The WORST Metal Festival ever... 

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As someone who was about to attend and help the festival run, I can tell you man, it was a shitshow from the jump

People literally quit their jobs to help with this festival. Bands bought THOUSANDS of dollars worth of merch for this festival and they didn't even get to use it. On the brightside the scene banded together and had the Kentucky DROP-OUT Fest (made up of alot of the local and national bands that dropped the fest) instead and from what I heard it was phenomenal

was really looking forward to the slaughter to prevail show at the “3rd tree from the left of gas pump 5” stage

I live there and am very informed to what happened with this event. The fest was cancelled because 13 women came forward against that band member who was also an investor of the event. One of the victims was a vocalist for a local band and one reason they all backed out. The other was over the ticket sales but, the locals weren’t obligated to sell tickets, it was 2 weeks before the event that the promoter made threats to kick them over ticket sales. Even made threats to get local band members fired from their jobs. The promoter and the accused band member are also friends and defended one another. This fueled the local community even more. Locals created a Facebook group to discuss the event issues and accusations. The venue has a huge open field. But, there is no parking. The promoter cancelled the event saying the venue backed out over bomb threats. However, people called and went to the venue and talked to the owners and they had no clue what anyone was talking about. Said the promoter backed out. The promoter then uncancelled the event with an attempt to move it Ohio. But by then the rp accusations were to much to ignore and the local bands standing together as one became too much of an impact to continue the event. The promoter was finally forced to cancel and refund everyone’s money. Because, well, once people read about all the drama and accusations, about how local bands were treated, they demanded their money back. The promoter is from NY. He’s been run out of Rochester over similar issues.

As a musician from Cincinnati, this was an actual dumpster fire. I got to watch in real-time as it all fell apart. It just got more and more chaotic and oh my lanta it is far more shady and messed up than what even was on the surface.

So My band was supposed to play a smaller hardcore fest the same weekend as this, and the promoter of the hardcore fest bailed on it to “help out” with the irate fest. Dude didn’t tell ANY of the bands he booked for the hardcore fest, and us smaller bands who are trying to book around this fest ended up fucked.

BROOO we’ve been dealing with this clown in Syracuse and Rochester for over a year now it’s crazy seeing this here 😂

Can we get a real promoter to legitimately make this festival happen? That would have been huge!!

I used to book small time shows for some local bands and decided to do a little "festival" with a whole bunch of them and holy hell did I find out who was working with me that had their head screwed on and who didn't. One guy was telling me he had talked to the bands, had only contacted one, one of the women told me she had secured a food vendor, who turned out to be her uncle making a pot of fucking chili... luckily I caught all of that six months out and was able to have a smooth, small festival, but holy hell, a festival from scratch is a whole lot of work and planning. Definitely a lot more than just finding a venue with open slots in their schedule.

The thought of the noise complaints coming from the suburbs on the other side of the trees because "Scumfuck" is going hard af on stage on Saturday night still makes me giggle. I look forward to more information coming out about this absolutely dumpster fire, though I feel terrible for the bands who are out money on this.

Pit at pump number 3 absolutely got me 😂

This is literally the metal version of Fyre Festival 😂

I always feel like i’ve done something wrong when i’m watching these disasters.

"What the FUCK IS UP MARATHON GAS STATION?!?"

As a member of a band that was asked to play after bands started dropping out we dodged a bullet like Neo from the Matrix when we declined. Thank God lol

It was a 1.4 acre lot LMAO. Luckily our local scenes came together with multiple shows and killed it.

Our scene came together and put on a great one day fest with a lot of the locals to make up for this shitshow ending. It was an awesome time. Louisville Scene rolls deep.

it's kinda like the core- fyre fest LOL but it's a shame that there are more and more and more cashgrabbers in the scene

"You're not selling enough tickets" The venue that has to hold the high number of people who bought tickets:

Bro 150$ for the weekend? 💀 Dang Wacken is 300€ for 4 days including camping and it's one of the biggest festivals

I've lived in Kentucky my whole life, and it hurts me that the only reputable festivals are Louder than Life and LDB Fest. And the heaviest bands we see at LTL would be something like Gojira. I'd love it if we got a heavier festival or just a more credible and respected one. Louder than life is a pretty big festival now though so I can't complain too much.

Still not sure if this was a scam or if the "promoter" actually thought that this could work out. Like ... where do bands stay, where do people park or sleep? There is no way this was gonna happen.

Being in a band who created a fest(Munoz Stock) 10 years ago, we do take notice of stories like these to make things as professional as possible. I appreciate you making this video because I saw all of this unraveling on Facebook and I had no idea what was going on. Friends with a good amount of the people who were gonna play and Johnny of Rivers Of Nihil is one of my sisters' exes, so this naturally popped up.

Of course they put a lot of random band names in there because when they don't confirm they have an excuse to cancel the event. Cash straight in the arrangers pocket. The down-payment of course gets returned when it's canceled

I’m binge watching your videos because you are clearly awesome. 🤘🏻 I wish I was your neighbor to just go kick it with you.

