The DISASTER of Blue Ridge Rock Fest 2023 (Fan Experience)
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- Опубліковано 13 тра 2024
- I attended Blue Ridge Rock Fest 2023 as a fan, and here are the ways the festival organizers failed miserably to run a safe and coherent event (from my perspective) and why it was cancelled. If you have stories from the fest, please comment them below!
Also check it out from a Tour Manager's perspective aka @TankTheTech : • A Tour Manager's Exper...
#blueridgerockfest #blueridge2023 #rockmusic #metalmusic #slipknot #musicfestival - Розваги
TankTheTech did a great job talking about this. He was the tour manager for Electric Callboy. The bands didn’t have it much better. Two of his crew got hurt trying to get equipment to the stage. Whatever production company they hired should be sued.
Yeah he did a great deep dive from the artist/crew perspective- got the link to that in my description for anyone to check it out 👍
Yeah it's an interesting story. I hope they didn't get hurt too bad, and where's OSHA on all that?
Quite a risky move on their part. At some point personal judgement has to come into play. I get the show must go on, but at what cost?
God that lineup was absolutely mind boggingly stacked out of this dimension. If things had gone smoothly, this would've easily been the greatest Hard Rock/Metal Festival in the history of modern music fests.
They even had BABYMETAL 😦
How? HOW could they fuck this up THAT bad????
Forget the moon, they shot for Jupiter and quite clearly missed.
Got to the festival on the first day after waiting an hour in line for the shuttle, (this was the only time we used it.) we were there for a grand total of thirty minutes when it started to pour from the heavens. People were scrambling to get into the VIP lounge by the main two stages, people were jumping over the metal railing to try and get in and slipping on the mud trying to get into shelter. After waiting in line for almost an hour and a half for the shuttles, we decided we were gonna try and leave, and ended up walking back like you did after trying to leave through the front only to be told that they were not letting people walk back to the shuttle parking. We had to go through the entire speedway over toward the campsites from the front to try and find the back exit, only to walk through the dark for the longest time trying to find a main road. After leaving through the back we found a line of cars that had to be a mile long of campers trying to get in, some had waited almost four hours to get in and it looked like the line was only getting longer. On our way back to the shuttle parking we got picked up by a bus driver going back to the fair grounds parking.
Then came the second day, no real weather issues, still other concerns like overflowing trash, lack of space because of overfilling of people, and after all that one of my friends gets his phone and wallet stolen. As he attempted to find it (he thought he might have dropped it) we lose him somehow. We all go back to our designated meeting spot, and he still isn't there. We then try to find security to help us find maybe a security station to report it, his mother calls us and tells us he is at a security booth. And after talking to five security guards, NONE of them knew anything about a security station or booth of any kind. One of them stated, "I know my shirt says security, but this is just my post." In those exact words, I feel like that quote sums up this entire festival, just a bunch of names and titles, but nobody has any sense of what is going on.
I was there. On the second day the security told us the show was canceled. Then we go on Facebook and see they are posting videos on their stories of the bands playing.
That's crazy because I was there the whole day Friday and I had no idea people were being turned away for bullshit reasons! I didn't have good reception there either so I was completely oblivious until I read about it the next day when my reception was good. That's so grimey on top of what's already was going on for Saturday and Sunday 😡😡😡😡
oof yeah… i had tickets but managed to sell them the week beforehand, but kept up with the news and…. good grief!!! sending love and solidarity to the striking workers!!!
Glad you sold em! Dodged a hail storm sized bullet 😂
I was there camping but we had to leave because the rain ruined our camp site so I came back the next day on a shuttle and at the end of the night me and my friend lost our backpack with his car key in it. So we had to wait in line after it all for the shuttles and then wait for a tow truck at the fair grounds. We didn't get home until 6 in the morning. I got to see Slipknot and Motionless in White and Lorna Shore so I'm very grateful for that.
Ironic his name is Slye.
May as well be Slick.
"None of us got to see BABYMETAL"
Yep THAT right there is the worst part of this fiasco! I would have bought a ticket for that alone 🤘🦊🤘
Sounds like it was the Blue Ridge Fyre Fest 🫣
I was there as a camper and VIP ticket holder.
