About Epicenter last night...
Epicenter Festival
Rockingham Festival Grounds, Rockingham, NC
Saturday, May 11th, 2019 @12pm
Tickets purchased Tues April 23rd
Honestly? I don't even want to talk about it. But I will. Because it was a complete disaster. The WORST concert experience of my life. Paid full price for tickets ($230+) that a few days ago sold for $1. ONE FUCKING DOLLAR. For WEEKEND PASSES. NOT just Saturday, which I paid full price for. But the whole weekend for $1! Also paid $100 for a hotel. And paid around $50 for gas. Plus that $20 for a parking pass. And once I got there, $40 for a Tool shirt (a pretty shirt but now just a pretty awful reminder) and $12 for a small plastic glass of Maynard's wine (which I'd been wanting to try for years; it was good).
Got there around 12:15pm as gates opened. Parking going in was relatively easy considering Friday's horror stories. Long ass walk from parking lot (grassy field) to festival grounds - walked all the way around one side of the racetrack and past the campgrounds. No signs marking parking rows or anything so had to remember we parked left of a dumpster in order to find the car again in a sea of fucking cars. Finally got to entrance about a half hour later and went through security. Got to the main stage. Picked stage left this time and a nice side barrier spot several "rows" back and had a great view. Bro held my spot while I wandered back out to buy my shirt and visit Caduceus wine booth. Got back and let him leave to watch Hyde. He came back and we waited about an hour and then Badflower took the stage. They were awesome. Crowdsurfing stayed to my left their entire set. Nothing in our section (it was nice).
Waited another hour. Clowns came through and stood beside me (they were cool for the most part), representing MIW's fanbase. Motionless In White was next and they brought the C02 and pyro. Singer sounds Manson-esque and wore makeup and had upside-down roses on his mic stand. Goth metal. Large mosh pit opened up to my right (didn't bother me) and then the relentless barrage of crowdsurfers started coming through. Got squashed against the barrier a few times. Thankfully had clowns and other tall ppl around me to help (security helped catch some folks and saved my face at least twice too). I had no connection to their music but they had an enjoyable set when I could actually concentrate on the stage instead of watching for surfers. There was this one kid who couldn't have been more than 10 (he had a "professional crowd surfer" sign with him) that came through on the other side during Badflower's set and then our side during MIW's set multiple times. Weather was mostly cloudy and hot/humid.
After that, it's around 5:15pm and I finally sit down for the first time against the barricade, prepared to wait for this rapper dude Yelawolf to take the stage in 40 minutes. The screens show Black Label Society start their set on the other stage and I'm watching and all of a sudden this message flashes on the screen to fucking evacuate to our vehicles because a storm is coming (https://twitter.com/siberwolf/status/1127401280018812929). I am PISSED about leaving my barricade spot I had held onto for 5 hours because I know when/IF we're allowed back in I would most likely end up in the fucking back because EVERYBODY would rush to the main stage. We stall and make a break for the porta potties to stall more but the storm clouds are starting to look bad (https://twitter.com/siberwolf/status/1127401281042157568) and finally security approached us and the other folks still hanging around to tell us to start moving. So we reluctantly make the journey back to our car. Cell phone service goes to shit at this point and I have no signal for calls or internet until we actually leave the premises five hours later. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
We sit in the car an hour, waiting for the storm to pass. Rain, some lightning and wind. Wind was bad enough that it damaged the stage (we weren't aware of this at the time; didn't find out until I could check Instagram later and saw Adam Jone's post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxV4r9-nK8Q/). But again, we didn't know anything about this at the time because communication was shit. Message originally said we'd be notified when we could come back in... Weather was clearing so we got fed up and got out of cars and started walking back towards the entrance. This was around 6:30pm or so. Stood in line with a sea of people on the side of the road/entrance blocked by police. Hear from chatter around us that they aren't letting us in or making a decision for two hours yet. (During these entire two hours weather was CLEAR.) No mention of stage damage. So I'm pissed because I figure, why the fuck can't they resume? They're wasting two hours making us stand around and wait. 8:00pm creeps by and finally the line starts moving and things seem encouraging like they're preparing to let us back in. Then people start getting messages from the Epicenter app (my phone still has no service) saying that the rest of the day is officially cancelled. Hearsay was that another storm front was on it's way.
Didn't get to see The Cult. Who also played The Tabernacle Friday night (I sacrificed that show to come to this one), so I probably lost out on any opportunity of ever seeing them live now.
But most importantly, didn't get to see Tool. No hearing of new songs. No experiencing Maynard and the boys from the pit/barricade (something I've always wanted to experience). Completely devastated.
Nothing can be done about Mother Nature, but the lack of communication (aside from a couple app notifications when service worked) between Epicenter and the fans was total bullshit. Promising to be let in again after the initial storm passed, then standing around doing nothing for two hours while the weather was clear was infuriating because again, no one mentioned there was stage damage during this time so everybody just assumed the show would go on.
