After the cancellation of The Ultimate Rockfest 2025, Sister and Knogjärn tried to organise their own club show

Today (11 October 2025) was supposed to be the day The Ultimate Rockfest 2025 took place at the Brinova Arena in the Swedish city of Karlskrona. However, just two days before its “doors open”, the festival was cancelled completely. It all began last week when the first bands – including Crucified Barbara and The Gems – were announced for the 2026 edition scheduled for 25 April 2026. At that time, attendees were still waiting for this year’s festival schedule to be published. When the timetable was finally published, co-headliner Nestor and Dark Funeral were suddenly missing from the line-up, with the organisers of The Ultimate Rockfest 2025 stating that both bands “themselves have chosen to cancel their participation via their booking agent”. Nestor contradicted this in a statement, saying that neither they nor Dark Funeral had dropped out but were simply removed “without any explanation”. Shortly afterwards, Dark Funeral issued a very similar statement confirming Nestor‘s version. Then, on Thursday (9 October 2025), the festival was completely cancelled “due to a serious and concrete threat directed at the organiser”. As two of the bands in the line-up – Sister and Knogjärn – have now shared, they tried to organise an alternative event in Karlskrona in cooperation with their management, Earn The Crown, “but there simply wasn’t enough time” for it to come to fruition:

“As most of you have probably seen by now, […] The Ultimate Rockfest 2025 is being completely cancelled. We choose not to comment further on the circumstances surrounding this, but of course, this is EXTREMELY SAD for everyone involved – perhaps especially for those of you who have actually bought tickets and were looking forward to the festival this weekend. The reason we’ve waited to say anything is that, together with our management, we’ve been working non-stop […] on a solution. Our hope was to organise a club show together with Knogjärn, at least to give fans the chance to see two bands tear it up. Philip at Bergåsa Ljud & Ljus, in collaboration with Paraply Produktion and Trydes Event & Mat, did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to put together a last-minute solution, but the authorities were unable to provide the permits required to hold a show at such short notice. That said, we want to emphasise that the local police in Karlskrona did everything they could to help, but there simply wasn’t enough time. With that said, we are incredibly sorry for what has happened, and we feel for everyone who was looking forward to the festival. We really hope we get the chance to play for you soon!”

– Sister

Other bands – including headliner Eclipse, Trench Dogs and LOK – have also commented on the cancellation of The Ultimate Rockfest 2025:

“We were really looking forward to visiting Karlskrona, and we regret the situation that has arisen and the impact this will have on all our fans around the world who had planned to attend this event. We know that we have loyal fans who were travelling in from several continents, and we are truly sorry not to get the chance to give them and our wonderful friends and supporters here at home what they come for. All questions regarding the festival should be addressed to the organisers.”

– Eclipse

“We are very disappointed by these news as we’ve worked really hard for this show over the past few weeks.”

– Trench Dogs

“We were supposed to share the stage with a bunch of great bands and friends. It would also have been one of the very few LOK shows in 2025, which unfortunately now will not happen. This affects an enormous number of people on many levels. People have worked their asses off behind the scenes, just like always when there are big events with many bands involved. Visitors have bought tickets, booked hotel rooms, planned trips, taken time off and cancelled other commitments or plans for fun. We choose not to comment further at this time, as the police are involved in incidents that have forced this decision, and they should be allowed to do their work in peace. For ticket refunds, The Ultimate Rockfest directs you to https://new.nortic.se. We hope no one will encounter any problems with getting a refund from there. As for other expenses or cancellations, we direct you to The Ultimate Rockfest as the organiser. We in LOK think this is EXTREMELY SAD.”

– LOK