Camper pre-party was fantastic. I only waited in the car line 5 hours. Others waited 13. It was sooooo hot so setting up on Wednesday was miserable.
Thursday I stayed at camp with my fan most of the day. I was walking to the venue when I saw the storm coming over the hill. I went back to camp and started throwing things in my car and tent. I also zipped up my neighbor's open tent windows. Then all hell broke loose. My stuff made it but it was terrifying having to hold on to my canopy, watching other tents and equipment flying. No argument with canceling that night; it was the right call. ADA were outright abandoned which is unbelievable and frankly deserves an ADA lawsuit.
Friday was hot but otherwise perfect. VIP tent had shade and a water refill station. VIP bathrooms ran out of water and stopped being able to flush but were still infinitely better than the camping portajohns which weren't serviced until Friday afternoon and were beyond disgusting. TP and excrement piled so high you couldn't sit.
I left Saturday morning.
I was at blueridge. It was like an episode of survivor, we literally had to share food with our neighbors so that we could all have food. Yes you could buy some, but it was so expensive. We also helped them after the storm hit, because a ton of them had lost their tents. One of our neighbors left a ripped tent and our other neighbor had to use it for the remaining days because there was nothing else. And he was in the ADA section. It was just horrible. And most of the workers were rude. One was asleep, another one didnt want to help my mom even though she was disabled and he KNEW that?? Anyway, total shit show all around. Was so excited to see PTV, but ended up being a survival show. When we had to leave, i cried because i had formed such strong connections with my neighbors. I mean we shared everything and talked a lot to pass the time.. i still miss them.
I went last year and had a great experience. We did VIP camp site and the only issue we really had was the amount of trash that built up on the last day when everyone was packing up to leave. From all the videos I've seen, like yours, it looks like a perfect storm of overselling, under staffing, SERIOUS lack of communication, and inadequate supplies for the bands and staff. I really hope they can address all that and come back with an amazing festival.
I just want danny wimmer to replace this festival with his own. Bury this shit-show and let someone with half a brain n half a sense of honor book the bands that this show has been hogging. Went last year and the fans and bands were the only good part. Bright and early in a shuttle line and still had to wait hours and miss performances. This year they just ruined EVERYTHING though. Sorry for the wall of text, I’m still fired up. Lol whatever happens, I hope we all have it better next year.
TL;DR
PDE sucks and they ****ed us right up the *** 😆
Based on this year, this festival needs a boycott by fans and bans. This was a huge money grab by charging outrageous prices for everything and giving bare minimum in return. It's criminal
I live in the area, went for free the last 2 days of 2021 and it was ok. last year though we bought 4 day passes for the whole family, were told they had more than enough buses this time among a dozen other broken promises. First day was ok until we had to walk up and down that damn hill back and forth to see our bands (they did Smile Empty Soul wrong as hell, had nothing setup right and ate into half their set time) then night comes, Ghost finishes playing and we walk out to the bus line where we slowly made our way until about 3am when we're told buses were done for the night and some people myself including started getting hostile with staff as they were refusing to even let us walk out of the area to get to our cars. We didn't get home til almost 6am (our house is literally a 10 minute at most drive from VIR) and my kids were so fed up they literally begged us to just stay home the rest of the week as nobody wanted to go through that again and so we did. We ate the costs and missed 90% of the bands we went for but there was just no way I was putting my family through that shit again. Fuck BRRF to the fullest extent and VIR should ban the event forever from their property. Also they can try and save face by saying this year was cut due to weather but numerous staff members including my father who works security every year have come forward with the truth that they did the vendors so wrong that they up and left which in turn left the bands and crews without food leaving them no choice but to say fuck it and pull out themselves. We tried for months after to get refunds in every legal way we could but were denied every time.
