DAYTONA BEACH — Aside from the chugging engines of forklifts and the percussive metallic pounding of crews at work on towering main stage scaffolding, it was a quiet afternoon Tuesday on the infield at Daytona International Speedway.
That all changes starting Thursday, when heavy-metal headliners such as Metallica, Disturbed, Slipknot and others perform at Welcome to Rockville, a four-day music festival that showcases nearly 70 bands through Sunday in its Daytona Beach debut.
A popular outdoor concert festival fixture in Jacksonville for nearly a decade, Welcome to Rockville had been scheduled to make its Daytona Beach debut in May 2020, but the event was canceled amid shut-downs of large gatherings and events at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, the most recent edition of the festival attracted 99,000 music fans to Jacksonville’s Metropolitan Park, according to Los Angeles-based Danny Wimmer Presents, the event’s promoter.
This year’s edition, expected to draw roughly 40,000 spectators daily, has been expanded from three days to four, not including an additional pre-party slate of bands on Wednesday night.
The pre-party is an exclusive performance for the 10,000 fans with tickets that include camping through the event on the Speedway’s expansive 180-acre infield. The event’s camping area on the Speedway infield opens at noon Wednesday.
For non-campers, parts of the Wednesday night show will be featured in the 50 hours of streamed performances to be offered free throughout the festival by Danny Wimmer Presents on the company’s Twitch online streaming channel at Twitch.tv/DWPresents.
Acts to be featured on Twitch throughout the festival, the first time the company has offered such performances, include Slipknot, Disturbed, Rob Zombie, Mudvayne, Staind, Anthrax, Cypress Hill and Social Distortion, among others.
The space and infrastructure resources at the Speedway will offer the opportunity for a better experience for both fans and performers, said Chamie McCurry, chief marketing officer at Danny Wimmer Presents.
“We did another festival in September and the campgrounds were five miles away from the site, so we had to shuttle people to the event,” McCurry said. “To have everyone right here is amazing, to have a place where 10,000 people can live and 40,000 people can come for the day? It’s amazing.”
The space also will help manage crowd flow, an issue in the news in the wake of a tragedy that claimed the lives of eight concertgoers at a massive outdoor performance by rapper Travis Scott on Friday at the Astroworld Festival in Houston.
When the crowd surged toward the stage as Scott performed, the crush and chaos killed eight fans, ranging in age from 14 to 27, and injured many others. That concert was presented by other companies — Texas-based ScoreMore and national promoter Live Nation — that are now facing investigations and lawsuits related to how the show was organized.
“We work to create movement and crowd-flow throughout the day,” McCurry said of events produced by Danny Wimmer Presents. “There are things that we do always to provide a safe environment.”
That includes the presence of sound and video systems that offer prime vantage points of performances throughout the grounds, McCurry said.
In addition, the average age of fans expected for Welcome to Rockville is in the mid-30s, a demographic that often includes adults who attend with their teenage children, she said.
“It’s a much different event, a much different audience and also a much different site,” she said. “This is a very, very big site.”
Crews arrived more than a week ago to start assembling the festival on the massive Speedway infield, she said. Including stage crews, technicians, vendors and administrative staff, there will be thousands of workers involved in presenting the event, she said.
It’s a workforce that also includes Speedway employees, she said.
On Tuesday, workers added finishing touches to a colorful mural that stretched between the infield’s camping area and the Space Zebra Stage, where heavy-metal royalty Metallica will headline on Friday and Sunday.
Along a midway that runs nearly the length of the track’s grandstand, there’s a stand devoted solely to selling Blackened American Whiskey, the band’s signature brand. It competes for attention with other vendors promoting everything from souvenir T-shirts to RVs.
Art installations on the lawn already are adorned with photo-op-worthy album cover art from the event’s marquee bands and other murals will be created by artists live as the festival unfolds.
Rock fans also have the opportunity to buy early-bird tickets for Welcome to Rockville’s return to the Speedway next year. The festival is booked for a return engagement May 19-22.
That’s good news for area hoteliers and tourism-related businesses, who already have offered rave reviews about the festival’s positive impact during a traditionally slow time of year for travelers.
Who says rock is dead?
