By Brent Michael, Rock At Night Tampa Senior Correspondent
Venue: Rockville Festival, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, Florida–November 11th-14th, 2021
Bands are listed by day and alphabetically.
Day 1: A Day To Remember, Contracult Collective, Cypress Hill, Dana Dentata, Dead Sara, Dorothy, Gojira, Grandson, Jeris Johnson, Nascar Aloe, Siiickbrain, Slipknot, Spiritbox
Day 2: Amigo The Devil, Austin Meade, Ayron Jones, Bad Omens, Beartooth, Butcher Babies, Chevelle, Eva Under Fire, Ice Nine Kills, Metallica, Pennywise, Rob Zombie, Social Distortion, Starset, Tallah, Wage War, Whit3 Collr, Zero 9_36
Day 3: All Good Things, Asking Alexandria, Atreyu, Badflower, Brkn Love, Crown The Empire, Dead Poet Society, Disturbed, Fame On Fire, Gwar, Kingdom Collapse, Lamb Of God, Reach NYC, Sick Puppies, Staind, The Offspring
Day 4: Alien Weaponry, Anthrax, As You Were, Avoid, Code Orange, Dance Gavin Dance, Falling In Reverse, Fire From The Gods, Goodbye June, Jelly Roll, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mastodon, Metallica, Mudvayne, Sleeping With Sirens, Survive The Sun
Sorry, just listing all the bands took awhile, so you’re going to have to find the links yourself! And yes, Metallica was there both Friday and Sunday, with a completely different stage set and playlist.
Rockville isn’t something that lends itself to easy description. Obviously, it’s big. Like really big. I’m going to cheat a bit and give you some of the info in the press release: Welcome To Rockville’s Historic 10th Edition welcomed 161,000 People Over 4 Full Days, Officially Making It America’s Largest Rock Festival – Plus At-Home Audience Of Over 1.2 Million On DWPresents Twitch Channel Tuned In During Danny Wimmer Presents’ First-Ever Festival Livestream. Weekend Offered Final Double Performance From Metallica Plus Memorable Performances From Slipknot, Disturbed, Lynyrd Skynyrd & Many More.
Welcome To Rockville brought in the festival’s biggest crowd yet, with 161,000 people that came for the four-day music event. It was also the final chance to catch two nights and two unique sets from Metallica as part of a unique partnership between the band and DWP for this year only. In addition to playing a massive set of hits on Friday night, Metallica commemorated the 30th anniversary of their seminal Black Album on Sunday night by playing it in full, from back to front. To mark the conclusion of the band’s special partnership with Danny Wimmer Presents, DWP founder Danny Wimmer presented Metallica with a $25,000 check for the band’s All Within My Hands foundation.
Welcome To Rockville offered other memorable moments, including Slipknot’s final show date of 2021 where they played their brand-new song “The Chapeltown Rag” for the first time outside of Knotfest as well as a rousing headlining set from Disturbed that offered some of the band’s biggest hits. Lynyrd Skynyrd also gave a memorable final North Florida hometown performance after more than 50 years together while Gwar celebrated 30 years of their hit record Scumdogs of the Universe. As well, Mastodon played their first show since releasing the Billboard-topping new album Hushed and Grim while Welcome To Rockville host and Metal Ambassador Jose Mangin took the stage with Ice Nine Kills where he grimly re-enacted a lyric in the song “Hip To Be Scared.” The partnership between DWP and Twitch allowed fans to tune into “That Space Zebra Show” throughout Welcome To Rockville for exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes content. The 1.2 million unique viewers that tuned in for over 10.9 million minutes throughout the festival were treated to performances by Staind, Cypress Hill, Disturbed, Rob Zombie and dozens more. While Forbes added of DWP’s partnership with Twitch, “DWP & Twitch are paving the future for rock and metal music.”
Okay, so you missed it this year, what do you need to do for next year? Start preparing now! Note that hotels within walking distance will not be cheap – but might be worth it since you won’t have to pay for parking, and you can supplement festival food and drink with other options. Or, get even closer with an RV slot or camping spot right on the festival grounds!
“We knew we had to do something massive to follow the biggest Welcome To Rockville in history so we went out and got rock legends Guns N’ Roses, newly inducted Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Foo Fighters, (you wanted the best, we got you the best) KISS and DWP’s most requested band, KORN,” says Danny Wimmer, founder of Danny Wimmer Presents. “We’re looking forward to breaking records at THE WORLD CENTER OF ROCK with you, see you in 2022!” Weekend Passes On Sale Now For $10 Down For Limited Time At www.WelcomeToRockville.com Currently, the lineup schedule is KISS (Thursday, May 19), KORN (Friday, May 20), Guns N’ Roses (Saturday, May 21) and Foo Fighters (Sunday, May 22). The full festival lineup will be announced in December.
For more information on #WelcomeToRockville, visit:
Website: www.WelcomeToRockville.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welcometorockville
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rockvillefest
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/welcometorockville
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When not in custody, I've been involved with music, photography, and writing my entire life. Ever since I was a young boy and played those silver tunes, I've had the beat, but being a drummer didn't suit me so I became a lead singer, which lasted a few years. Settling down, sort of, I translated my knowledge of audio and glib tongue into mobile emcee work, and my training as a photographer and videographer into a living in the wedding, party, bar/bat mitzvah, and entertainment industry. During this time I also managed to bamboozle my way into a master's degree in writing, worked for a couple of magazines (yes, I took photos for a nudist magazine!), have photographed hotels, done commercial work (shot the cover of Tablet and Capsule magazine), published a few articles, hosted some public access shows (a couple times in drag, but that's another story), and generally made a nuisance of myself until I landed here.
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