posted on 10 July 2011
By Richard Lewis
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Fresh from their triumphant headline gigs at Milton Keynes and T in the Park, Foo Fighters are strongly rumoured to be headlining Sonisphere festival next year.

Festival organiser Stuart Galbraith confirmed he was in discussions with Dave Grohl and co at the official press launch for Sonisphere 2012, held today.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are also highly likely to appear at the event, which takes place at Knebworth.

The Californian rockers will be on the road next year in support of their highly anticipated new album I’m With You, which will be their first since the departure of guitarist John Frusciante.

It has also been confirmed that next year’s festival will be held over the weekend of July 6-8th with tickets on sale this coming Wednesday (July 13th).

The festival boss also hinted at other acts who could feature on next year’s bill, saying, ‘I also think we could have Green Day and Blink 182 here, but none of those are confirmed’.

He also stated that the capacity for the sell-out event will remain at 60,000 people, despite Knebworth being able to host concerts over twice the size.

The organisers stated they want Sonisphere to remain at its current size. ‘We’re not looking for it to become a mega festival. We’re not looking to become a 100,000 capacity festival.’

US hard rockers Metallica headlined the event on Friday, whose set included appearances from Slayer, Megadeath and Anthrax.

The quartet of bands have long been nicknamed ‘The Big Four’ as the groups created the foundations for thrash metal in the early eighties.

The four bands formed the line-up on Friday, the first time all four veteran acts have appeared onstage together in the UK.

Paying homage to the metal veterans, Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro included a number of Slayer’s riffs in their own headline set yesterday.

Weezer were also one of the headline acts on yesterday’s bill. The power-pop band included a cover of Radiohead’s Paranoid Android in their set.

The event continues today with sets from Limp Bizkit, Motorhead and Slipknot.

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