Update: July 02nd, 2024 07:17pm:
As it turns out the entire event wasn’t canceled mid-set on Saturday, but rather the ‘Capulet Fest‘-associated events being held at the attached ‘Underground’ venue for The Webster were. Headliners Skillet were able to close out the event as planned at the main venue for The Webster.
Original Story:
Given the chaos that preceded this past week’s planned ‘Capulet Fest‘, it’s not surprising that today’s (June 30th) final date of the festival has been cancelled. A last-minute venue change announced roughly a day ahead of the event late last week saw the festival scale down from the Thompson Speedway (13,000 venue capacity) in Thompson, CT to The Webster (1200 venue capacity) in Hartford, CT.
That venue change alone was highly problematic, given that the former venue properly accommodated camping for the festival’s attendees, while the replacement venue was held in an urban setting which added roughly an hour of additional travel time, being 52 miles away from the originally planned venue.
Outside of that, this past week also saw much lineup confusion, with 20 of the originally planned artists for the event having dropped off the 55-band bill that was announced this past spring. That drastically revised lineup was only revealed roughly a day ahead of the festival’s kickoff. Departures from the lineup included headliner Nothing More, who slammed the festival over an alleged lack of refunds in the wake of all the changes.
That wasn’t the end of the uncertainty though, as the lineup volatility persisted through the weekend, with further artists, including It Dies Today, Upon A Burning Body and more dropping off the bill yesterday, June 29th. Yesterday also saw the event further plunge into disarray, as the festival was shutdown early.
The band LiveKill, who were roughly the fifth on a 16-band bill that had been announced last week for yesterday’s date of the festival, ultimately were the final artist to perform. They didn’t even get to complete their set, instead being stopped two songs in. The group took to Instagram in the below stream, claiming that venue security shutdown the event because the promoter “didn’t pay the rent.”
The festival’s organizers commented on social media overnight of today’s cancellation
“Sunday is no longer an option. We fought. We wrestled with obstacle after obstacle. We became a target. We became hated, even when we were doing our best to save something and give you the best show possible. No one sees the sacrifice. All they do is judge. We did everything we could. We hope you had fun. We did our best. Thank you to everyone who came out and had a blast. We hope you enjoyed the meet and greets. We hope you enjoyed the music. Goodbye.”