Then having to walk all the way back mass exodus to our cars again in the mud, only to end up sitting for TWO MORE HOURS in the car because traffic direction was a fucking joke and nobody could move an inch.
So in total that was five hour WASTED of my life. Between being evacuated (5:15pm) to finally being able to exit the property (after 10pm), then an hour and a half drive to the hotel in Charlotte.
All this bullshit just so I could watch two bands play 35 minutes (Badflower) and 40 minutes (MIW). And of those bands, only one was a band I wanted to see. And it was only a casual want.
Yeah. I'm still alternating between being pissed as hell and wanting to cry. I was so looking forward to Tool. So. Looking. Forward. *sigh*
Still waiting on that promised email from Epicenter telling me how they're going to make it up to us too... Just give me a fucking refund already.
Potential storms are forecast for tonight as well during Foo Fighter's set. We'll see if they cancel again... (Edit: Nope. All good.)
Tool fans commiserating:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bnpxkx/epicenter_disaster/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bnjykm/we_will_be_back_adam/
Refund updates (personally got nothing yet):
https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bo4ca2/for_people_who_bought_saturday_tickets_for/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bpyigb/epicenterthe_actual_worst/
Badflower setlist:
x ANA x
Drop Dead
Die
The Jester
Heroin
Animal
Ghost
Motionless In White setlist:
Rats
Reincarnate
Necessary Evil
Disguise
Abigail
Brand New Numb
Voices
Devil's Night
---
After traffic, security concerns, severe weather, Day 3 at Epicenter sees sun, fewer fans
Rockingham, N.C. - A three-day camping and concert event in Rockingham this weekend was expected to draw thousands for performances by the Foo Fighters, Judas Priest, Tool and other rockers. But some who paid hundreds for tickets found themselves sitting in traffic, worried for their safety and, on Saturday night, forced out of the outdoor venue by severe weather.
By Sunday, many who had purchased multi-day passes to Epicenter Festival at Rockingham Speedway decided to cut their losses and stay home, and crowds were lighter under mostly sunny skies.
Leland Parker, of Marion, S.C., emailed WRAL News as the crowd built Sunday afternoon.
"It seems like another good day out here. Sun has come out," he wrote.
Hours in traffic only to miss concert
Several ticketholders told WRAL News they were stopped in traffic along U.S. Highway 1, waiting hours for access to the festival grounds. Some gave up. Others waited hours after midnight, into the wee hours of Saturday morning, to leave the grounds after Friday's performances.
"I've been to a ton of shows, and I have never had this problem," said Kelly Tesh, of Smithfield. "I've been to PNC Arena, to Walnut Creek, to shows in other states, and I have never had this problem."
Tesh and another person made the drive from Smithfield, getting within a few miles of the concert by 5 p.m. on Friday. She said that by 9 p.m. they progressed about a mile and a half, and their GPS showed another mile and a half to go.
The pair, who had spent $220 for two single-day tickets, turned around and went home.
Organizers posted to Facebook on Saturday that they were adding access lanes.
"Today we have increased the number of inbound day parking lanes that should make the inbound better. Of course, as with any large event, you should expect delays and we still encourage everyone to arrive early," they wrote.
The problems were compounded Saturday as severe weather moved in and the (largely outdoor) venue had to be evacuated.
Severe weather cancels Saturday night performances by Tool, Judas Priest, The Cult
Those in attendance, many of whom were camping on the site for the weekend, were urged to seek shelter in vehicles as the storms passed.
WRAL meteorologist Kat Campbell said organizers made an absolutely necessary choice to evacuate the venue. A tornado warning was issued just west of Rockingham early Saturday evening when the National Weather Service spotted rotation in the atmosphere north of Wadesboro, about 30 miles west of Rockingham.
"There were definitely storms in that area packing dangerous lightning, heavy rain and some hail," Campbell said.
By 6:30 p.m., the festival posted to Facebook a message from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol asking people to stay in their vehicles and not to attempt to drive.
Right after 8 p.m., the slate for Saturday night - which featured The Cult and Judas Priest and was to conclude with a performance by Tool - was scrapped. When the Sunday schedule was posted, none of those bands were on it. The Sunday headliners, the Foo Fighters, were scheduled to conclude the concert.
Everyone was asked to leave.
William Hyland, who used vacation time to travel from Massachusetts with his girlfriend for the concert, said only the calm in the crowd kept the evacuation from getting out of hand. He said there were not staff on the ground to guide people to the exits or to keep them informed in the fluid situation.
Of the traffic and parking, Hyland said, "It was an entire fiasco."
Ticket prices started at $80 for standing-room, general admission access to the grounds for a single day. VIP tickets, which included dedicated entrance lanes to the festival and access to air-conditioned restrooms, cost up to $250 for a single day and $400 to $475 for a three-day pass. According to the festival website, all weekend VIP passes were sold out.