I went to Blue Ridge and it was honestly horrible, burning up all trip, my family tent collapsed and flooded, canopy collapsed, my two man tent flew away and personal property was a bit damaged, but the fans were amazing and one of my mutual friend's friend took us in and kept us cold in his RV since he was RV camping, overall ruined my experience and it was my first rock festival 😭😭😭
We came in Wednesday and waited maybe 4 hours to get to our camp site. No one knew where to park us. We saw the same cars circling around us it became find a spot and park. Wednesday pre party was great. Thursday weather came in and destroyed my camp site and one of my canopies. My neighbors were very sweet to go and grab it for me. My friend who was with me was forced on a bus even explaining to them she was a camper. Her and her daughter were dropped off at the parking lot. And had to wait hours to be brought back in. After everything got wet and destroyed we packed up and came home.
It’s Virginia, the weather is typically rough, They blame the weather to avoid refund claims over everything that actually shut down the festival
Act of Nature is something you don’t have to compensate too much for, but act of negligence is gonna pay… eventually as Slye is already currently in lawsuits over his handling of previous BRRF mishandlings
I've never heard of VA weather being inherently bad - 43 y/o Virginian
@@ikesours6558 57y/o Virgian here and agree, Actually weather here compared to most places is pretty good. The coast gets hurricanes but usually not too bad. We don't get a lot of snow like up north, and while we do get some flooding it's not common. As for tornados they are few and far between.
Oh I'm not saying that the weather is inherently bad, nor anyone that paid a ticket or signed up to be a tech "got what they asked for", I'm saying that for a festival to blame the weather in an area they pride themselves on naming themselves after, for them shutting down, you'd think they'd be accustomed to dealing with the weather, but then if they did that'd cut out the excuse of bad weather and force them to compensate refunds for the lack of portapotties for thousands of people
@@manticorephoenix Idk what VA law is, but in NC, weather means a reschedule of the show, if possible. If not possible, then the money is refunded. The risk is on the bands and the promotors, not the consumer "hoping" they can get what they paid for.
Anyone remember Tomorrow World 2015? Similar issues with weather and absolutely zero emergency protocol. I was lucky as I was camping and we had a high ground spot so the rain did bother us too much. But we had zero cell service and the festival staff wouldn't tell anyone anything. So you would show up for a show only to find the entire set list had been changed and stages had been closed because of weather and staffing issues. Police that were hired as security were going absolutely nuts on campers going in and out of the campground to fest entrances. Only one aid station where I ended up helping the over worked EMT, of which there were only 3 on call, and this was just inside the camp/festival. We had zero clue as to the pure carnage and unsafe conditions that the poor day pass holders had to endure. No transport, no measures in place to deal with climate casualties, no security available, over worked local PDs running ragged because of thousands of fest goers denied entrance. Staff not caring. On exit day, we finally saw how bad most of the fest-goers had it, I stepped off a duckboard and sunk to me knee into the mud. The camp sight looked like a WW1 battle scene. It was nuts. Very similar to what y'all seem to have had to deal with. Shit sure sucks and puts such a bad taste in communities mouths for ever holding future events and festivals.
Blue Ridge was almost a Woodstock 99 part two. I almost bought a ticket, but I got caught up with my other stuff. I didn't know the fans had to pay FIFTY DOLLARS to ride a bus. That's not right. Appreciate the vid bro 🤘🏾!
Every year... thanks for speaking up about this.
I was going to go to Blue Ridge to see LINDEMANN, but I sold my tickets after he canceled. Glad I skipped out on this one.
I know everything else is shitty enough, but over booking by 11,000?!! Holy shit! That's damn near a whole other festival.
And the shuttle shit seems to be a cluster fuck at most fest, aftershock's shuttle system still leaves much to be desired.
😲 What a nightmare damn what a bummer when it rains it pours literally hope your next concert is awesome!
