The organizers of Dubai Desert Rock Festival, Center Stage Management (CSM), are encouraging supporters of local talent to vote online for one of the eight pre-selected rock bands whose profiles will be accessible tomorrow (Wednesday 19th November 2008) on www.unitedwerockbattle.com. Not only will the winner get a slot amongst international artists at Desert Rock Festival, but CSM will also send them to Germany to perform at With Full Force.

By Friday, October 31st 2008, the day of the deadline, 163 entries were received at Center Stage Management’s office.

United We Rock was promoted by a two-week campaign on Showtime, announcing the concept and grand prize : for the first time in the Middle East, a battle of the bands is giving local/regional unsigned rock bands the opportunity to perform at two acknowledged and acclaimed international music festivals, With Full Force in Germany and Desert Rock Festival in UAE.

Each semi-finalist’s submitted material will be online from November 19th 2008 (2 songs, a video, a band photo and their bio), to help voters make their decision by voting for their favorite band until December 25th.

The winner, announced mid-January, will perform at Desert Rock Festival on March 6th 2009 and at With Full Force in the first week of July 2009. CSM is taking care of all the expenses for the lucky band to fly to/from Germany and Full Force Festival will be paying for accommodations, festival backline + catering to help and push the best of local talent in their early careers.

Who are the semi-finalists? Eight semi-finalists have been pre-selected by CSM from all 163 demos received:

- 3PM
- ABHORRED
- BENEATH THE REMAINS
- BILOCATE
- PERVERSION
- SCARAB
- SUN KING
- THE METAPHYSICS

The following criteria were met: unsigned rock band from any eligible territory, aged 18 and above, with an original playlist sufficient to perform 30mn live and with all the requirements submitted on time (including a creative video).

Lara Teperdjian, Executive Vice-President of CSM adds “their songs had to meet the standards of two renowned music festivals and fit their musical genre, which is metal/hard rock. Also, each one of them was judged on their potential to perform in front of a crowd of at least 10,000. I made sure I’d choose the crème de la crème of metal/punk from the Middle East to send to With Full Force. In return, With Full Force’s promoters will also pick the very best from their country to send to Desert Rock Festival. It’s a fair exchange!”

Desert Rock Festival’s announced line-up so far is: ARCH ENEMY, OPETH, CHIMAIRA and AUGUST BURNS RED.

For more info on the bands, visit

www.unitedwerockbattle.com and www.united-we-rock.de .

For more info on the festivals, visit www.desertrockfestival.com and www.withfullforce.de