A small town called Danville VA hosted approximately over sixty thousand per day at the four day music festival, Blue Ridge Rock Festival. That is more than the towns entire population. Blue Ridge Rock Festival was established in 2017 and from there CEO Jonathan Slye took a huge step and put on a four day music festival which was practically triple the size of previous years.
But here’s the thought that has been running through everyones mind: Did taking this huge step come with some consequences? Of course it did but thats what happens when you take risks to put on a festival that is FAN DRIVEN. Being the first year that this festival was four days long, six stages and over one hundred and eighty artists, there were many flaws the first day, but that was expected. Or at least it should have been. I am not going to sugar coat and say this festival was flawless, because the first day or two they were still ironing out the kinks and thats okay. We learned to adapt and we did what our job as a media needed to do.
I must paise the crew that put on Blue Ridge Rock Festival, whatever complaint there was they fixed or did whatever they could do to fix it as soon as they could. Not many people would own up to mistakes/inconveniences to the fullest like this team did. Now enough about stating the negative and lets focus on what the festival truly was, AN AMAZING FUN FILLED WEEKEND with some of the rock scenes most talented rock bands and the rising stars that one day will make it big.
Blue Ridge consisted of a total of six stages. The two main stages were the Stay Lit and Monster Energy Stage. Then you had the two side stages, URW Stage and the Liquid Death Stage, that is were a majority of national/regional bands played. Then there was the Heart Support Stage and the Clinic Stage where the up and coming bands played and made their festival debut. Not only did this festival give people six stages FULL of music but there was even the Hellazapoppin Circus Sideshow tent as well as an offsite nightclub for those who didn’t want the party to end. The night club had the legendary Rev Run, Ludacris, Lil John and T-Pain performing to keep the party alive.
Thursday was the first day, blocking out the chaos that fell around us we got treated to a pretty stacked lineup and this was only the beginning. Thursday’s artist highlight include a band from my hometown Frederick MD, Hostile Array and I couldn’t be more proud to have a hometown band representing at Blue Ridge Rock Festival. If you didn’t catch their set you are missing out big time. No I’m not being biased.
Here are a few rising artists we got to catch on Thursday: Hostile Array, Demyze, Orange Jumpsuit and Heirloom. Make sure to check these bands out, you will not be disappointed. As we moved throughout the day we also covered Islander, Spiritbox, Miss May I, Halestorm, The Ghost Inside, A Day To Remember and Breaking Benjamin. Check out the photos below from day one of Blue Ridge Rock Festival:
Blue Ridge Rock Festival Day One
Day TWO of Blue Ridge, it was a beautiful Friday. The weather was absolutely perfect, especially for being at a rock festival all day long. Today’s lineup was a step up from yesterdays, to kick off the weekend Friday hosted a slew of artists that you didn’t want to miss. We covered rising act Someday You’ll Know Us, hailing from Holmdel NJ. Their set was played on the Heart Support Stage. We also got to cover a whole list of artists on Friday which included Fozzy (who the frontman is a very well known former wrestler Chris Jericho just to throw that out there in case he looked familiar), D.R.U.G.S, Fever 333, Clutch, Asking Alexandria, the LEGENDARY Anthrax, Rise Against, The Offspring and Rob Zombie. Check out the photos below from day two of Blue Ridge Rock Festival:
Blue Ridge Rock Festival Day Two
Moving into the weekend we made it to day three. The weather was a little hotter but who the hell cares. We are at a music festival, we haven’t gotten the luxury of being able to attend a music festival due to the pandemic. Saturday’s rising star highlight: An insanely talented band also hailing from New Jersey, Aurin. They played on the clinic stage and if you didn’t get there early enough to catch their set then you slept big time. The sun was a bit brutal, so staying hydrated and finding shade was honestly key to surviving the rest of the day. Saturday was the most busiest day of the weekend as it had the most artists performing and the stages were constantly hosting different artists. The day was long but the bands kept getting better and better as the night progressed. Some bands we got to catch included: the legends in Megadeth, Lamb of God, Suicidal Tendencies, Body Count ft Ice T, Avatar, 10 Years and Corrosion of Conformity. Check out the photos below from day three of Blue Ridge Rock Festival:
Blue Ridge Rock Festival Day Three
As another day comes to an end we leave the grounds in preparation for the fourth and final day. It’s definitely bittersweet considering how amazing this festival was. The rising star highlight for Sunday is a pretty special one, the band is Watersdeep. This one I’m a little biased about because their lead vocalist I actually went to high school with and whom I haven’t seen in quite some time since graduating. It is so absolutely amazing to see Gabe Jaar and his band has blossom into playing on one of the bigger side stages. I feel like it was just yesterday Gabe and I were singing the striped sweater song from that one episode of SpongeBob in our home room class. PLEASE go give them a listen they’re absolutely great and their energy is a fantastic match to their music.
After three long days of walking miles and stage to stage throughout the day, I honestly decided to take Sunday a little easy. I got to cover a few bands I haven’t really gotten to cover before. But lets just say I’m pretty thrilled about the Sunday set of photos because it was the day we got blessed with an appearance from Steve-O (forgot to mention previously, the event was hosted by two emcees, Lou Brutus and the legendary Jackass star Steve-O, but didn’t want to ruin the special bonus content now did I?). He wasn’t doing like super insane tricks and stuff but he did do some ballsy stunts. In addition to performing a few stunts he introduced a few of the bands before their set. Before Killswitch Engage’s set on the Monster Energy stage, Steve-O took the stage to get the fans ready for their set. One of the stunts Steve-O performed was crowd surfing the entire crowd, all the way to the back/FOH area then back to the stage on the other side of the barricade. It was definitely insane.
After photographing Killswitch Engage’s set, I booked it to cover Ice Nine Kills, but was greeted by another Steve-O stunt. I wasn’t mad at all because it meant i can hopefully get some better shots of him crowd surfing. But this time was a bit different. Where the FOH tent was, Steve-O decided it was best to climb on the roof of it and literally JUMP into the crowd of people who he then crowd surfed back to the stage. Once Steve-O was safely returned to the stage he went on about doing something a bit extra. I definitely wasn’t expecting him to take someone’s dull pocket knife and shove it through his tongue. It was so insanely terrifying but awesome at the same time. Please note, the photographs of him shoving the knife through his tongue were completely photographed with my eyes closed. I was a sheet of white. After a few jabs to the tongue he then wiped the dripping blood along his cheeks and down the middle of his forehead. Gross. So thank you for the crazy stunts Steve-O!
SPECIAL GUEST AND HOST: STEVE-O FROM JACKASS!!!
We ended Sunday with a bang. We covered a good handful of bands that included Watersdeep, We Came As Romans, August Burns Red, Ice Nine Kills, Underoath, Killswitch Engage and ended the night with Shinedown. Check out the photos below from day four of Blue Ridge Rock Festival:
Blue Ridge Rock Festival Day Four
I am done rambling, but despite all the chaos at the beginning of the festival, I just brushed it off and enjoyed myself and being able to attend a festival. COVID-19 sure messed up a lot of stuff in this industry so I am so very thankful that I got to attend and photograph this insane event. Like what other promoter would go out of his way to give the fans the bands and artists they WANT to see. Thank you Jonathan Slye and crew for the amazing weekend at Blue Ridge Rock Festival. We here at The Vinyl cant wait to see what you all have in store for 2022!! We will be there with cameras in hand ready to rock!!