Hyland and others expressed frustration that, after they had purchased multi-day passes for hundreds of dollars, those who purchased a single day were offered the chance to return for only $1. Two of the concert-goers that WRAL spoke to got the offer in their email in the days leading up to the concert.
Parking passes were an additional $15 for a single day and $40 for the weekend. On the website, parking was described as "parking in an official Rockingham Festival Grounds lot," but several people told WRAL News they were directed to park in open fields with little lighting or security.
Parking lot 'like caged animals'
Ethan Brown, of Raleigh, his wife Elizabeth and their friends from Atlanta, purchased the three-day pass, but after their experience on Friday decided to eat the cost of the remaining two days.
"It was like caged animals," Elizabeth Brown said of the scene in the parking lot after Friday's performances.
The Browns said they sat in traffic - "like literally in park," Ethan Brown said - for about three hours between Hoffman and Rockingham Speedway, a distance of about 6 miles. They did get into the concert Friday night.
The problem came when it was time to return to their hotel.
“We got to our car at 11:10 p.m. and we did not move from that parking spot until 3 a.m.,” Ethan Brown said.
Both Browns described a parking situation without oversight, with few lights and with no visible security. They said people were visibly intoxicated, jumping on top of vehicles and blowing horns.
Finally, Ethan Brown said, a woman knocked on their window and told them someone had cut through the fence to create an exit. "So we did that," he said.
Hyland said he, too, waited in his vehicle for more than an hour with no information before becoming aware of the gap in the fence that he used to exit the festival grounds.
On Saturday morning, the Browns and their friends met several others with Epicenter tickets in the lobby of their Southern Pines hotel. All were trying to decide whether to return and use the tickets they had paid for or to give up on the chaos.
The Browns and their friends chose to return to Raleigh. After learning of the weather-related evacuation on Saturday night, they were doubly sure they made the right decision.
Hyland returned for Saturday and ended up sitting out the severe weather. Asked whether he would head back for Sunday's concert, he said, "We are thinking we’re just going to drive back to Massachusetts and not even bother.”
Liana Wyatt, of Raleigh, wrote in an email, "I made a decision after the first day to not attend the rest of the weekend after the safety concerns I saw."
She described parking areas with no lights, apparent direction or visible security.
"There’s no telling what time I would have gotten home if that fan had not busted through the fence. I thank that individual," she wrote.
"Very, very disappointed in what was supposed to be an epic weekend and the festival of the year for many people."
A Facebook group formed to consider a class action lawsuit against the festival had drawn almost 1,400 members by Sunday night, and people were sharing their experiences there.
Source: https://www.wral.com/after-traffic-security-concerns-severe-weather-day-3-at-epicenter-sees-sun-fewer-fans/18380612/
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More photos and videos of evacuation here:
https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/tool-judas-priest-others-have-their-epicenter-festival-performances-canceled-due-to-severe-weather/
https://myfox8.com/2019/05/12/second-night-of-3-day-rock-music-festival-at-epicenter-cancelled-amid-severe-weather/
---
Edit: This blog posted my Reddit comment. xp
Tool Fans Pissed After Brutal Ripoff: ‘What A Disaster’
Tool fans felt pissed off after a storm canceled Tool’s performance at the Epicenter Festival in North Carolina over the weekend, but it appears there is a good sign in regards to getting a refund.
moronthisatnine posted on the Tool Reddit:
For people who bought Saturday tickets for epicenter in NC.
So I called this morning ready to unleash my fury and was greeted by a nice guy who already knew what I calling for lol. Said there will be an email soon with the direction they will be going. It will either be a mass refund for Saturday tickets or an email requesting the customer to contact them for a refund. if it works out in either direction I will be pleasantly surprised I will move on from this fiasco a little easier. Just wanted to spread the word for other fans who are going through the Mondays.
Edit; this was through front gate tickets. Called the number on the email confirmation.
toolphishdhs posted:
Thanks for the update! Hopefully that email comes sooner than later. What a disaster that all was.
F*ckaduckf*ckaduck posted:
I live in NC (piedmont area). The weather was shit ALL day Saturday, and it had been forecasted as such all week. This kind of weather in NC in May is the norm and not an exception at all. It is a shitty situation, but this is exactly why I turned down 2 tickets for $30. It was clear from midweek that the weather was not going to cooperate. It wasn’t a “showers may show up situation”, it was a “hey ya’ll, we’re gonna get blasted with storms all fucking day” situation.
This isn’t the first time rain has hampered a festival there, either.
This festival used to be called the “Carolina Rebellion”. And it had a couple shows get cut short or outright cancelled because of rain. The festival has been around for 9 years, and I am fairly certain that at least 1 night has been affected by weather for the vast majority of them. At least 3 that I know of have had the remainder of a night outright cancelled.