That all changes starting Thursday, when heavy-metal headliners such as Metallica, Disturbed, Slipknot and others perform at Welcome to Rockville, a four-day music festival that showcases nearly 70 bands through Sunday in its Daytona Beach debut.
A popular outdoor concert festival fixture in Jacksonville for nearly a decade, Welcome to Rockville had been scheduled to make its Daytona Beach debut in May 2020, but the event was canceled amid shut-downs of large gatherings and events at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, the most recent edition of the festival attracted 99,000 music fans to Jacksonville’s Metropolitan Park, according to Los Angeles-based Danny Wimmer Presents, the event’s promoter.
This year’s edition, expected to draw roughly 40,000 spectators daily, has been expanded from three days to four, not including an additional pre-party slate of bands on Wednesday night.
The pre-party is an exclusive performance for the 10,000 fans with tickets that include camping through the event on the Speedway’s expansive 180-acre infield. The event’s camping area on the Speedway infield opens at noon Wednesday.
For non-campers, parts of the Wednesday night show will be featured in the 50 hours of streamed performances to be offered free throughout the festival by Danny Wimmer Presents on the company’s Twitch online streaming channel at Twitch.tv/DWPresents.
Acts to be featured on Twitch throughout the festival, the first time the company has offered such performances, include Slipknot, Disturbed, Rob Zombie, Mudvayne, Staind, Anthrax, Cypress Hill and Social Distortion, among others.
The space and infrastructure resources at the Speedway will offer the opportunity for a better experience for both fans and performers, said Chamie McCurry, chief marketing officer at Danny Wimmer Presents.
“We did another festival in September and the campgrounds were five miles away from the site, so we had to shuttle people to the event,” McCurry said. “To have everyone right here is amazing, to have a place where 10,000 people can live and 40,000 people can come for the day? It’s amazing.”
The space also will help manage crowd flow, an issue in the news in the wake of a tragedy that claimed the lives of eight concertgoers at a massive outdoor performance by rapper Travis Scott on Friday at the Astroworld Festival in Houston.
When the crowd surged toward the stage as Scott performed, the crush and chaos killed eight fans, ranging in age from 14 to 27, and injured many others. That concert was presented by other companies — Texas-based ScoreMore and national promoter Live Nation — that are now facing investigations and lawsuits related to how the show was organized.
“We work to create movement and crowd-flow throughout the day,” McCurry said of events produced by Danny Wimmer Presents. “There are things that we do always to provide a safe environment.”
That includes the presence of sound and video systems that offer prime vantage points of performances throughout the grounds, McCurry said.
In addition, the average age of fans expected for Welcome to Rockville is in the mid-30s, a demographic that often includes adults who attend with their teenage children, she said.
“It’s a much different event, a much different audience and also a much different site,” she said. “This is a very, very big site.”
Crews arrived more than a week ago to start assembling the festival on the massive Speedway infield, she said. Including stage crews, technicians, vendors and administrative staff, there will be thousands of workers involved in presenting the event, she said.
It’s a workforce that also includes Speedway employees, she said.
On Tuesday, workers added finishing touches to a colorful mural that stretched between the infield’s camping area and the Space Zebra Stage, where heavy-metal royalty Metallica will headline on Friday and Sunday.
Along a midway that runs nearly the length of the track’s grandstand, there’s a stand devoted solely to selling Blackened American Whiskey, the band’s signature brand. It competes for attention with other vendors promoting everything from souvenir T-shirts to RVs.
Art installations on the lawn already are adorned with photo-op-worthy album cover art from the event’s marquee bands and other murals will be created by artists live as the festival unfolds.
Rock fans also have the opportunity to buy early-bird tickets for Welcome to Rockville’s return to the Speedway next year. The festival is booked for a return engagement May 19-22.
That’s good news for area hoteliers and tourism-related businesses, who already have offered rave reviews about the festival’s positive impact during a traditionally slow time of year for travelers.
Welcome to Rockville ready for takeoff at Daytona International Speedway
A look at what the Welcome to Rockville production team is doing to transform Daytona International Speedway into a massive outdoor concert venue.
www.news-journalonline.com
Who says rock is dead?