5:03 ah, yes. Louisville. The new Louisiana.

I live in Kentucky. I had no clue about this show.

Man I hope people get their refunds. Putting a big fest together like this is not a easy feat. But there is a proper way to go about organizing one of these.

You should take a look at "Metal Open Air" in Brazil, 2012. That was bad, really bad. And the producers and goind to do a other one this year!

Man I remember not long before it was supposed to happen someone on the metalcore reddit called it out for being a little too good to be true and the promoter being a scum bag and to literally no one's surprise, most of the comments in the thread were telling him he was full of shit. I followed this closely and watched unfold live and it was glorious seeing those same people turn around and say "oh shit maybe that guy was right"

Watched this LITERALLY the day before heading to Virginia for Blue Ridge last year, pretty much thinking I was gonna be fine…

Hey you may not read this, but you should look up the Delicious Rox festival that was in Sedalia, Missouri. I personally knew and worked with the promoters. This Irate Festival sounds like it was put on by one of those guys. Huge shit show but I did get to meet Chris Jericho, Fear Factory and Motograter/FFDP and get some free merch and stuff.

Had a bunch of friends that were going to play this and luckily this didn't end up happening. Was talking with the vocalist of Ida (for transparency he's one my best friends and I've been a merch guy for them) said it best and I'll keep it short"G it sucks we lost out on something that could have been fire"

Feels like every year we get a festival disaster that’s even worse than the last

I worked with a guy like this once. They build up a bs show, try to get people to pay in and then act like everyone else fucked then over when the show doesn’t happen. It’s all a scam. They never expected the show to happen, they just took as much money as they could and then dip.

"Refunds will be issued within 30 business days" is likely just an attempt to get past the chargeback window so they can't be held liable. There's no reason it should take that long. I'd be amazed if they actually issue any refunds at all...

Reminds me of Pittsburgh metal fest 2014, My band showed up after driving all night from Rhode Island to literally nobody being there in the promoter and nowhere to be found. Just a whole bunch of bands hanging out

The lot was paved and turned into a giant parking lot essentially. But it made no sense from the jump

if any local bands by chance in the louisville area that needs to get some gigs i would highly suggest trying to get louder than life, they bring out local bands sometimes. so if you guys need a gig to do but you don’t wanna travel away from home during the start of october you should try louder than life.

The Worcester palladium doesn’t even seem to do the New England metal and hardcore fest anymore. There’s parking but it’s very limited.. plus nothing like being in a hot, crowded venue with no re entry. It just doesn’t work.

I live in Louisville, and this embarrasses me.

That essay is definitely in the top ten creator apologies

Living just minutes away and nearly having a bigger backyard, I called BS on it happening there months ago. Had it happened, any paying customer of the businesses 200 yards away could have listened for free.

Red Flag Elephant in the room: Guy organises his first ever festival and immediately makes it a three-day affair with dozens of bands? What's wrong with an evening with 3 bands to start with? Or an afternoon with 5?!?

One of my buddies was one of the promoters who got put on the street team and he’s out a bunch of money and was getting hardcore harassed for things he didn’t know about or do. He’s just some random dude in Missouri

The refund thing happened at the trivium/megadeth show here in Toronto. I had to wait over a year for the chance at refunding 4 tickets. They wouldnt issue refunds until a new date for the show was set in stone

As someone from KY - Any sorta local metal festival in Louisville is destined to fail. Check out Louisville Deathfest. I dont have the highest hopes for locally ran metal festivals

Brooo my company was a sponsor and had to BEG to get our name removed once we decided we didn't wanna be a part anymore

If you look at the top-left corner, you'll see the image that only has the trees is from October 2011, that's why it's basically wild country there, still. 😉😉

Terry Harper productions if the promoter to go to if you wanna play metal in Louisville. Been doing it since late 90s and had about 10k people at the world famous Waverly Hills Sanatorium years back. He's the man around here.

Living in Louisville Kentucky, the number 1 problem is metal in Kentucky. It's always either ruined by rap/country/mainstream rock, which I dont mind mainstream rock to sell tickets for heavier rock bands to also be there, but those names of those bands they weren't going to sell here. Also 9:26 anyone from Louisville CRINGES right now.

I live in Louisville, and I only saw ads for this thing pop up like 2 months ago?? It just kinda came outta nowhere, I didn’t even know where the “venue” was anyways lmao Edit: I’m gonna be a local about it, sorry not sorry, but it’s pronounced “Loo-vull”; doesn’t grammatically make sense but 🤷🏻‍♀️

Damnit, My old Kentucky home fucking up again. -_-

I was asked to help with this festival early on before the lineup was confirmed. It was going to be a nightmare. My crew was going to take a major pay cut to help out, only because we loved the lineup. Basically we were going to a concert and getting paid. Sounded great, but we knew there was major issues!

I live in the area. And I heard what all was going on. And I assumed it was going to go belly up. It went way more than I had thought it would.