Call me a curmudgeon, but holding a festival that large in May in the NC piedmont is just asking for trouble.
siberwolf83 posted:
The update is very much appreciated. It would have been my second Tool show (after waiting 12 years to see them again)… Absolutely killed me when the evacuation message appeared and I had to leave my nice view on the side barricade. They made the right call to cancel, but the whole situation was frustrating and the lack of communication at the time plus the whole parking fiasco when leaving was downright infuriating. Definitely looking forward to that refund we’re all due.
rinkwhopper posted:
If that is true, that is what is up. When I emailed Front gate, they just said they were sorry and
“We are waiting for our client response as soon as we have an update .
We will be sending email blast with updates please stay tuned to the emails .”
Source: https://www.alternativenation.net/tool-fans-pissed-brutal-ripoff-disaster/
Original: https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bo4ca2/for_people_who_bought_saturday_tickets_for/
---
Highway patrol told Epicenter producers their traffic plan was ‘inadequate’
ROCKINGHAM - While performances, food and other activities at Epicenter Festival went smoothly, aside from a lightening storm Saturday night, the traffic Day 1 cast an even bigger storm cloud over the festival - and it could have been avoided.
Danny Wimmer Presents, the festival’s producer, was warned by the North Carolina Highway Patrol in January that their setup for Friday could cause severe delays. Highway Patrol advised the festival producers that their plan to have only one entry and exit point to the venue was “inadequate” and that there needed to be at least three, according to Trooper Ray Pierce, public information officer with the Highway Patrol.
Based on the Highway Patrol’s experience with events at the Rockingham Speedway in its heyday, they recommended DWP open Gates C, D and E, but DWP kept their original plan going into the weekend, according to Pierce.
The Highway Patrol was in charge of traffic on the main roads, while DWP was in charge of the traffic flow into and within the Rockingham Festival Grounds, Pierce said.
“We had no jurisdiction once (the festival attendees) left the main roadway,” Pierce said.
DWP did not respond to an emailed request for comment by press time Monday.
The only entrance for the festival was Gate A, which Pierce said was a security measure by DWP to make sure all vehicles entering the venue were searched. The level of traffic, then, hinged on a more staggered rate of guests arriving, Pierce said.
“All traffic had to enter through the one entrance. That was (Highway Patrol’s) big concern from the first day,” Pierce said. “You can’t filter that amount of people through one entrance.”
Not only was it one entrance, but for much of the day Friday the attendees were being funneled through one lane. Pierce said that it wasn’t until there was a 4.5 mile-backup of traffic between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Friday that Highway Patrol told DWP to open the entrance to two lanes of traffic.
The Highway Patrol made the center lane and the driving lane on the Speedway side of U.S. 1 entrances to the festival, while the Dragway side of U.S. 1 was used for through-traffic, according to Pierce. This setup was used for the remainder of the weekend and traffic was much smoother by all accounts, which was also due to less business traffic and less influx of people into the festival.
Pierce said another complication was that when the Code Yellow was issued Saturday which brought the music to a halt, there were 2 hours where attendees walked around the grounds unsure if the music would continue. This forced the Highway Patrol to close U.S. 1 and L.G. Dewitt Road, which connects U.S. 1 to Beaverdam Church Road and acted as a release valve for the traffic, from about 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. out of safety concerns for pedestrians.
The email notification that Saturday night’s festivities would be canceled due to weather, on recommendation from Richmond County, went out to those who had the Epicenter app at about 8:10 p.m. Saturday.
DWP also made a miscalculation, as they acknowledged in a social media post Friday night, the majority of the guests would arrive. Steve Earwood, owner of the Rockingham Dragway, which was the primary site of the festival, said in an interview Monday that DWP expected 80% of campers to arrive Thursday evening based on their past experiences running festivals.
But Earwood posited that these past festivals were conducted in metropolitan areas where the majority of attendees lived in close proximity to the venue and therefore didn’t have to take as much time off from work to attend. Instead, because so many people couldn’t take the necessary time off work to get there early, he said, 80% of the campers arrived Friday, right around rush hour traffic.
“It was a perfect storm for the largest traffic jam in the history of Richmond County,” Earwood said. Still, the Friday crowd was “tremendous,” he said.
“Having been in the outdoor event business, you understand that (bad weather) just comes with it,” Earwood continued, referring to the cancellation of Judas Priest, Tool and the other Saturday night bands due to a threatening storm. “You can’t control it and you can’t worry about because there’s not a thing you can do about it.”
Going forward, the parties behind the festival need to take a “hard look” at the band schedule and traffic flows, Earwood said, calling the first of any event “uncharted waters.”
“All you can do is go on past experience,” he said. “What you can do is learn from it and proper adjustments for the future.”
