Label head, promoter, entrepreneur, etc. Ash Avildsen has spoken about his vision for this weekend’s relaunch of the ‘Mayhem Festival‘ brand under his watch. Originally co-founded by John Reese and ‘Vans Warped Tour‘ founder Kevin Lyman, that annual heavy metal touring festival, which emerged as a direct rival to the ‘Ozzfest‘ came to an end in 2015
That final year saw Lyman citing the greed of headliners in the metal scene as being a primary factor in the festival’s demise, making the trek financially unfeasible to operate. The festival remained dormant from then on, sans a few rumored attempts at a reboot.
In 2020, a collective spearheaded by Sumerian Records, etc. founder Ash Avildsen (serving as CEO), music personality Matt Pinfield (serving as VP of artist relations) and Josh Bernstein (serving as president) acquired the Hit Parader brand and were set their focus on several projects, including the resurrection of the ‘Mayhem Festival‘.
This weekend finds those plans coming to fruition, with the festival’s initial comeback set to emerge in the form of a one-off destination festival at the Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino, CA tomorrow, October 12th.
Plans for a return to a more traditional touring festival incarnation are set to take follow next summer. This weekend’s return is not without challenges however, as the festival has essentially been booked as counterprogramming to the well-established ‘Aftershock Festival‘ taking place in Sacramento, CA.
The roster is also intentionally comprised of a roster of much younger artists, as opposed to traditional evergreen headlining artists often booked to anchor festivals. Avildsen made a similar lineup gamble on this year’s return of ‘The Summer Slaughter Tour‘, and it could be argued that decision didn’t entirely pan out.
This weekend’s ‘Mayhem Festival‘ lineup:
Bad Omens
Parkway Drive
Architects
Jinjer
Poppy
Kittie
August Burns Red (playing “Constellations“)
Seven Hours After Violet (live debut)
We Came As Romans
Suicide Silence
After The Burial
Hanabie.
Throwdown
Born Of Osiris
Peyton Parrish
Darkest Hour
Unearth
Brutus
It Dies Today
Escuela Grind
Holy Wars
Roman Candle
Speaking with Revolver about the festival and his respect for its legacy, Avildsen stated, “The way they curated the different colors of the heavy-metal rainbow, so to speak — a diverse group of bands from different subgenres and eras — just became the calling card for metalheads in the summer.”
As for his own vision with the booking for this return, he elaborated:
“I love all the older acts that headline a lot of the rock festivals in the U.S. But I think it’s a bit naïve to think that there’s not an urgent need to break new headlining bands. When I think back to when I was a teenager in the Nineties, the whole new wave of big bands like Korn and Slipknot were young guys.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a wave of bands with singers that are in their twenties that can really headline festivals. I feel like we’re finally there with a number of bands, [and] I think Mayhem can really help elevate this era the same way that it had elevated bands 10-15 years ago.”
Regarding this year’s abbreviated iteration of the fest, he offered:
“We decided [to] bring it back for one day and reestablish that the brand is back, and that will give us a lot more lead time to assemble a full [2025] summer tour.”
