Fest Team presents:

The eighth edition of Bulgaria’s biggest heavy music festival will take place from 23 to 25 July 2027 at the Rowing Canal in Plovdiv. Nine months before day one, Hills of Rock 2027 already has its first six bands. Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, Skillet, Make Them Suffer, Left To Suffer, Die Krupps and Atreyu are the first names confirmed by Fest Team, setting the opening tone for next year. Fans have already made their interest in the festival beneath the hills of Plovdiv unmistakably clear, with the promotional tickets selling out at speed, while standard tickets are now on sale through the Ticket Station network at 140 euro for a three-day ticket and 99 euro for a one-day ticket.

From the hard rock of Slash and the melodic heavy sound of Skillet, through the metalcore of Atreyu and Make Them Suffer and the deathcore of Left To Suffer, to the industrial of Die Krupps, the first confirmed acts for next year’s festival point to the different directions of the upcoming lineup. These six bands are just the beginning, and the rest of the Hills of Rock 2027 programme will be revealed in stages over the coming months.

Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators bring together the sound of one of the most recognisable guitars in music history and the voice of Myles Kennedy in a project that has been carving out its own place on the global rock scene for more than a decade. The irreplaceable Guns N’ Roses guitarist, whose solos are part of the DNA of millions of fans around the world, will join Kennedy and The Conspirators in turning the Plovdiv stage into an epicentre of modern, powerful and uncompromising hard rock. From their debut Apocalyptic Love (2012), through World on Fire (2014) and Living the Dream (2018), to their latest studio album 4 (2022), the band has caused a real sensation with songs like “Anastasia”, “World on Fire”, “Driving Rain” and “The River Is Rising”.

Skillet arrive with their heavy guitars, big choruses and songs about standing up to your own fears. The band is among the biggest on today’s rock scene, with a career spanning nearly three decades, almost 22 million albums sold and an audience that now exceeds 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone. “Monster” is one of the band’s most recognisable tracks and connects the American four-piece with listeners across several generations. John Cooper, Korey Cooper, Jen Ledger and Seth Morrison continue in a heavier direction with After the Storm, their six-song EP, which is out in just a few days, on 9 October 2026. The new single “Scream” has already passed 7 million global streams. Produced by David Cowell and Korey Cooper, their new record is both a return to the band’s heavier roots and one of the most personal moments in its work to date: music born out of experiences of betrayal, loss, anger and the hard road back to hope.

German pioneers Die Krupps bring more than four decades of industrial revolution. At the core are Jürgen Engler and Ralf Dörper, the musicians who began breaking down the boundaries between electronic music, EBM and metal back in the 1980s, building a distinctive sound that left a lasting mark on the development of the entire industrial scene. After celebrating 45 years of history in 2025, Die Krupps are moving forward with a new chapter and new music. The band has signed a multi-album deal with Dependent Records, and their next studio record is planned for 2026. In the meantime, the limited EP Will Nicht – MUSS! / On Collision Course showed that the German machine is far from stopping. Today Jürgen Engler and Ralf Dörper are once again joined by guitarist Marcel Zürcher and drummer Paul Keller, and more than 45 years after they started, Die Krupps continue to prove why their name remains a permanent part of the history of the European industrial scene.

From one of the most isolated major cities on the planet to stages all over the world, Australians Make Them Suffer will also take the stage in Plovdiv next year. Formed in Perth, the band has moved through different periods of deathcore, melodic death metal and heavy metalcore, building on its sound with every step without losing its trademark intensity. After four studio albums, including How To Survive A Funeral (2020), which reached No. 17 on Australia’s ARIA Albums Chart, Make Them Suffer entered the most ambitious chapter of their development with their self-titled fifth album in 2024. Make Them Suffer brings together the different faces of the band’s history.

Left To Suffer add to the Hills Of Rock 2027 selection the devastating energy of deathcore and metalcore, with a dark atmosphere, unexpected melody and songs built to cause absolute chaos in front of the stage. Heavy breakdowns and precisely constructed guitar parts are the foundation of a sound in which aggression and vulnerability exist side by side, making Left To Suffer much more than just another extreme band.

The final name in this Hills Of Rock 2027 announcement is Atreyu. They connect the early wave of American metalcore with the way it sounds today, and are hard to fit within a single genre. Few bands can say that their music is part of the soundtrack of an entire generation of heavy music fans. Albums like The Curse (2004) and Lead Sails Paper Anchor (2007) left a lasting mark on the development of modern heavy music, and along the way the band has entered the Billboard 200 Top 10 more than once, earned gold status for two of its albums, played Ozzfest and shared stages with Linkin Park, Avenged Sevenfold, Deftones, Slipknot and Bring Me The Horizon. Their tenth studio album, The End is Not the End, is described by the band itself as the heaviest and, at the same time, the boldest musical experiment of its career.

Hills Of Rock 2027 takes place on 23, 24 and 25 July 2027 at the Rowing Canal in Plovdiv, and tickets are available through the Ticket Station network at 140 euro for a three-day ticket and 99 euro for a one-day ticket. For more information, follow festteam.bg, hillsofrock.com and ticketstation.bg, as well as the official social media profiles of the festival and the organisers.

Hills Of Rock 2027 is organised by Fest Team Ltd. as part of the Legacy 2023 programme of the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation and with the support of Plovdiv Municipality.