Source: https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/news/86833/highway-patrol-told-epicenter-producers-their-traffic-plan-was-inadequate
Rockingham Festival Grounds, Rockingham, NC
Saturday, May 11th, 2019 @12pm
Tickets purchased Tues April 23rd
Honestly? I don't even want to talk about it. But I will. Because it was a complete disaster. The WORST concert experience of my life. Paid full price for tickets ($230+) that a few days ago sold for $1. ONE FUCKING DOLLAR. For WEEKEND PASSES. NOT just Saturday, which I paid full price for. But the whole weekend for $1! Also paid $100 for a hotel. And paid around $50 for gas. Plus that $20 for a parking pass. And once I got there, $40 for a Tool shirt (a pretty shirt but now just a pretty awful reminder) and $12 for a small plastic glass of Maynard's wine (which I'd been wanting to try for years; it was good).
Got there around 12:15pm as gates opened. Parking going in was relatively easy considering Friday's horror stories. Long ass walk from parking lot (grassy field) to festival grounds - walked all the way around one side of the racetrack and past the campgrounds. No signs marking parking rows or anything so had to remember we parked left of a dumpster in order to find the car again in a sea of fucking cars. Finally got to entrance about a half hour later and went through security. Got to the main stage. Picked stage left this time and a nice side barrier spot several "rows" back and had a great view. Bro held my spot while I wandered back out to buy my shirt and visit Caduceus wine booth. Got back and let him leave to watch Hyde. He came back and we waited about an hour and then Badflower took the stage. They were awesome. Crowdsurfing stayed to my left their entire set. Nothing in our section (it was nice).
Click to viewWaited another hour. Clowns came through and stood beside me (they were cool for the most part), representing MIW's fanbase. Motionless In White was next and they brought the C02 and pyro. Singer sounds Manson-esque and wore makeup and had upside-down roses on his mic stand. Goth metal. Large mosh pit opened up to my right (didn't bother me) and then the relentless barrage of crowdsurfers started coming through. Got squashed against the barrier a few times. Thankfully had clowns and other tall ppl around me to help (security helped catch some folks and saved my face at least twice too). I had no connection to their music but they had an enjoyable set when I could actually concentrate on the stage instead of watching for surfers. There was this one kid who couldn't have been more than 10 (he had a "professional crowd surfer" sign with him) that came through on the other side during Badflower's set and then our side during MIW's set multiple times. Weather was mostly cloudy and hot/humid.
After that, it's around 5:15pm and I finally sit down for the first time against the barricade, prepared to wait for this rapper dude Yelawolf to take the stage in 40 minutes. The screens show Black Label Society start their set on the other stage and I'm watching and all of a sudden this message flashes on the screen to fucking evacuate to our vehicles because a storm is coming (https://twitter.com/siberwolf/status/1127401280018812929). I am PISSED about leaving my barricade spot I had held onto for 5 hours because I know when/IF we're allowed back in I would most likely end up in the fucking back because EVERYBODY would rush to the main stage. We stall and make a break for the porta potties to stall more but the storm clouds are starting to look bad (https://twitter.com/siberwolf/status/1127401281042157568) and finally security approached us and the other folks still hanging around to tell us to start moving. So we reluctantly make the journey back to our car. Cell phone service goes to shit at this point and I have no signal for calls or internet until we actually leave the premises five hours later. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
We sit in the car an hour, waiting for the storm to pass. Rain, some lightning and wind. Wind was bad enough that it damaged the stage (we weren't aware of this at the time; didn't find out until I could check Instagram later and saw Adam Jone's post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxV4r9-nK8Q/). But again, we didn't know anything about this at the time because communication was shit. Message originally said we'd be notified when we could come back in... Weather was clearing so we got fed up and got out of cars and started walking back towards the entrance. This was around 6:30pm or so. Stood in line with a sea of people on the side of the road/entrance blocked by police. Hear from chatter around us that they aren't letting us in or making a decision for two hours yet. (During these entire two hours weather was CLEAR.) No mention of stage damage. So I'm pissed because I figure, why the fuck can't they resume? They're wasting two hours making us stand around and wait. 8:00pm creeps by and finally the line starts moving and things seem encouraging like they're preparing to let us back in. Then people start getting messages from the Epicenter app (my phone still has no service) saying that the rest of the day is officially cancelled. Hearsay was that another storm front was on it's way.
Didn't get to see The Cult. Who also played The Tabernacle Friday night (I sacrificed that show to come to this one), so I probably lost out on any opportunity of ever seeing them live now.
But most importantly, didn't get to see Tool. No hearing of new songs. No experiencing Maynard and the boys from the pit/barricade (something I've always wanted to experience). Completely devastated.
Nothing can be done about Mother Nature, but the lack of communication (aside from a couple app notifications when service worked) between Epicenter and the fans was total bullshit. Promising to be let in again after the initial storm passed, then standing around doing nothing for two hours while the weather was clear was infuriating because again, no one mentioned there was stage damage during this time so everybody just assumed the show would go on.
