The final two days of this year's Blue Ridge Rock Festival were canceled due to a severe storm that swept through Virginia. Thursday's portion of the fest ended early during Coheed And Cambria's set. Friday was not canceled -- Slipknot and Oliver Anthony were among the performances, though Till Lindemann dropped out last minute. On Saturday morning, festival reps announced that the final two days (Saturday and Sunday) would be canceled outright due to weather.
Here's what they wrote in a post:
Dear Blue Ridge Fans, with heavy hearts, due to this weekend's continued severe weather, we must announce the cancellation of the final days of Blue Ridge Rock Festival. Your safety and well-being are our foremost concerns. We understand the disappointment this brings, and we share immensely in your sadness. Please know that this decision was made with the utmost consideration for everyone involved and our focus now is on supporting those of you still on-site.
We are working diligently to provide refund details and will share that information early this week when business re-opens. In the meantime, we encourage you to stay safe and take care of each other. This has been an agonizing turn of events for what was to be such a special weekend. There will be more much that we unveil over the next few days. Rest assured, we will take care of you despite these difficult circumstances. Thank you for everything. With heartfelt gratitude, Blue Ridge Rock Festival.
As was the case with Burning Man and Electric Zoo last weekend, attendees had plenty to say on social media about difficulty evacuating the festival site, especially because non-campers had to wait hours for shuttles to the parking lots that were off-site.
As Metal Injection reported, organizers "state they are working on offering refunds to everyone that attended, and will share those details sometime in the upcoming week."
Before everything closed, Oliver Anthony, Shinedown, and Papa Roach performed together in the parking lot.
@vermilionvixenmain Spent 5 hours total, waiting in line for the shuttle buses and 3 hours at the venue ? #blueridgerockfestival2023 #blueridgerockfest #rockfestival #blueridgemoments
♬ original sound - Vermilionvixen
@fishsticccs we waited 2 hours on line for shuttle busses after blue ridge was evacuated ?? we got rained on so badly and hail HURTS. ? #fyp #blueridgerockfest
♬ original sound - mads ?️
@lowskifrr We got 1 day of a 4 day music festival #blueridgerockfest #brrf2023 #brrf #blueridgerockfestival2023 #shitshow #virginiainternationalraceway #storm #virginia
♬ Duality - Slipknot
#blueridgerockfest day 1:
— ?Serato? ? denfur, FM (@yourlocalraver) September 8, 2023
Really good ramen! really hot, SUDDENLY HURRICANE?? told to evacuate? Lightning hit a stage and damaged bands equipment. Walk to bus line in LITERAL HAIL AND DOWNPOUR Wait 4 hrs (while drenched) in line for bus back to lot (almost pass out)
Took shelter under an accessibility platform for the storm. After evac, friends and I ran past the shuttle line, ignored police telling us to stop, and walked back to the blue parking lot bc we waited for 2 hours and the shuttle line, like half a mile long, didn’t move. Insanity
— C̴a̷f̵e̷B̴u̵s̷t̷e̴l̵o̵ ̸F̷a̵n̶ (@THE_TERRORIZER) September 8, 2023
We love you all ❤️
— Papa Roach (@paparoach) September 10, 2023
Thank you for sticking around with us despite the rain and @BlueRidgeRock getting canceled!
Thank you @TheBrentSmith from @Shinedown for pulling this idea together last minute for the fans and to @AintGottaDollar for joining us
??? pic.twitter.com/nehTCQiux4
