Key Takeaways

• Ticket Sales: Triumph has sold over 135,000 tickets for their 50th anniversary tour this year.
• Reunion Shows: The band’s reunion concerts began nearly 20 years ago, with significant performances in 2008.
• Rocklahoma Origins: The festival was founded by Mark Nuessle and Dave Giencke, who built it from the ground up.
• Unique Experiences: Rocklahoma offers fans rare reunions and full album performances, enhancing the festival’s appeal.

Triumph has sold more than 135 thousand tickets this year for their 50th anniversary tour. But the band’s first two reunion shows actually happened nearly 20 years ago — both in locations that fans might not have guessed.

The Canadian hard rockers played their first concert with Rik Emmett since 1988 at the Sweden Rock Festival, a seasoned annual gathering that’s been happening since 1992, in June of 2008.

They did one more gig together that summer at Rocklahoma, on July 11, 2008, a festival that had launched successfully the previous year and is now celebrating its 20th anniversary here in 2026 with a fresh slate of events this weekend.

The location is one that still might make you get out your map: Pryor, Oklahoma. The town registered just 9,444 residents in the 2020 census, with Tulsa being the closest (and best-known) city somewhat nearby, located 44 miles northeast of Pryor.

To make a reference to the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”

Rocklahoma

The Birth of Rocklahoma

Things so often begin with a good idea, but what happened in Pryor required a lot more horsepower than that. The seeds took root with founders Mark Nuessle and Dave Giencke (and their wives) stepping forward to take a shot at making a music festival a reality in the area. They needed to put a basic infrastructure in place, but the reality is that they had to create the entire universe for what they held as their vision for Rocklahoma.

“These two guys from construction backgrounds come together with this crazy idea to put together a music festival,” longtime radio personality Johnny Dare tells UCR. “Well, goddamn if they didn’t do it! They built the amphitheater, bought the land, put the lineup together and they did this on their own.”

“They did it so well that Rocklahoma, that first version, made international headlines,” he adds. “It was in Rolling Stone — you saw it in all of the music outlets and it was an incredible success.”

Those who know Dare are well aware that he’s a hardcore music fan — and even through decades of having to wake up early to host a morning radio show, he was still out at night, seeing his favorite bands play live and when required, traveling to see some of those same groups and artists.

Get Out of Jail, Buy Concert Tickets Immediately

That fits the mold of the people who were coming out for the inaugural year of Rocklahoma in July of 2007, which featured Twisted Sister playing their only gig of the summer alongside Queensryche on the final day of that year’s festival. Friday night’s heavyweights included Poison and Ratt.

The Saturday lineup was a stacked group of bookings that basically brought your ’80s cassette collection back to life, featuring Motley Crue’s Vince Neil, Dokken, Winger, Skid Row and Warrant topping the day.

Adam Messana was sitting in jail on Long Island when he first received word about Rocklahoma and bought tickets immediately once he got out. He took off with a friend and flew to Tulsa where they met up with a woman he’d first come to know via the Internet who drove them the rest of the way to Pryor.

Bud Bricker came from Ohio with his girlfriend — they were both big Twisted Sister fans and wanted to see the resurrected rockers play live. There was just one issue: Bricker and his girl had broken up. So they found a way to mend fences. “We put aside our differences to get here,” he told The Daily Oklahoman. “I lived the ’80s; I loved the ’80s and that’s why I’m here; for the ’80s.”

Slayer at Rocklahoma 2015

Slayer Will Also Celebrate 40 Years of ‘Reign in Blood’ at Rocklahoma

With Rocklahoma marking 20 years in 2026, Slayer (who previously performed at the fest in 2015) are also taking note of an important milestone: the pending 40th anniversary of their landmark LP, Reign in Blood. They’ll perform the album in its entirety at the festival on Sunday evening (Sept. 6), something that the otherwise allegedly retired metal legends are only doing a total of three times this year.

READ MORE: Slayer’s Farewell Tour Hits Its Last City

More and more that’s part of the appeal of going to festivals like Rocklahoma — the chance to see rare reunions and full album performances. But as Dare points out, what keeps fans coming back is not just the bands but also the experience and being able to take a journey with the music they’re seeing.

“I’ve watched bands go from rookie first tours to double platinum and they have their own great stories,” he explains. “The campground has their great stories. The people who come to Rocklahoma have their great stories.”

“It’s worth saying this is not the location you should build a music festival,” he adds. “If you were just picking music festivals anywhere in the world, it’s Oklahoma. It’s a rough climate, and it can give you anything [when it comes to the weather].”