Then having to walk all the way back mass exodus to our cars again in the mud, only to end up sitting for TWO MORE HOURS in the car because traffic direction was a fucking joke and nobody could move an inch.
So in total that was five hour WASTED of my life. Between being evacuated (5:15pm) to finally being able to exit the property (after 10pm), then an hour and a half drive to the hotel in Charlotte.
All this bullshit just so I could watch two bands play 35 minutes (Badflower) and 40 minutes (MIW). And of those bands, only one was a band I wanted to see. And it was only a casual want.
Yeah. I'm still alternating between being pissed as hell and wanting to cry. I was so looking forward to Tool. So. Looking. Forward. *sigh*
Still waiting on that promised email from Epicenter telling me how they're going to make it up to us too... Just give me a fucking refund already.
Potential storms are forecast for tonight as well during Foo Fighter's set. We'll see if they cancel again... (Edit: Nope. All good.)
Tool fans commiserating:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bnpxkx/epicenter_disaster/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bnjykm/we_will_be_back_adam/
Refund updates (personally got nothing yet):
https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bo4ca2/for_people_who_bought_saturday_tickets_for/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bpyigb/epicenterthe_actual_worst/
Badflower setlist:
x ANA x
Drop Dead
Die
The Jester
Heroin
Animal
Ghost
Motionless In White setlist:
Rats
Reincarnate
Necessary Evil
Disguise
Abigail
Brand New Numb
Voices
Devil's Night
---
After traffic, security concerns, severe weather, Day 3 at Epicenter sees sun, fewer fans
Rockingham, N.C. - A three-day camping and concert event in Rockingham this weekend was expected to draw thousands for performances by the Foo Fighters, Judas Priest, Tool and other rockers. But some who paid hundreds for tickets found themselves sitting in traffic, worried for their safety and, on Saturday night, forced out of the outdoor venue by severe weather.
By Sunday, many who had purchased multi-day passes to Epicenter Festival at Rockingham Speedway decided to cut their losses and stay home, and crowds were lighter under mostly sunny skies.
Leland Parker, of Marion, S.C., emailed WRAL News as the crowd built Sunday afternoon.
"It seems like another good day out here. Sun has come out," he wrote.
Hours in traffic only to miss concert
Several ticketholders told WRAL News they were stopped in traffic along U.S. Highway 1, waiting hours for access to the festival grounds. Some gave up. Others waited hours after midnight, into the wee hours of Saturday morning, to leave the grounds after Friday's performances.
"I've been to a ton of shows, and I have never had this problem," said Kelly Tesh, of Smithfield. "I've been to PNC Arena, to Walnut Creek, to shows in other states, and I have never had this problem."
Tesh and another person made the drive from Smithfield, getting within a few miles of the concert by 5 p.m. on Friday. She said that by 9 p.m. they progressed about a mile and a half, and their GPS showed another mile and a half to go.
The pair, who had spent $220 for two single-day tickets, turned around and went home.
Organizers posted to Facebook on Saturday that they were adding access lanes.
"Today we have increased the number of inbound day parking lanes that should make the inbound better. Of course, as with any large event, you should expect delays and we still encourage everyone to arrive early," they wrote.
The problems were compounded Saturday as severe weather moved in and the (largely outdoor) venue had to be evacuated.
Severe weather cancels Saturday night performances by Tool, Judas Priest, The Cult
Those in attendance, many of whom were camping on the site for the weekend, were urged to seek shelter in vehicles as the storms passed.
WRAL meteorologist Kat Campbell said organizers made an absolutely necessary choice to evacuate the venue. A tornado warning was issued just west of Rockingham early Saturday evening when the National Weather Service spotted rotation in the atmosphere north of Wadesboro, about 30 miles west of Rockingham.
"There were definitely storms in that area packing dangerous lightning, heavy rain and some hail," Campbell said.
By 6:30 p.m., the festival posted to Facebook a message from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol asking people to stay in their vehicles and not to attempt to drive.
Right after 8 p.m., the slate for Saturday night - which featured The Cult and Judas Priest and was to conclude with a performance by Tool - was scrapped. When the Sunday schedule was posted, none of those bands were on it. The Sunday headliners, the Foo Fighters, were scheduled to conclude the concert.
Everyone was asked to leave.
William Hyland, who used vacation time to travel from Massachusetts with his girlfriend for the concert, said only the calm in the crowd kept the evacuation from getting out of hand. He said there were not staff on the ground to guide people to the exits or to keep them informed in the fluid situation.
Of the traffic and parking, Hyland said, "It was an entire fiasco."
Ticket prices started at $80 for standing-room, general admission access to the grounds for a single day. VIP tickets, which included dedicated entrance lanes to the festival and access to air-conditioned restrooms, cost up to $250 for a single day and $400 to $475 for a three-day pass. According to the festival website, all weekend VIP passes were sold out.
