{"id":21206,"date":"2026-08-14T07:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T07:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/21206\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T07:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T07:13:21","slug":"godsmack-headlines-700000-person-festival-in-poland-announces-new-fall-tour-dates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/21206\/","title":{"rendered":"Godsmack Headlines 700,000-Person Festival in Poland, Announces New Fall Tour Dates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Godsmack just played before a crowd so enormous, even Sully Erna couldn’t believe what he was seeing. According to the longtime frontman, the ’90s rock veterans just headlined a festival that drew 700,000 people<\/a>. Yowza.<\/p>\n

Bringing hits like “Voodoo,” “I Stand Alone,” and “Awake” to the massive festival stage, the performance also marked another chapter in Godsmack’s evolving lineup, with former Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini, who joined for the band’s 2026 touring circuit, mastering the kit.<\/p>\n

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Taking the stage on July 30, the band headlined the 32nd annual Pol’and’Rock Festival<\/a> in Czaplinek, Poland, and because the night was so epic, Erna couldn’t help but share his euphoria with fans.<\/p>\n

“Hello, Internet people,” he begins a video posted to Instagram the following night. “I wanted to stop by and give you guys a little bit of an update on what’s happening. \u2026 I had to tell you about this show that we did last night.”<\/p>\n

Following praise for every country they’ve been fortunate to perform in, he then opens up about his surreal experience, which reached several hundred thousand people.<\/p>\n

“Last night, we did a show in Poland\u2014at the Pol’and’Rock Fest\u2014and we headlined this festival that drew 700,000 people. That’s a real f\u2014ing number. You can look it up. And, yeah, so pretty surreal. Not even sure it even happened, but it did, and I gotta say, ‘Holy f\u2014ing shit.’ I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. \u2026 Insanity.”<\/p>\n

Formerly known as Woodstock Festival Poland, the massive open-air event was founded in 1995 by Jerzy Owsiak<\/a>. The whole thing is free to attend and features several stages where metal, rock, and folk acts perform. There’s also free camping on the grounds. But this is more than just a gratis good time. The festival actually started as a way to give back.<\/p>\n

“The most heartfelt part about this for me is when I was speaking to the promoter and the owner of the festival; he was telling me how this whole thing started,” Erna says, explaining that the idea for the event followed visits to children’s hospitals where kids were just sitting on the floor. “They didn’t even have furniture.”<\/p>\n

Reaching out to sponsors and supporters, Owsiak then launched the festival as a completely free event, with “a hundred percent of the proceeds [going] to all the children’s hospitals. I don’t know if it gets any more honorable than that for me,” Erna says.<\/p>\n

Godsmack still has one more European show on the calendar before heading home. The band will play Eindhoven, Netherlands, on Aug. 16, then return Stateside to continue their Rise of Rock World Tour with Stone Temple Pilots and special guest Dorothy on Sept. 4. Starting in Pryor, Oklahoma, they then travel through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, California, and more.<\/p>\n

New dates have also been added for the fall season, with 10 more stops tacked on to the tour in October. The newly added leg begins Oct. 9 in Airway Heights and runs through Oct. 24 in Uncasville, Connecticut. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Formed in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1995, Godsmack became one of the defining hard rock and alternative metal bands of the post-grunge era. The band has earned four Grammy<\/a> nominations and released major multi-platinum albums beginning with their self-titled debut in 1998 and continuing with 2000’s Awake, 2003’s Faceless, 2006’s IV, and 2023’s Lighting Up the Sky.<\/p>\n

Erna and bassist Robbie Merrill remain the band’s two longtime core members, while former Mangini is currently behind the kit and Sam “Bam” Koltun has been performing on guitar.<\/p>\n

Bring on the “Voodoo”!<\/p>\n

Related: 2000s Hard Rock Band Announces 2026 ‘Time Travel Tour’ With Career-Spanning Set and Guests<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Aug 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Godsmack just played before a crowd so enormous, even Sully Erna couldn’t believe what he was seeing. According…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12649,13253,13252,9,13251],"class_list":["post-21206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-godsmack","tag-longtime-frontman","tag-mike-mangini","tag-poland","tag-sully-erna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}