The Ultimate Rockfest 2025 versus Nestor: Dark Funeral publish statement

As we reported yesterday, The Ultimate Rockfest 2025 will take place on 11 October 2025 at the Brinova Arena in the Swedish city of Karlskrona without its co-headliner Nestor and Dark Funeral. While the organisers of The Ultimate Rockfest 2025 state that both bands “themselves have chosen to cancel their participation via their booking agent”, citing the organisers’ inability to “meet the agreed payment terms with certain bands on time” as “ticket sales this year have not reached the level required”, Nestor contradict this in a statement. According to the Swedish melodic hard rockers, neither they nor Dark Funeral dropped out but were simply removed “without any explanation”. Now, Dark Funeral have also spoken out, issuing a statement very similar to Nestor‘s:

“We were really looking forward to playing at The Ultimate Rockfest in Karlskrona. From our side, everything was booked and ready – travel, planning, and crew. Despite this, the organiser has not lived up to their commitments. Without any warning, they removed both us and Nestor from the line-up, while at the same time choosing to launch ticket sales for next year’s festival – something we consider deeply disrespectful to both the bands and the audience. We want to be absolutely clear: neither we nor Nestor have cancelled the show. The organiser’s claim to the contrary is completely absurd. It is their decision and their responsibility that we are no longer part of this year’s festival. This situation is entirely beyond our control, and we therefore refer all questions regarding tickets and refunds directly to the organiser. We deeply regret that this affects those of you who were looking forward to the show just as much as we were. Dark Funeral”

– Dark Funeral

In the comments under their statement on Facebook, the organisers of The Ultimate Rockfest 2025 point out that one of the emails supposedly supporting their version can be seen in a video on Sweden’s national public broadcaster SVT. In fact, the email, dated 23 September 2025, only shows the booking agent requesting a response, noting that “none of the invoices have been paid” and that both bands have to cancel “if nothing is paid this week”. According to the organisers, there is no risk of any further bands cancelling.

Screenshot from SVT, showing one of the emails