Hyland and others expressed frustration that, after they had purchased multi-day passes for hundreds of dollars, those who purchased a single day were offered the chance to return for only $1. Two of the concert-goers that WRAL spoke to got the offer in their email in the days leading up to the concert.
Parking passes were an additional $15 for a single day and $40 for the weekend. On the website, parking was described as "parking in an official Rockingham Festival Grounds lot," but several people told WRAL News they were directed to park in open fields with little lighting or security.
Parking lot 'like caged animals'
Ethan Brown, of Raleigh, his wife Elizabeth and their friends from Atlanta, purchased the three-day pass, but after their experience on Friday decided to eat the cost of the remaining two days.
"It was like caged animals," Elizabeth Brown said of the scene in the parking lot after Friday's performances.
The Browns said they sat in traffic - "like literally in park," Ethan Brown said - for about three hours between Hoffman and Rockingham Speedway, a distance of about 6 miles. They did get into the concert Friday night.
The problem came when it was time to return to their hotel.
“We got to our car at 11:10 p.m. and we did not move from that parking spot until 3 a.m.,” Ethan Brown said.
Both Browns described a parking situation without oversight, with few lights and with no visible security. They said people were visibly intoxicated, jumping on top of vehicles and blowing horns.
Finally, Ethan Brown said, a woman knocked on their window and told them someone had cut through the fence to create an exit. "So we did that," he said.
Hyland said he, too, waited in his vehicle for more than an hour with no information before becoming aware of the gap in the fence that he used to exit the festival grounds.
On Saturday morning, the Browns and their friends met several others with Epicenter tickets in the lobby of their Southern Pines hotel. All were trying to decide whether to return and use the tickets they had paid for or to give up on the chaos.
The Browns and their friends chose to return to Raleigh. After learning of the weather-related evacuation on Saturday night, they were doubly sure they made the right decision.
Hyland returned for Saturday and ended up sitting out the severe weather. Asked whether he would head back for Sunday's concert, he said, "We are thinking we’re just going to drive back to Massachusetts and not even bother.”
Liana Wyatt, of Raleigh, wrote in an email, "I made a decision after the first day to not attend the rest of the weekend after the safety concerns I saw."
She described parking areas with no lights, apparent direction or visible security.
"There’s no telling what time I would have gotten home if that fan had not busted through the fence. I thank that individual," she wrote.
"Very, very disappointed in what was supposed to be an epic weekend and the festival of the year for many people."
A Facebook group formed to consider a class action lawsuit against the festival had drawn almost 1,400 members by Sunday night, and people were sharing their experiences there.
Source: https://www.wral.com/after-traffic-security-concerns-severe-weather-day-3-at-epicenter-sees-sun-fewer-fans/18380612/
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More photos and videos of evacuation here:
https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/tool-judas-priest-others-have-their-epicenter-festival-performances-canceled-due-to-severe-weather/
https://myfox8.com/2019/05/12/second-night-of-3-day-rock-music-festival-at-epicenter-cancelled-amid-severe-weather/
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Edit: This blog posted my Reddit comment. xp
Tool Fans Pissed After Brutal Ripoff: ‘What A Disaster’
Tool fans felt pissed off after a storm canceled Tool’s performance at the Epicenter Festival in North Carolina over the weekend, but it appears there is a good sign in regards to getting a refund.
moronthisatnine posted on the Tool Reddit:
For people who bought Saturday tickets for epicenter in NC.
So I called this morning ready to unleash my fury and was greeted by a nice guy who already knew what I calling for lol. Said there will be an email soon with the direction they will be going. It will either be a mass refund for Saturday tickets or an email requesting the customer to contact them for a refund. if it works out in either direction I will be pleasantly surprised I will move on from this fiasco a little easier. Just wanted to spread the word for other fans who are going through the Mondays.
Edit; this was through front gate tickets. Called the number on the email confirmation.
toolphishdhs posted:
Thanks for the update! Hopefully that email comes sooner than later. What a disaster that all was.
F*ckaduckf*ckaduck posted:
I live in NC (piedmont area). The weather was shit ALL day Saturday, and it had been forecasted as such all week. This kind of weather in NC in May is the norm and not an exception at all. It is a shitty situation, but this is exactly why I turned down 2 tickets for $30. It was clear from midweek that the weather was not going to cooperate. It wasn’t a “showers may show up situation”, it was a “hey ya’ll, we’re gonna get blasted with storms all fucking day” situation.
This isn’t the first time rain has hampered a festival there, either.
This festival used to be called the “Carolina Rebellion”. And it had a couple shows get cut short or outright cancelled because of rain. The festival has been around for 9 years, and I am fairly certain that at least 1 night has been affected by weather for the vast majority of them. At least 3 that I know of have had the remainder of a night outright cancelled.
