Paderborner Rockfestival

A Festival for Blues Rock and Progressive Rock

The Paderborner Rockfestival is one of Ostwestfalen's newest concert series and, at the same time, a clear statement: Rock music with a high level of musicianship deserves a serious stage. The organizer is the local association ProRock Paderborn, which founded the festival in 2024 with its first edition. The venue is the PaderHalle — Paderborn's largest event hall and the region's central concert venue for decades.

The Acts 2026 — A Program with German Rock History

The lineup for the 2nd edition brings together three strands: German Progressive Rock from the 1970s and 1980s, Blues Rock with Hamburg roots, and young British Retro Rock.

• Rockpommel's Band brings together former members of the legendary Grobschnitt, one of the best-known German live bands of Progressive Rock between the 1970s and 1980s. Founding member Toni „Moff“ Mollo is on vocals, and other musicians are from the original lineup. The concerts combine music with theater, humor, and visual effects — a trademark that already characterized Grobschnitt.
• The Hamburg Blues Band & Friends with singer Inga Rumpf — one of the defining voices of German blues since the 1970s (Atlantis, Frumpy) — brings classic Blues Rock to the stage.
• Rosalie Cunningham from Great Britain represents the younger generation: a singer-songwriter with a penchant for 70s psychedelia and progressive structures.

Program Concept — One Genre, Three Generations

Together, the three acts cover a spectrum that rarely comes together in a single event in the classical concert business. ProRock Paderborn uses the festival to fill precisely this gap — a stage for music that rarely appears in the media spotlight but has a loyal following among audiences.

PaderHalle — The Venue

The PaderHalle (opened in 1992) is a classic concert hall with tiered seating and excellent acoustics. The capacity ranges from 800 to 1,200 seats depending on the setup — an ideal size for the festival format. Experience shows that the festival is well-attended even during the advance sale.

Paderborn as a Location

Paderborn is located in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia in the Paderborn district — a university city with around 150,000 inhabitants, culturally shaped by the cathedral, the Heinz Nixdorf Museum, and a growing live music scene. The Paderborner Rockfestival fits into this scene as a genre meeting point with supra-regional ambitions.