TIRANA, Sept. 24 – After last year’s inaugural edition, Tirana is hosting the second edition of the RockStock Festival bringing together rock bands from the Balkan region.
This year’s edition scheduled to be held from September 24 to 27 at the Mother Teresa square in Tirana will bring together 17 rock bands from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Ukraine.
“Our goal is to turn this festival from a regional one to an international event but it will take another four to five years before Tirana hosts rock musicians from all over the world,” says Elton Deda, a rock singer and musician who is the organizer of the festival.
“This year’s participants include bands which have proved themselves to be worthy and improved their performance to another stage,” says Deda.
Albania’s The RockStock, Elita 5, Croatia’s Muscle Tribe of Danger and Excellence and Ukraine’s Jinjer are some of the bands participating in the event.
“The spirit of the Rockstock festival brings back to attention our quality music, the icons of Albanian rock and conveys messages of peace as well as criticism for anti-value,” Deda.
Last year, Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice was the special guest of the festival which brings back some of the early 1990s rock bands created soon after the collapse of communism.
In Albania, the first rock concert was organized by Aleksander Gjoka in 1989. Only after the collapse of communism in Albania did the first rock groups appear there. The first rock band in Albania was Megaherz, founded by guitarist Bledar Sejko who after the fall of communism went on to form with Elton Deda, Thunderway, a thrash metal band which recorded the first rock album in Albania called “The Executioner’s Orders” , on cassette. Meanwhile, Bojken Lako was experimenting rock with his first band, The Fishhook, who released one album on cassette. The first recorded rock album on CD in Albania was released in 1997 by Crossbones and named Days of Rage.
