Blue Ridge Rock Festival, considered Virginia’s largest rock festival, featured tickets as low as $89, to as high as $1,750. The festival extremely well known amongst rock fans of Virginia because of the amount of famous bands that perform during its course. This year, rock and metal fans were excited for some of the most beloved bands to play at the festival, located at Virginia International Raceway. The lineup consisted of bands like Slipknot, Three Days Grace, Pierce the Veil, Insane Clown Posse, and more.
What started as badly timed weather ended with stranded fans, damaged property, hospital visits, demanded refunds, and even a Facebook group called “Screwed By Blue Ridge Rock Festival.” So what really happened at this event?
The festival is held almost every year and lasts 4 days with optional camping grounds. This year it started on Thursday, September 7th and ended on Sunday, September 10th. However a sudden storm hit on Thursday, just as two bands, Coheed and Cambria, had begun setting up. The festival was shut down for the day, meaning if fans wanted to see sets from Evanscence, Three Days Grace, Five Finger Death Punch, Cypress Hill, and many others, they were short out of luck. On Friday, the weather cleared up and went as planned. Even though the problematic weather was no longer an issue, sanitary conditions, heat exhaustion, and crime became the next.
Fans stated the PortaJohns were disgusting, with no toilet paper, and crowded with what looked to be around 200 to 300 people lined up for one PortaJohn. The heat from the sun and the amount of crowded people giving off body heat was so intense, festival attendees searched everywhere for the water stations they were promised. Employees working the event were promised free three course meals, and were given one hot dog for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, for all four days. People were seen laying on the dirty ground due to heat exhaustion, and a few people’s weekend trip turned to a hospital visit for a heat stroke. Just when things couldn’t seem to get worse, people that were in mosh pits said their phones were getting stolen, and even people who were standing, singing along to their favorite bands, noticed their phones weren’t in their pockets any more. Saturday comes around, and the weather is back, and worse than before.
The rain was so extreme, campers’ tents had flooded and destroyed, RV’s were stuck in mud, and personal property was swept away by the current. The storm left thousands without shelter and waiting on a shuttle to save them from being stranded whilst standing in about five inches of water, 30-40 mph winds, thunder and lightning, and even hail. Organizers determined that Sunday needed to be canceled too, meaning bands like Pantera, Lamb Of God, Limp Bizkit, and others never got to play. A Facebook group was created, called “Screwed By Blueridge Rock Fest,” and it contains over 28,000 members. One of the posts read, “I cried a lot yesterday. I mean, a lot of money and excitement, just pretty much gone down the toilet.”
Papa Roach, Shinedown, and viral celebrity Oliver Anthony tried to keep their fans’ heads up by performing acoustic sets in the parking lot. The festival’s social pages made posts describing the turn of events to be “agonizing,” and stated they will unveil more over the next few days. Organizers promised refunds and they are actively working to provide details.