I live in Alberta Canada, I spent $1000 Canadian for the flights, I bought three 4 day passes and a camping pass, I flew with my camping gear (this was a personal choice which anyone that has travelled with camping gear across an international boarder can tell you can be a pain in the ass but god was I glad I had my mountaineering tent with me when the weather turned). Had to book the plane flight times to fit my buddy's plans so he could pick us up and drop us off at the airport, we travelled 3 hours Wednesday to the "line" then sat in the line for roughly 6 hours, now my bad I fudged when I missed the camping pass pick-up location was "not on-site" (my bad), but a little Canadian charm later no problem and we're through, now we didn't get our vehicle searched but I was told many others did(which held the line up even longer), I not going to say the camping spot location process was great but I was ok with how that went. THURSDAY..... I had fun, look I'm not saying the weather was the worst I've ever seen but I'm used to seeing it at home tho haha, BUT the carnage around my camp was insane due to the super late check-in times for camping many didn't peg down their tents or other things, and so when the storms hit the wind just tore the tent sites apart, I was lucky 2 ways one I had my awesome tent with me (just bragging a bit here but It was unfazed by the storms) and we were packed all the into the trees so plenty of wind breaking cover, many did not have a awesome tent like mine and their stuff gone soaked. Now I'm not going to go into details but my American friend hurt himself and while he wasn't mortally injured we couldn't take him out by ambulance, unfortunately both the med and ADA people where too busy to help me get him back to the campsite till someone could come pick him up, so I carried his heavy ass over my shoulder to "taxi" and waited for his ride (if you saw me doing this it looked awesome); needless to say the storm screwed all the plans to get him out but I found a camping director (not going to name them because they don't deserve to get death threats) they moved haven and earth to help me get him out to the highway to his ride as no one was allowed to come or leave at the time (If you're reading this thank you very much and I hope you're doing well). Friday was the day I dreamed of got to see everything from the first minutes to the last minutes, food was very expensive like holy crap and then my bank app showed me the price in Canadian dollars and I had a mini panic attack, thank god I packed in food for around camp, so if Friday was the whole story I would be so happy but it wasn't, SATURDAY *Back to your regularly scheduled shit show*, we woke up it was nice we had some food and then some grey sky's rolled in, ok whatever fine, rain came (mild concerns), tornado siren sounds (well shit), I received a tip about possible event shutdown (****), talked it over with the girlfriend and decided to jump ship, mostly because we were packed all the way in the trees and the one and only way out for us was a mud pit before evac so the chances of me getting us out in my American buddy's tiny car was slipping by the minute, I tell you it was some good ol Alberta driving that got us through that mud in that car but we made it out, decided to get a hotel in Richmond and checked out some cool stuff around there till we had to leave. I feel bad for anyone that had to pay for a tow truck to get them out of the tree camping sites after or during the mass evac.
Mannn thanks for sharing- that's awful. Really hope you get a refund for everything you went through. And YES the food was so overpriced, I have no idea how people could do 3 meals a day for 4 days.
Go to Louder than Life next time
for the 5 hour wait for the shuttle bus on day 1 - the traffic jam was blamed on the campers evacuating.
Was on that rogue bus with you. Spent 2 hours that night doing just what that shuttle driver was doin
Both VIR and the Promoters knew that there were not enough resources to host 40k+ people. Follow the money. Perhaps a class action suit is the message to send if our money is not refunded in full plus interest? We heard that the promoters at the top level LEFT the venue before the cancellation message was released. But nevertheless.
They were probably afraid a full blown riot which I'm surprised didn't happen given the circumstances. Class action lawsuits are nearly impossible to initiate anymore. Laws have been changed so most,if not all, go to arbitration essentially removing the power of large groups. The company will wait out an individual till they can't afford lawyers anymore. Make no mistake, Slye is already aware of this. Everyone stay vigilant about refunds.
Damn! Kind of reminds me of the Fyre Festival disaster!
too much greed by organizers .... more about money with no consequences when they half ass it
Flew 3500 miles for this to see that amazing lineup and ended up stuck in Virginia beach after the cancelation, friggin brutal
out of curiosity, how did you end up in VA beach? Did you just leave the festival and decide to go across the state to the beach instead? Just wondering because its pretty much on the other side of the state lol (not trying to be a douche for all i know you flew into norfolk which makes 10x more sense)
On Thursday we were in the bud line for over 2 hours my brother had 3 hour wait for will call then got sent to the back of the shuttle line
I flew from UK specifically for BRRF2023 after a great 2022 event. My Son lives in NJ so we.drove down (10 hours) and waited 4.5 hrs to get into the campsite. Communication on the campsite was also poor due to lack of cell signal and no staff... won't be rushing bCk which is a shame because this year's arena set up was much better and , although expensive, the food and beer selection was also better than 2022...
