2023 ‘Blue Ridge Rock Festival’ Cancelled Amid Severe Weather

This weekend’s sold out ‘Blue Ridge Rock Festival‘ in Alton, VA has been cancelled amid extreme weather. An official statement was released via the organizers earlier today, September 09th, regarding the fate of the fest, which had been battered by excessive rain, lightning and hail storms. Billed as ‘America’s largest rock & camping festival’, the event featured a massive amount of artists booked, including planned headlining sets from Slipknot, Pantera, Shinedown and many more. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans.

While a number of artists did get to perform and expressed their delight at being able to do so, Night 1 (September 07th) was hit by the lingering storm, prompting a sudden evacuation around 6:00pm. The weather and subsequent evacuation to seek shelter at campsites and vehicles led to chaos for many individuals, who took to social media to tell their tales of woe.

Many decried the logistical issues and challenges presented by the festival grounds, particularly the lengthy wait times for shuttles to exit the festival grounds, as being a major concern. According to some festivalgoers, wait times to get to and from the festival grounds and campgrounds was as long as several hours. Being a camping festival, many tents and such were also shown to have been battered and destroyed amid the vicious storm conditions.

As the severe weather persisted into the weekend, the decision was made earlier today (September 09th) to first cancel today’s performances, that statement read as follows:

“Attention Blue Ridge Fans,

Following a thorough assessment of this weekend’s continued severe weather, with more forecasted, we have made the painful decision to cancel today’s programming in the interest of your safety.

Please be safe and take care of one another. All officials, agencies, and festival personnel will continue to monitor and work on this situation.

We will have an update on tomorrow’s programming by 5pm today.”

That follow-up statement has since arrived and finds the festival cancelled altogether:

“Dear Blue Ridge Fans,

With heavy hearts, due to this weekend’s continued severe weather, we must announce the cancellation of the final days of Blue Ridge Rock Festival. Your safety and well-being are our foremost concerns.

We understand the disappointment this brings, and we share immensely in your sadness. Please know that this decision was made with the utmost consideration for everyone involved and our focus now is on supporting those of you still on-site.

We are working diligently to provide refund details and will share that information early this week when business re-opens. In the meantime, we encourage you to stay safe and take care of each other.

This has been an agonizing turn of events for what was to be such a special weekend. There will be more much that we unveil over the next few days. Rest assured, we will take care of you despite these difficult circumstances. Thank you for everything.

With heartfelt gratitude,
Blue Ridge Rock Festival“

While the weather and challenges of concertgoers seeking safety from the storm has filled up many of the complaints on social media, others have taken issue with various other facets of the fest, citing everything from an alleged lack of proper sanitation facilities to the quality of catering allegedly being served to those working the festival grounds: