Boardwalk Rock Festival 2027
Status, checked Oct 21, 2026: Presale opens Thu Oct 22, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET on the official festival site, with the lowest-price GA tickets guaranteed for one hour. Public on-sale follows at 11:00 AM ET if tickets remain. Full presale detail and pass options sit on the tickets page.
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Boardwalk Rock Festival is back in 2027. The festival runs Friday May 14 to Sunday May 16, 2027 at Ocean City Inlet Beach in Ocean City, Maryland, with Korn, Bad Omens and Iron Maiden headlining one day each. Forty-three acts play across three stages over the three days.
This guide is the maintained record for the weekend: dates, the day-by-day lineup, ticket status with its check date, and the planning pages behind each part of the trip. The festival is produced by C3 Presents. This guide is an independent guide, not the box office. Official sales run through the festival site and Front Gate Tickets. This guide also links to Ticket Squeeze for marketplace tickets, and every price shown carries the date it was checked.
Start where your question sits. Dates and the return story are below, then the three days at a glance, the venue, the current ticket status, what the weekend does for Ocean City in the town's own numbers, the same-weekend choice some fans face, and the route cards for buying, checking a day, and planning the trip.
Back in 2027 after a year away
Boardwalk Rock debuted in May 2025 as a two-day festival and sold out. There was no 2026 edition: the festival took a pause, confirmed in November 2025, with the 2027 dates announced in September 2026 and the lineup following on Oct 20, 2026. The comeback is bigger than the debut. Three days replace two, and the bill runs to 43 acts. Why the pause happened, in buyer form, is answered in full in the Boardwalk Rock Festival FAQ.
When is Boardwalk Rock 2027?
Boardwalk Rock 2027 runs Friday May 14, Saturday May 15 and Sunday May 16, 2027. Gates open at 12 PM and close at 11 PM each day. The dates were announced ahead of the lineup, which followed on Oct 20, 2026, so the weekend has been bookable in fans' calendars for weeks. The dates above are the ones to book against.
Three days, three headliners
One headliner per day, stated plainly. Announcement coverage sometimes promotes extra acts into the headline line. The official bill does not, and neither does this page.
Friday, May 14: Korn
Korn headline the opening day, with Breaking Benjamin, The Prodigy and Cypress Hill at the top of a 15-act bill. Friday leans nu-metal and modern heavy, and it is the day that splits fan opinion. Friday tickets
Saturday, May 15: Bad Omens
Bad Omens headline Saturday, with Good Charlotte, Marilyn Manson and Motionless in White leading a 14-act bill. Saturday is the modern metal day, and the first pick for the current metalcore crowd in the announcement threads. Saturday tickets
Sunday, May 16: Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden headline Sunday, with Alice in Chains and Judas Priest on the same 14-act bill. Sunday is the classic metal day, and it closes the festival. The full bill for every day is on the Boardwalk Rock lineup page. Sunday tickets
Where is Boardwalk Rock Festival?
Boardwalk Rock is held at Ocean City Inlet Beach, 809 South Atlantic Ave, Ocean City, MD 21842. That is the official festival address, and it is the one to navigate to. Three stages sit inside the grounds: two on the beach and one along the boardwalk. Entrances run along the Boardwalk between N. Division St and S. Division St.
The footprint is part of the draw. Jolly Roger at the Pier sits inside the festival grounds, and GA entry includes free admission to its rides and games. Boardwalk restaurants, bars and shops sit inside the fence line too, so the grounds feel like the south end of the boardwalk itself, gated for three days.
Ticket status, checked October 21, 2026
Face value starts at $179 for a single day and $339 for the 3-Day GA pass, on the official tickets page. The presale opens Thu Oct 22, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET, and the official wording promises the guaranteed lowest-price GA tickets for one hour. Ticket Squeeze, this guide's affiliate partner, already lists the 3-Day Pass: 26 tickets from $730, checked Oct 21, 2026. That figure is a marketplace price, not face value. Every tier, the presale steps, and the dated price table sit on the Boardwalk Rock Festival tickets page.
What the festival weekend does for Ocean City
The Town of Ocean City measures this weekend, and its own reports show what the festival's absence cost. In May 2025, the debut month, Ocean City hotels ran at 51.5 percent occupancy with an average daily rate of $178.20 and revenue per available room of $91.70. In May 2026, with no festival, the same measures fell hard.
| Town hotel measure | May 2025 (festival ran) | May 2026 (no festival) |
|---|---|---|
| Occupancy | 51.5% | 46.6% |
| Average daily rate | $178.20 | $148.24 (down 16.8%) |
| Revenue per available room | $91.70 | $69.11 (down 24.6%) |
The town's Tourism Commission minutes for May 18, 2026 say it in plain words: "May remains down vs. last year, mainly due to the missing Boardwalk Rock demand." The figures are the town's reported hotel data (its May 2026 Tourism Metric Report and the Tourism Commission minutes), drawn from sampled hotels, so read them as the town's own comparison rather than a census.
Boardwalk Rock or Sonic Temple that weekend?
Some fans face a real choice: Sonic Temple runs the same weekend, May 13 to 16, 2027, in Columbus, Ohio. Iron Maiden play both. On the band's published dates at ironmaiden.com, Maiden headline Sonic Temple on Friday May 14, then close Boardwalk Rock on Sunday May 16, the final date of the final North American leg of their Run For Your Lives tour.
The choice is setting and bill, not the headliner. Sonic Temple is a four-day festival in Columbus. Boardwalk Rock is three days on a beach and a boardwalk in Ocean City, with the same closing act two days later. Fans who want Maiden get them either way. Fans who want the beach weekend get it only here.
Plan the trip
- Buy: pass tiers, the presale steps, and face value beside dated marketplace prices, on the tickets page.
- Check a day: the full 43-act bill by day, with an A to Z index, on the lineup page.
- Clear a worry: refunds, bags, kids, re-entry, and the 2026 story in buyer form, in the FAQ.
- Stay: areas, price patterns and booking timing, on the hotels near Ocean City Inlet page.
- Drive: the named lots, the no-parking zone, rideshare and the Beach Bus, on the parking and getting there page.