This is my 3rd year and probably my last. We did a hotel first 2 years and decided to camp this year..... not sure which was worse
I had pretty much the same experience as you except thursday it took us 5 hours to get onto a bus WITH cutting the line. Also, when that line formed friday night we said fuck this, and started to walk back to the fairground lot but thanfully a bus driver picked us up, just like you.
I was there , waited for biohazard and all hell broke loose. They corralled thousands towards the bus loading area in the rain, waited 4 hours to get on a bus .... still waiting on a refund. Went last year and was skeptical but due to the line up , like many , I wanted to see them all . Should have listened to my gut instincts and fortune I lived only 30 minutes away
This has me skeptical of festivals. I almost went to this but got sick.
Don't be, many festivals are run very well. Any DWP festival is run in a top notch fashion. Not all festivals are money grabs by greedy douchebags.
I was there on Friday all day thankfully. We flew in from TX, got to festival around 1:30, waited at Orange lot for about 45mins to get on bus. Got to see what we wanted *Sleep Token, waited 2.5hrs for bus ride back. Never saw inclement weather warnings Friday at all, in line on Saturday many said they were turned away in afternoon and that sucks because no one was notified Friday of weather issues while in the festival
Its because it wasnt canceled due to weather for saturday and sunday. The saturday delay was for weather, but after the hour it cleared up. Thats when all the event staff and stage hands were leaving. Which is why it ended up being canceled.
been going since 2020 and this by far was the biggest let down. still had some fun though. the porta poopers where HORRIBLE! thank god my RV had a working toilet for the #2 use lol
It's always been kind of sketchy. I've gone since '17 and we're in the woods for nearly a week before the show, lol.
SOmebody made a killing. They said screw the logistics and people's feelings then they walked away without providing basic necessities. Bands need to speak up. They have the largest platform and are the only ones who can provide anything close to some type of consequences.
Thank you! A voice of reason. I can't believe people are still talking about going next year already like it's gonna be better. Definition of insanity!
@@class5bodyworks that same reasoning is why Billy of Fyre Festival is making money again selling tickets to Fyre Festival 2
@@manticorephoenix
I saw that. I guess he's a gambling man. Maybe he learned what not to do, unlike Slye. The only reason he saw prison was because he grifted wealthy people. We'll see if the same laws apply to the commoners.
@@class5bodyworks actually they use the same playbook, if anything Slye is far more adept at reading it, he still in lawsuits over last years BRRF and soon this year I’d imagine, but you don’t hear about it unless you go looking, people like these two don’t learn that they’ve done wrong in an ethical or moral sense, they learn how not to show too much of their hand the next grift
@@manticorephoenix
Slye is pretty young still. He better be careful pissing off the wrong people. He's lucky BRRF didn't turn into a riot.
Wouldn’t have wanted to experience that nightmare with anyone else ❤
I went. Because it was canceled, I think refunds are in order. However, I had a great time and didn't rxpirence any of the things people are talking about.
It was mine & my husbands 2nd year. It was a disaster! We didn’t camp though thank goodness! Thursday during that terrible storm we found a empty port potty… we were soaked and freezing! After we got out of port potty it took us 4 hours in line to get on a shuttle bus. Friday was good. Saturday & Sunday was fn bullshit! We won’t be going a 3rd year!!
Random and weird question but what were the porta potties there like?
Glad you asked! Given the heat outside they were pretty tough to breathe in, and got very overloaded as the days went on. They probably weren't cleaned regularly or at all throughout the day
In all fairness this is why I notice was sent out 24 hours before it even begun
How does a 10 minute drive translate to a 2 hour walk?
