After three years of serving “the underserved,” Rock on the Range returns Saturday and Sunday to the Columbus Crew Stadium.

Rock on the Range is a two-day, three-stage festival that started in 2007.

“There are a lot of festivals around America but none serve rock fans with a capital R-O-C-K,” said Gary Spivack of Right Arm Entertainment.

Right Arm Entertainment, an executive producer of the event, has teamed with AEG Live to put on the festival each year.

“We were a boutique festival-concert company, so we wanted to team up with somebody like AEG who could do all the nuts and bolts and big production,” Spivack said.

The festival started with two major goals. One was to create a great rock festival, and the other was to bring it to Ohio.

“Instead of going to Los Angeles, New York or Chicago or wherever, let’s serve the underserved,” Spivack said.

Columbus was chosen to attract students from Ohio State’s campus and to serve the many rock markets in the Midwest, places such as Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, Hamilton and even Detroit, Spivack said.

Over the years, the festival has grown from a one-day event to a two-day event with three stages.

The festival has hosted notable bands, including Puddle of Mudd, Killswitch Engage and Kid Rock. Killswitch Engage and Puddle of Mudd will play the festival again this year.

“We look for bands that have a real fan base, bands that have hit songs, bands that are sincere and heartfelt in what they do, and bands that rock,” Spivack said. “If you have (these things) you are a band we should look at.”

The event also has history of significant performances. Stone Temple Pilots broke a seven-year hiatus at the second Rock on the Range festival. The third festival was the last U.S. performance by Avenged Sevenfold before the death of the band’s original drummer.

The festival has developed a large vendor village, with “everything from jewelry to tattoos to T-shirts,” Spivack said.

As the festival has grown, Spivack has also seen a large community grow around it, referring to festival fans as “Rangers.”

He points to constant activity on the festival’s Facebook and MySpace pages.

“The Rangers discuss with themselves who they are excited to see, who they want to see,” Spivack said. “(It is) the community that we all dreamed of. It is not created, not manufactured, just real.”

Spivack said this year will see the festival at its best.

“You are going to get three stages (of music) for 12 hours,” Spivack said. “Eye candy and ear candy all day.”