The inaugural Epicenter Festival brought a weekend of great rock bands to Rockingham, NC including Foo Fighters, Korn, Rob Zombie, Bring Me The Horizon and many more buzzed about rock artists. However, the weather had other plans for the festival bringing drenching rains, which even ended up cancelling some highly anticipated performances like TOOL, Judas Priest, The Cult and more due to severe weather conditions that came through the area on day two which caused some damage to the site which resulted in some rebuilding and fixing of the damages on day three which also caused a delay on the doors opening that day, postponing the show briefly till later in the day. Epicenter was produced by Danny Wimmer Presents after the company’s split with AEG Presents with their collaborative efforts of World’s Loudest Month festivals that included Carolina Rebellion in Charlotte, N.C.
Day One brought anxious fans who were eager to see their favorite bands billed for that day like Korn, Rob Zombie, Evanescence, Machine Gun Kelly, Skillet and more. However traffic situations caused fans to miss some of the opening bands trapping fans in traffic for what fans have reported for several hours, even causing for the festival organizers to post an apology on social media saying “We want to thank everyone for enduring absolutely terrible traffic today. As a first year festival, we expected that traffic could be bad, but this year’s learning curve was worse than we imagined. We underestimated the effect of the local Friday afternoon business traffic, Additionally, we thought more campers would check in on Thursday but far more checked in today. We are hopeful that with the campers all checked in now and no business traffic, that conditions will be better tomorrow.” The day however was packed with an exceptional lineup for those who could make it in to see the artists performing on day one which was the only day not affected by weather conditions. Fans were ecstatic to see Skillet shred on the Quarry Stage, Dorothy on the Monster Energy Stage which we were blown away by her unique vocals and of course the four headliners of the day who gave absolutely blistering rock sets including Evanescence, Machine Gun Kelly, Rob Zombie and Korn.
Day Two brought the severe weather to the festival grounds blowing through with extreme winds, soaking rains which cause for the festival organizers to evacuate the grounds at around 5:30pm following Black Label Society’s performance and cancel the remaining performances of the day due to the weather, damages from the weather and it not being the safest to reopen and allow for performance to go on. The festival requested that fans remain in their vehicles and RVs for taking shelter from lightning and the severe weather, winds and dark skies for more than two hours before announcing that Day Two would not resume but they will be back for day three. Some performances that we were able to see on day two before the storms took over were Badflower, Black Label Society, Wage War, Motionless In White, Sylar and a few others.
Epicenter’s day three returned on Sunday with headliner Foo Fighters, 311, Mastodon, Tom Morello, Killswitch Engage and many more. However, some fans did not return for day three after the unfortunate frustrations of day twos evacuations, storms, and traffic conditions but that didn’t stop the fans in attendance from having a stellar time with great food, awesome rock music and a near capacity crowd to see the final act of the weekend, Foo Fighters, who seemed to not want to stop performing this evening as they played for several hours. Highlights from day three definitley include Fever 333’s set as they always bring the highest amounts of energy to the stage for a performance that is force to be reckoned with at festival and their own shows alike, Yungblud’s set as he used every ounce of energy within him to give fans a show that they won’t soon forget and of course Bring Me The Horizon’s set which was full of impeccable production.
Check out the photos below by @CodyKaczynski:
PHOTOS: KORN, Rob Zombie, Skillet, Beartooth and more at Epicenter Festival Day 1
PHOTOS: Black Label Society, Wage War, Dead Girls Academy and more at Epicenter Day 2
PHOTOS: Foo Fighters, Bring Me The Horizon, The Fever, Mastodon and more at Epicenter Day 3
