Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies

In the first two decades of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the induction ceremony was a private black tie event, traditionally held in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, where the institution was founded. In the first 21 years, the Rock Hall only ventured away from New York twice: to Los Angeles in 1993, then Cleveland in 1997, to help fully establish the recently opened Museum. The early ceremonies were not produced for television until 1995 when MTV was the first to air a ceremony. VH1 took over shortly thereafter and helped expose the Hall of Fame to a national audience.

Starting in 2009, the Hall of Fame began experimenting with ceremonies that were in larger venues and open to the general public. The success of that first Cleveland show, highlighted by the inductions of Metallica and Run-DMC, paved the way for HBO's first ceremony in 2012, which took the star power and production value to the next level.

Since 2012, the event has shifted between Brooklyn, Cleveland, and Los Angeles. In 2016, Rock Hall CEO Joel Peresman announced that beginning in 2018, the induction ceremony would be hosted in Cleveland every other year. However, in 2022, Rock Hall Chairman John Sykes suggested that the ceremony would continue to rotate between those three cities and potentially include other locations like London and Nashville.

Induction ceremonies are recorded and then edited for broadcast and are not typically aired live. In the late 2000s, some of the ceremonies were live streamed (the 2007 ceremony streamed on AOL Music and the 2008 ceremony was streamed at BestBuy.com), but unfortunately the Hall of Fame has abandoned the concept (or dictated by its broadcast partners).

For a list of performances at each event, click here.

Refer to the list below for the date, city, venue and TV partner for each Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

YearCityVenueDatePublic/ PrivateTV Partner
1986NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 23, 1986Private
1987NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 21, 1987Private
1988NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 20, 1988Private
1989NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 18, 1989Private
1990NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 17, 1990Private
1991NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 16, 1991Private
1992NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 15, 1992Private
1993LACentury Plaza HotelJanuary 12, 1993Private
1994NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 19, 1994Private
1995NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 12, 1995PrivateMTV
1996NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 17, 1996Private
1997CLERenaissance Cleveland HotelMay 6, 1997PublicVH1
1998NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelJanuary 12, 1998PrivateVH1
1999NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 15, 1999PrivateVH1
2000NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 6, 2000PrivateVH1
2001NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 19, 2001PrivateVH1
2002NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 18, 2002PrivateVH1
2003NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 10, 2003PrivateVH1
2004NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 15, 2004PrivateVH1
2005NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 14, 2005PrivateVH1
2006NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 13, 2006PrivateVH1
2007NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 12, 2007PrivateVH1 Classic
2008NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 10, 2008PrivateVH1 Classic
2009CLEPublic HallApril 4, 2009PublicFuse Network
2010NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 15, 2010PrivateFuse Network
2011NYCWaldorf Astoria HotelMarch 14, 2011PrivateFuse Network
2012CLEPublic HallApril 14, 2012PublicHBO
2013LANokia Theatre L.A. LiveApril 18, 2013PublicHBO
2014NYCBarclays CenterApril 10, 2014PublicHBO
2015CLEPublic HallApril 18, 2015PublicHBO
2016NYCBarclays CenterApril 8, 2016PublicHBO
2017NYCBarclays CenterApril 7, 2017PublicHBO
2018CLEPublic HallApril 14, 2018PublicHBO
2019NYCBarclays CenterMarch 29, 2019PublicHBO
2020NYCN/ANovember 7, 2020PrivateHBO / HBO Max
2021CLERocket Mortgage FieldHouseOctober 30, 2021PublicHBO / HBO Max
2022LAMicrosoft TheaterNovember 5, 2022PublicHBO / HBO Max
2023NYCBarclays CenterNovember 3, 2023PublicDisney+ (Live) / ABC
2024CLERocket Mortgage FieldHouseOctober 19, 2024PublicDisney+ (Live) / ABC
2025TBD
2026TBD
2027TBD
2028TBD
Future Rock Legends is not affiliated with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.