The promoter was actively blocking people who asked for refunds or details about the fest. Dude was a total dirt bag

Ive met one of the promoters in my local scene in NY, guy gave off serious manipulative vibes with his rhetoric and lack of authenticity; not to mention openly being cool with actual violence in the pit. Thanks for calling it out dude, glad to see it get this much attention.

They wanted to call it Kentucky Fyre Festival but that would be to obvious of a scam 🤪

Ah, "When We Were Young Festival" part 2 Acoustic Boogaloo

That's crazy that they would try to have a concert in that little lot behind the gas station/dollar general minutes away from my house. There are bigger fields/venues that they could have played at in the area.

I'm from kentucky and I didn't even hear about this, crazy how they tried to pull off this festival scam.

1:25 Nik’s little “heh”

Couldn't you replace those horrific "BIPs" with just a short moment of silence...

Rose Funeral finally return and this is what they were nearly coming back to, thank fuck they played the drop out fest and killed it.

i live 5 minutes from where the festival was going to be held, got a 3 day pass the second they went on sale and i can 1000% say this was sketchy from the get-go. since the festivals cancelation i’ve been to several local shows including one that was dubbed “kentucky drop out fest” where essentially a large part of the local scene and a few bigger came and played all day for less than 20 bucks. super fun and way better than what i imagine irate was gonna be.

So I grew up and lived around here my whole life. They were going to use a giant black top parking lot because I literally harassed and bullied the page until I got photos. It’s not this exact spot. But it does back into a neighborhood and stuff. Sucks because we were super excited to have a new festival because louder than life is the only one we have. And that just started a few years ago.

Look into Arkansas Death Fest. Don't know if it's still going it when I played it was a really fun show.

Playing next to a gas station would be convient for pyrotechnics at this festival

Part of me died when he said "Lewis-ville"

Look up the old version of Hell Fest. The one that was in new York or something ended up being the worst festival. It got so big and had so many friggin bands. Sucks how it ended.

The venue space isn't really a joke, I've seen Sounds of The Underground and Ozzfest 2nd stage in similar locations with much bigger names. Just a big ass, hot as hell parking lot.

Bro I’m from Kentucky, would’ve been sick.

pull out game was strong on this one

It will never live up to the Dayton, Ohio 4/20/16 Limp Bizkit show, but you gave it a good try, Kentucky.

I could organize and run a massive show. I worked on Project Independent for one tour and done a few runs with The Order of Elijah. I learned a ton from shady promoters, and because I was on the band's side I feel I could make it work for all parties. It's not that hard actually. Especially when you are not doing it for the money as a pay day.

I wish this had gone ahead. It’s giving “Naruto storming Area 51” vibes. Keem smashing a gas station burrito blasting hell from his car speakers would’ve been a solid gathering.

The member of UTDW that got accused was a business partner and had put capital toward the fest itself.

You should do a demo on how you record and use plugins for posers

I am honestly surprised Tank has not jumped all over this shit show, his normally pretty quick to address industry bs like this

This is exactly what I thought and still think of that when we were young festival sketchy as fuck

When We Were Young METAL EDITION 😂🤦🏼‍♂️

They really saw what happened with when we were young fest and said "let's try this shit"

Tbh I’m upset at the fact I won a enterprise earth flag in a drawing in the fest discord and still haven’t got it in the mail

Thank you nik for blessing my morning

You should do the Metal Devastation Fest in Tennessee. Gonna be fun.🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

To be fair against the location, the Google Maps street view that you used was from October 2011.

Can you imagine a mosh pit at the petrol station 😂😂

I used to be a promoter/manager in Louisville back in early 00's, and the scene used to be HOT. Tons of bands from Louisville signed in the surrounding 5 years. But the big name promoters around the ville are VERY VERY dirty. There's one in particular I won't mention. I remember one show that was supposed to be HUGE and it was promised Dragonforce would be there and vendors and all kinds of stuff, but it just dissappeared. Louisville has a LOT of amazing talent, but because it had a really good decade, it kinda got swarmed with the bad elements of the industry. Also, that pic was from 2011, there is now MG Prime bar there

So, next time I should save it for the pit? Roger.

And that location is next to a bunch of homes 😂😂

losing warped tour left a festival power vacuum.

I bought tix and it was sketchy from the get go. Still no refund.

dawg...😂😂😂😂 my gfs dad plays MG's with his band so the fact that I know exactly where that is lmaoooo

As a local from the hardcore scene in Louisville, this doesn’t reflect our scene and every involved pretty much knew it was fucked from the jump. Especially just being a random outsider no one’s ever heard of from out of state. Just wait for LDB Fest.

they definitely aint getting Madball on there in the middle of a tour with Undeath

My band was a local on it. We dropped as soon as we saw the huge shitshow is was becoming.

Kentucky doesn't get much metal and we always have to travel for shows. Too bad it stunk.

“The pit at pump 3” 😂

I guess you could say the organisers of the festival are really... IRATE. I'm so sorry.