2020 Rock & Metal Festival Cancellations Begin To Surge

It wasn’t long ago when rock & metal fans were gearing up for what would be a stacked summer concert season. Rage Against The Machine, Tool, Metallica, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and KISS, were among several acts slated to appear at European and U.S. festivals this spring/summer. As the number of COVID-19 cases in both the U.S. and Europe have rapidly increased over the last 5 weeks, spring festivals and tours were being canceled or postponed as predicted. However, with the ongoing spread of the virus, some late spring and early summer rock festivals are now announcing complete cancellations for 2020.

Danny Wimmer Presents and Download hold some of the biggest rock/metal oriented festivals in the world. Earlier this week Danny Wimmer Presents, the renown U.S. based festival producer, announced they would be canceling all of their spring festivals: Epicenter (May 1st-3rd Concord/Charlotte, NC), Welcome To Rockville (May 8th-10th Daytona Beach, FL), and Sonic Temple (May 15th-17th Columbus, OH). And as of today, the UK annual summer festival, Download, announced it would be canceling this year’s event entirely.

Considering the ambitious year DWP had ahead of them, particularly their deal with Metallica who was set to perform two of three nights at each of their rock/metal festivals, it’s certainly a disappointing situation on all fronts. However, the company’s handling of the situation is to be commended, specifically with the variety of refund options and financial amenities they’ve given ticket holders. Essentially, tickets bought for any of the three canceled festivals can either be fully refunded, applied to 2021, or exchanged for another DWP 2020 fall festival (Louder Than Life, Bourbon & Beyond, and Afterschock). In addition, they’ve added a fourth day to the Louder Than Life festival which will be free to current pass holders.

Download, a three day metal & rock festival held in Donington Park June 12th-14th, announced similar plans for its ticket holders, stating “we are working closely with our ticketing partners now and they will be in touch very soon to process your refund, or, if you prefer, you can retain your ticket and carry it over to next year.” Also noteworthy, the Australian dates for the festival which were scheduled for March 20th and 21st, were of course canceled as well, but only after headliner My Chemical Romance backed out.

As for the remaining rock & metal festivals, DWP and Download are certainly two of the biggest, but Germany’s Wacken Open air is what many would consider the most popular. The festival famously sells out each year, with 2020’s event selling out all 75,000 tickets in under 21 hours. However, seeing as it’s held in the middle of summer, end of July-beginning of august, Wacken is in a more flexible position in deciding whether or not to cancel.

While later festivals like Wacken are still TBD, the spring festival season has quickly evaporated, and the early summer season is quickly following suite: Delaware’s Firefly festival announced the decision to cancel, and Tennessee’s Bonaroo has officially been postponed to September. Overall, there’s sure to be more cancellations and/or postponements in the coming weeks, especially if COVID-19 cases continue to increase.