History
Discussions concerning a concert hall in Luxembourg have been around since the early 1970ies. As a matter of fact there is no such an infrastructure in our country and all events so far had to be held in inadequate sports halls or ‘centres culturels’. The 1999 project that aimed to transform a former industrial hall to meet current production needs was dropped again and it was decided to construct a modern and completely new hall that was meant to be part of the ‘Cité des Sciences’ in Esch-Belval.
The Challenge
But this was a rather long way to go. First thing to do would be to define the needs, the activities and the mission of such an infrastructure. At that time the responsible of the Ministries of Culture and of Public Works contacted backline! among several other people like professional musicians, concert promoters and technical people to form a work group that was to set up the complete project. After numerous meetings the new rockhall project was brought to paper.
Our Point of View
From the beginning of the discussions backline! has always been speaking for a ‘relatively small’ hall as we did not see the point in an infrastrucure for 10 to 15 thousand people that would only be used sporadically. Our idea was to create a meeting place for musicians, local and form abroad, with a concert hall (up to 5000 people), a smaller studio (500 people), a small studio, a resource center and more. One of our priorities was the creation of practice rooms for Luxembourgish bands.
A Dream Comes True
Finally after all those years of discussion, months of planning and construction, the Rockhal has succesfully managed its first ‘test run’ on june 19th 2005 during the ‘Fête de la Musique’. The public and the bands agreed that the Rockhal is a success and we are looking forward to the beginning of the regular programm after the summer.