“It can be 105 degrees. It can be hailing. It can be whipping your ass with a storm. It can rip a tornado and has, right through the middle of the festival grounds,” he says. “And yet it becomes a point of pride with all these Rocklahomians that love this festival; that camp out every year; that come from all points unknown; and converge on Pryor, Oklahoma.”

10 Years Ago: Rocklahoma News Reports

When Triumph Came to Rocklahoma

It had been 20 years since Gil Moore and Mike Levine had performed with Rik Emmett as Triumph near the end of the ’80s. After the inaugural voyage in Sweden, they came to Oklahoma to do it one more time.

The Sweden gig had odds stacked against it that fans didn’t even know about — Emmett was battling a severe migraine before the show that almost forced the trio to pull the plug on their gig. But they pressed onward and the performance was eventually released officially.

Their trek to Rocklahoma also had some unexpected curveballs as bassist Mike Levine shared during a press conference. “We’d just turned the corner up the highway to the site and there was this flashing blue and red light behind us,” he said in video you can watch below from DefKennyT. “Apparently, the limo driver was going in excess of statutory speed in Oklahoma.”

The driver, Levine added, had expired plates, an expired license and had also perhaps had a few drinks. “Details, details,” Moore quipped.

It was, to say at least, a unique day that thankfully ended with a major triumph when the band finally made it onto the Rocklahoma stage. The troubles getting there had been more than worth it.

“I remember traveling into this field in the middle of nowhere with a massive stage on it and incredible energy surrounding that very special performance,” says Chip Ruggieri, the band’s longtime publicist.

He got to witness one of the very first reunion concerts — something fans are now seeing at long last nearly 20 years later with this year’s Rock and Roll Machine Reloaded outing.

READ MORE: Triumph Announces New Fall 2026 Tour Dates

“It was as if the band had never taken a break,” he recalls now,” noting that the atmosphere of the day drew him into the whole experience. “I really enjoyed the eclectic combo of newer acts of that day and iconic artists which continues to be a successful theme today with this festival. I am glad to be able to say ‘I was there!'”

Who Hasn’t Played Rocklahoma Yet?

Fans can probably make their own wish list of bands they’d still like to see play at Rocklahoma. Industry veteran Gary Spivack has booked the fest for four years now and has one name on his mind: Rage Against The Machine. “That’s Kobe Bryant; that’s Roger Federer of what I haven’t been able to score yet,” he tells UCR. “If and when I do I could ride off into sunset.” He names Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers as another name that Rocklahoma attempted to book in previous years but “didn’t work out.”

Still they’ve booked their share of good scores. “There was a year we had both Avenged Sevenfold and Slipknot as headliners on each day,” he says. They also landed one of Pantera’s first festival performances after they decided to reunite.

“We got lucky — that was sandwiched between Metallica [tour dates] that Pantera was doing,” he explains. “So we were able to score that; you know I also love just seeing friends like Halestorm and Tom Morello grace Rocklahoma stage over years too.”

“I’m looking forward to this year with friends like Stone Temple Pilots,” Spivack muses while looking at weekend’s entertainment. “And seeing Andrew [Stockdale] of Wolfmother whom I haven’t seen in handful years; Fletcher [Dragge] of Pennywise; Jacoby [Shaddix] of Papa Roach; Zakk [Wylde] of Black Label Society. These have become dear friends to me in rock community.”

Four Seasons of Rock and Roll

The first year drew an estimated 100 thousand people. Twenty years later organizers expect about 80 thousand will be in attendance. Though fest eventually shifted away from hair metal focus early years toward broader rock spectrum Slaughter played Friday evening (Sept 4), representing initial focus.

(Is this first time Slaughter and Slayer have shared bill? Perhaps that’s another first; just another random question for us all ponder as music fans.)

Godsmack was also on hand as one headliner Friday night scanning rest bill reveals there’s literally something for everyone from Cypress Hill to Buckcherry Insane Clown Posse Molly Hatchet Living Colour Suicidal Tendencies Jet just name few.

In these schizophrenic times as listeners just looking lineup festival looks well-equipped survive another twenty years — Johnny Dare agrees thanks one key component course: it’s about fan festival-goer ticket buyer person who’s willing go out there sweat it out,” he says.

“Sunburnt freeze death get wiped out end up mudstorm being hat beat hail rain,” he adds “And at end day walk away going goddamn, I can’t wait next year That’s Rocklahoma.”

Rocklahoma