I didn’t believe it either, that’s southern VA for ya
Everyone at this festival uniquely suffered, emotionally, finanically, and physically, especially with how the fans were treated both in the venue site and campgrounds. The conditions for workers and attendees were nothing short of criminally negligent torture. People puking and shitting themselves from heat stroke, starving from food price gouging, crowd crush, and walking for miles in vain, all to get one and a half days of content. If not for the kindness of strangers, many would have actually died. Metal fans are the best community in the world.
Took us 14 hours to get in
I went in 2022 and it was terrible then too. The bus situation is the most dogshit idea ive ever heard. Its near impossible for handicapped people to go up/down that hill after rain. Dont know how anyone can defend anything about this festival. Literally any dwp festival shits and farts on it.
the people attending got screwed bad by the event, then the attendees screwed VIR by the massive amount of abandoned tents and canopies they left behind.
Regardless how crappy things were i got to see jfac make there return and now my life is complete
Blue Ridge line up set up looked sorta similar to Hellfest altho not as spread out when it comes to genre. Anyway if Hellfest had these problems it would be shut down within 10 min.
I hope I get some sort of compensation for my 1 day $1400 camping site with power, after a 12 hr drive from Michigan. Sorry you had to deal with the long lines and other bullshit. I call this the Fyre Fest of Metal and Rock 😂
Jeez sounds like you had it way worse than I did 😅 hoping you get some sort of refund! Truly Blue Ridge Fyre Fest
It was an actual tornado. An F0 Gale tornado
So pissed those last two days were cancelled I wanted to see bands like landmvrks, bad omens and paleface but at least I get a redemption festival for sonic templeand inkcarceration
The purpose of "purpose driven events" is MONEY!
Sure but they need to offer something in return for the millions they collect.
Money trumps integrity and peoples lives
The older you get the smarter you get, hotels are the way to go.
Sly is a scammer in my eyes. I ended up having to go to my bank to put in a claim to get my money back and even then I still lost money on time, effort and all my shit getting blown away in the camp sites.
I've taken the time to watch a lot of videos trying to find out what happened. Yours was concise & detailed without a lot of drama. Many videos left me with questions like how many shuttles were running? Where were these 10 minute drive/2 hour walk parking lots located? Now, I know & that's horrible & scary. Whose the promoter responsible? Where was this one water tap? I'd heard it was only in VIP but you had the map. Yes, I'm wired that I like details. Glad I'm not the only one. I did hear there was food price gouging. Also, thieves & theft. Phone's being stolen & people stealing merch & food when all hell literally busted loose with the weather. Would like to know more about that. Yes, Tank did a good video from a band's perspective. I'm sure people are very upset. I would be too but I didn't have time for a podcast or 30 minute plus video. Oh, I also saw a cool drone video that put the vastness of the site/camping into perspective. Yes, it def looks like over selling, very bad logistics & a lot more. It's incredible there weren't any deaths. I know weather can be manipulated. This event & Burning Man is sus! Thanks, for your video. It's appreciated. Edit: just read through comments. I do have empathy for the attendees. This festival was doomed to fail. I've been around long enough to remember when outdoor festivals allowed attendees to bring in whatever they wanted excluding glass. People loaded up wagons filled with kegs, plastic jugs filled with whatever, water, food, blankets, medical, etc. It really helped but money & greed reared their ugly heads. It all stopped. Yes, we also had onsite camping & parking. People can't be left without transportation. I looked into this festival. So glad we didn't go! Is EE on the map - Emergency Exit? That's odd & interesting. Were they used? Maybe they didn't need to be? What a mess!
Thank you! To answer some of your questions- I was in the VA parking lot and it was located at 1861 Milton Highway, Ringgold, VA. There was an Emergency Exit that was utilized during the Thursday evacuation, it was just a wider exit with no turnstiles. The single water station was near the northwest area of the grounds- it was about 5-10 taps total, I didn't use it because the line looked like about an hour wait (and water was available for about $4 each outside of that). The promoter is Jonathan Slye! Hope I got most of your q's answered :)
My experience as a camper:
Was it a shit show? 100%. Personally im curious what the actual evacuation plan is for VIR and not just blue ridge being put on there, because honestly IMO there is almost nothing more they could have done. Very limited shelter on the entire property and even if it wasnt over sold, no chance they have places for everyone. (some of the shelter areas would also be pretty damn sketchy in a tornado also but at the same time its slightly better than outside.)
