In short
- Marilyn Manson and Evanescence are the new headliners of Rock Imperium 2027, and the Cartagena festival adds a fourth day: it will run from Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 July.
- The announcement adds twelve more bands, from Paradise Lost and Fear Factory to Motionless In White, Alcest and Gwar, joining Helloween, Bruce Dickinson, Children Of Bodom, Mayhem and Erik Grönwall.
- The festival pass now costs €215 plus fees, €25 more than until Thursday afternoon, and is valid for all four days.
- Evanescence have two other dates in Spain that same week, at Icónica Sevilla Fest and Resurrection Fest, so it is worth comparing before buying.
Rock Imperium is growing by a day to make room for Marilyn Manson. On Thursday the Cartagena festival unveiled Manson and Evanescence as new headliners for its 2027 edition, which now lasts four days, from Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 July, at Parque El Batel. They are joined by twelve more bands and a festival pass that, since Thursday afternoon, costs €215 plus fees.
Marilyn Manson opens a fourth day and Evanescence make their Murcia debut
The expansion comes down to one name. “We had to make room for Marilyn Manson on the 1st,” festival director Juan Antonio Muñoz explained in comments reported by Onda Regional de Murcia. Manson will therefore headline the opening day on Thursday 1 July, which did not exist in the 2026 calendar. It is not his first visit to the region: in June 2007 he headlined Lorca Rock.
For Evanescence, however, it will be their first performance in the Region of Murcia, according to the same broadcaster. The festival has not yet said which day Amy Lee's band will play.
The announcement brings another change of format: the Cuesta del Batel site brings back the two stages of 2025. In 2026 the festival kept to a single main stage because of the production Iron Maiden required.
Twelve new bands, from gothic to thrash
The official line-up poster published by the festival adds these names to the two headliners:
- Motionless In White, gothic-tinged metalcore from Pennsylvania.
- Paradise Lost, British pioneers of gothic metal, at their only festival in Spain, according to the poster.
- Fear Factory, a benchmark of nineties industrial metal, and thrash veterans Metal Church.
- Alcest, of French blackgaze; Tunisian band Myrath, with their Eastern-rooted progressive metal, and the Swedish melodic death metal of Scar Symmetry.
- I Am Morbid, David Vincent's project revisiting the Morbid Angel repertoire, at its only date in Spain.
- Gwar, Steve 'N' Seagulls, Calva Louise and Lex Lüger.
Already announced were Helloween, with their 40th anniversary show; Bruce Dickinson, Children Of Bodom, Mayhem and Erik Grönwall. Dickinson, Children Of Bodom, Mayhem and Grönwall appear on the poster labelled as their only date in Spain. The first announcement is in our story on Helloween, Mayhem and Children Of Bodom.
This batch leans towards gothic and extreme metal, with a couple of counterpoints of humour and spectacle: the metal bluegrass of Steve 'N' Seagulls and Gwar's stage shows. The day-by-day line-up is not yet known, and the festival warns that there are still bands to be announced; Muñoz hopes to do so “in less than a month”.
The festival pass rises to €215
The four-day pass costs €215 plus booking fees at Madness Live, the official ticketing platform. The same price applies to the pass for people with reduced mobility and to their companion. Until 20:00 on Thursday 5 November it cost €190, as we reported in our piece on the price change; the festival has not said whether there will be further increases or how long this price will last.
Doors open at 15:00 each day. Up to six passes can be bought per person, there are no refunds and the ticketing platform offers optional refund insurance of €17 per ticket. There are no day tickets, VIP passes or camping passes yet.
One detail to avoid confusion: the header of the festival's official website still shows the 2025 dates and, in the page title, 2, 3 and 4 July. The new poster and the ticketing platform already reflect the four days, from 1 to 4 July. Practical information about the festival is in our Rock Imperium guide.
Evanescence: three Spanish festivals in one week
Anyone wanting to see Evanescence now has three options in just six days. On Tuesday 29 June they play the Plaza de España in Sevilla, as part of Icónica Sevilla Fest, and the band are also on the bill for Resurrection Fest 2027, in Viveiro, from 30 June to 3 July. Helloween will also play both Viveiro and Cartagena. This comparison has the dates and ticket sales for each event.
Until Rock Imperium publishes the day-by-day line-up, the Cartagena pass is the option for those who want Manson, Evanescence and Bruce Dickinson in a single trip.
Sources: official Rock Imperium Festival line-up poster (official website, accessed 6 November 2026); Onda Regional de Murcia and MariskalRock (5 November 2026); Madness Live, festival and pass pages, accessed on 5 and 6 November 2026.
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