Call me a curmudgeon, but holding a festival that large in May in the NC piedmont is just asking for trouble.
siberwolf83 posted:
The update is very much appreciated. It would have been my second Tool show (after waiting 12 years to see them again)… Absolutely killed me when the evacuation message appeared and I had to leave my nice view on the side barricade. They made the right call to cancel, but the whole situation was frustrating and the lack of communication at the time plus the whole parking fiasco when leaving was downright infuriating. Definitely looking forward to that refund we’re all due.
rinkwhopper posted:
If that is true, that is what is up. When I emailed Front gate, they just said they were sorry and
“We are waiting for our client response as soon as we have an update .
We will be sending email blast with updates please stay tuned to the emails .”
Source: https://www.alternativenation.net/tool-fans-pissed-brutal-ripoff-disaster/
Original: https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/bo4ca2/for_people_who_bought_saturday_tickets_for/
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Highway patrol told Epicenter producers their traffic plan was ‘inadequate’
ROCKINGHAM - While performances, food and other activities at Epicenter Festival went smoothly, aside from a lightening storm Saturday night, the traffic Day 1 cast an even bigger storm cloud over the festival - and it could have been avoided.
Danny Wimmer Presents, the festival’s producer, was warned by the North Carolina Highway Patrol in January that their setup for Friday could cause severe delays. Highway Patrol advised the festival producers that their plan to have only one entry and exit point to the venue was “inadequate” and that there needed to be at least three, according to Trooper Ray Pierce, public information officer with the Highway Patrol.
Based on the Highway Patrol’s experience with events at the Rockingham Speedway in its heyday, they recommended DWP open Gates C, D and E, but DWP kept their original plan going into the weekend, according to Pierce.
The Highway Patrol was in charge of traffic on the main roads, while DWP was in charge of the traffic flow into and within the Rockingham Festival Grounds, Pierce said.
“We had no jurisdiction once (the festival attendees) left the main roadway,” Pierce said.
DWP did not respond to an emailed request for comment by press time Monday.
The only entrance for the festival was Gate A, which Pierce said was a security measure by DWP to make sure all vehicles entering the venue were searched. The level of traffic, then, hinged on a more staggered rate of guests arriving, Pierce said.
“All traffic had to enter through the one entrance. That was (Highway Patrol’s) big concern from the first day,” Pierce said. “You can’t filter that amount of people through one entrance.”
Not only was it one entrance, but for much of the day Friday the attendees were being funneled through one lane. Pierce said that it wasn’t until there was a 4.5 mile-backup of traffic between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Friday that Highway Patrol told DWP to open the entrance to two lanes of traffic.
The Highway Patrol made the center lane and the driving lane on the Speedway side of U.S. 1 entrances to the festival, while the Dragway side of U.S. 1 was used for through-traffic, according to Pierce. This setup was used for the remainder of the weekend and traffic was much smoother by all accounts, which was also due to less business traffic and less influx of people into the festival.
Pierce said another complication was that when the Code Yellow was issued Saturday which brought the music to a halt, there were 2 hours where attendees walked around the grounds unsure if the music would continue. This forced the Highway Patrol to close U.S. 1 and L.G. Dewitt Road, which connects U.S. 1 to Beaverdam Church Road and acted as a release valve for the traffic, from about 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. out of safety concerns for pedestrians.
The email notification that Saturday night’s festivities would be canceled due to weather, on recommendation from Richmond County, went out to those who had the Epicenter app at about 8:10 p.m. Saturday.
DWP also made a miscalculation, as they acknowledged in a social media post Friday night, the majority of the guests would arrive. Steve Earwood, owner of the Rockingham Dragway, which was the primary site of the festival, said in an interview Monday that DWP expected 80% of campers to arrive Thursday evening based on their past experiences running festivals.
But Earwood posited that these past festivals were conducted in metropolitan areas where the majority of attendees lived in close proximity to the venue and therefore didn’t have to take as much time off from work to attend. Instead, because so many people couldn’t take the necessary time off work to get there early, he said, 80% of the campers arrived Friday, right around rush hour traffic.
“It was a perfect storm for the largest traffic jam in the history of Richmond County,” Earwood said. Still, the Friday crowd was “tremendous,” he said.
“Having been in the outdoor event business, you understand that (bad weather) just comes with it,” Earwood continued, referring to the cancellation of Judas Priest, Tool and the other Saturday night bands due to a threatening storm. “You can’t control it and you can’t worry about because there’s not a thing you can do about it.”
Going forward, the parties behind the festival need to take a “hard look” at the band schedule and traffic flows, Earwood said, calling the first of any event “uncharted waters.”
“All you can do is go on past experience,” he said. “What you can do is learn from it and proper adjustments for the future.”
Source: https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/news/86833/highway-patrol-told-epicenter-producers-their-traffic-plan-was-inadequate