Water station situation is flat out unacceptable, my group came very prepared so we really never had to hit it ourselves, but with that one water station, they also were giving out water bottles for free at a information tent quite often. They also really needed to have a big ass misting tent out there, For someone whos from virginia im used to that weather, but for everyone coming outside of state the humidity is just different here.
Slye is the boss so obviously it all falls on him, but this fuck up really came from the production/event team that was hired, im fairly confident the company they hired just hired a 3rd party themselves for it and they had no idea what they were doing and were highly underprepared for this.
Overall we made the best of it through holding our tent and canopys down in 80mph wind and hail and the rest of the shit storm. Ive been every year since 2019 that its been put on and outside of 2021(all the bus drivers just quit) this was by far the most fucked one, but if it goes on again, ill be back next year
Why keep supporting this? Definition of insanity. Unless the fans take away the dollars, they will continue to bill people and give them bare minimum to increase profits. This show was ugly but could have turned tragic. Why push it? I'd rather give my money to a festival that appreciates the fans enough to clean out the toilets.
@@class5bodyworks Because if you were actually there and just look a glance around and had a ounce of common sense, you would realize minutes after the storm was over on thursday people were leaving the campground. ALOT of cars leaving. Bumper to bumper in my area down the narrow path in the trees. From roughly 5 pm on thursday up until i walked in the festival on friday so many cars were leaving. The mud was insane, the trucks that they empty the toilets in are way to big to get through the traffic that was leaving, and way to heavy to make its own path. Friday afternoon while the festival was going on and the traffic calmed down, the toilets were cleaned. Was it a shit show? 100% it was. 2019 went great, 2021 was a shit show(WAY worse than this year imo). 2022 was incredible. 2023 was a shit show.
Instead of bitching about it, trying to shut it down and raising hell over something that became a nightmare of a situation, id rather see them be able to dig themselves out of the hole and the festival be able to thrive in the future. I dont blame anyone for not wanting to go back, its their choice. But for me going every year sense 2019, the good times ive had there still heavily outweigh the bad
@@class5bodyworks As far as coming by and cleaning up the trash people were leaving, most of it was broken camp equipment, and the amount of broken ass tents that looked abandon that people were still sleeping in, you could never truely know what was abandoned until after everyone left. Its a lose lose situation because people would start saying the staff is throwing away their shit. It was a terrible situation, not trying to say other wise at all. If people dont wanna go back thats on them. People say that every year after the festival they are never coming back. Id just rather see everything turn around and it be the badass festival it has the potential to be. If it shuts down and never comes back so be it, but until then i have still had enough fun over the years, including this year to justify going back for myself
had tickets but didnt go..so glad i didnt..what a sh$tshow
Man, thank God I didn't go. I was planning on it but work got in the way. Thank God I had work. You all I hope they got u all money back. Sound sp horrible
You won't get a refund. They will offer tickets for next year and you'll experience the same failures.
I wanted to go just to see paleface swiss. Their performance was cancelled and they are coming to baltimore on the 22nd. Maybe ill check blue ridge next year.
wow i almost didn't understand you, the music is sooo loud
My bad- tried to find the right balance and it is a tad loud at the start, thanks for letting me know 👍
That is 2 "festivals" that went to ##it back to back. Hmmm, anyone listening?
I’m still not fucking over it!!! We need refunds but we won’t get it…..
shuttle buses never work.
CoLd Army was here.
🤔 one thing I ve noticed about Rock festivals is that they are stuck in the late 90s as far as infrastructure and organizational skills. No shade, not enough food vendors, overbooked artists and people, piss poor medical unprepared security on and on….Rock festivals need people from large scale electronic music events help them plan. It’s pathetic when you see something like this and just reminds me of Woodstock 99. 24 years later and Rock and roll still can’t get it right. And ya wonder why it died off at the turn of the century. It could come back but ya ll need some serious help from professionals if you are going to throw events like this. Sorry anyone who went through this as a patron, my disgust is not aimed at you and I got mad sympathy
Well Hellfest, Wacken, Download & Copenhell do a great job! So it's not the genre of music thats stuck in the past, it's the production management that perhaps can't seem to use a computer to schedule & plan & communicate an event to all involved. ua-cam.com/video/o3X2waC6woc/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
Sounds like Woodstock
Oh no not a 9 hour wait! I waited 12 hours in line for a campsite
Oh jeez! Even worse than I thought
I saw 4 bands total…. Fucking Rockville 24
i could of probably done a better job of planning this,, it was a disaster
So my sister is dating Jonathan and I have the scoop. Apparently their insurance has refused to pay out and they have been fighting a legal battle this whole time. Additionally their counsel strictly forbid them from making any public comments; don’t know why but obviously they cannot risk that considering the amount of money at stake. I have no info on the apparent lack of organization. They 100% plan to refund everyone as soon as insurance settles. I hope this comment doesn’t fuck their insurance claim, so here’s an obligatory disclaimer, I am not affiliated with Blue Ridge festival or the organizers in any way.
I got hurt in that 1st storm on thursday. Sleeping bags were soaked. Canopies destroyed. I decided to leave the next morning as i want going to camp in my nice ass truck, which also got damaged from the storm.
Toilet in ada had just been emptied when we arrived Thursday afternoon and was full 1st thing in the morning.
We did enjoy the freak show of bizarre people walking around like they didn't own anything nice anyway...
2021 sucked. He moved it and spent money making improvements last year...that cut into his profits and he went back to what he knows cutting every possible corner with zero regard to safety of anyone and failure to organize and communicate with any of the people he hired...and he most likely will try to cut corners from what he owes them. I was a Fool for thinking he genuinely cared and would continue on positive progress and jumped into going 2 weeks prior..hell maybe I jinxed it and that's why it went to shit
Jonathan Slye is now a multimillionaire...and you prolly wont get a refund..I did the Epicenter Festival in 2019 and I will never do something like that again.
He still hasn't refunded people for Blue Ridge 2021, and presale just started for 2024. Ridiculous
Was depressed I couldn't go at the time, and now know I dodged a tactical nuke. I would have loved to see Babymetal too. I think also it was scummy (Saw from another video) that you couldn't walk up on foot if you wanted to; you were FORCED to take the bus shuttle and were FORCED to pay 50+ for the privilege. And they didn't even think to have enough for the 50K attendees. Complete grift and disrespectful for the fans.
there was alot of people for the shuttles, but 80% of the attendance were campers, which didnt have any of those same issues in the slightest. It was over sold but the security team that was 3rd partied in by who blue ridge hired should NOT have been there at all. They were not qualified to work anything bigger than a divison 3 college sports game
It's simple shut Blue Ridge Rock down. NO bands to see play. NO money for bands to play and the local fans will have to go even further to see these same bands. If it's such a debacle shut it down! Imagine being in a major campground and you have to deal with the weather? So MOVE this somewhere else and give other fans a chance to see these bands play. Still NO problems at at jiffy lube live.
NO problems at shiley acres.
I'm sure people would love to see these bands play there instead. You may get your wish if BRF is cancelled in 2024.
Fans probably wont have to go further to see the same bands. If it gets shut down they'll actually be allowed to play NC and VA on their touring schedule since they won't have a festival radius clause barring them.
I wanna to see Till Lindemann...FAIL!!!!
He canceled short before the BRRF because of illness. 🤨
Why did you take my post down? I will not be silenced!!!
Epic fail
Sorry. _I can't watch this, I cannot hear what you are saying at all. The music drenches EVERYTHING._ 😑
Missing baby metal is a bad thing? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
all festivals suck!
I'm actually working on a vid right now with that exact point
It was complete bullshit
If you were supporting Limp Bizkit, you deserve this
I wanted to go just to see paleface swiss. Their performance was cancelled and they are coming to baltimore on the 22nd. Maybe ill check blue ridge next year.
I wanted to go just to see paleface swiss. Their performance was cancelled and they are coming to baltimore on the 22nd. Maybe ill check blue ridge next year.