Danny Wimmer Presents, promoter of a number of major U.S. rock festivals, has mapped out its 2021 calendar, revealing which events are returning this year and which ones are on hold until 2022.
The festival promoter will skip its annual “World’s Loudest Month” of spring festivals, after postponing all of its events in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of those fests, Florida’s Welcome to Rockville, will move to November, joining DWP’s other fall festivals, Louder Than Life and Aftershock. Unfortunately, fans who traditionally attend Sonic Temple (Columbus, Ohio) and Epicenter (Charlotte, N.C.) will have to wait until 2022 for those festivals to resume.
Louder Than Life, Aftershock, and Welcome to Rockville have all been expanded from three-day festivals to four-day events. Louder Than Life takes place September 23rd-26th at Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky; Aftershock will be staged October 7th-10th at Discovery Park in Sacramento, California; and Welcome to Rockville will occur November 11th-14th at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Other than Aftershock, no lineups have been announced for the 2021 festivals yet. Previously, it was revealed that Metallica and My Chemical Romance, who were slated to headline the postponed 2020 Aftershock fest, will be on board for the 2021 edition. The Sacramento event will also feature Limp Bizkit, Rancid, The Offspring, Social Distortion, Rise Against, Volbeat, Machine Gun Kelly, Mastodon, and more.
In addition to laying out the details of its long-running festivals, DWP also announced that it has partnered with the creators of the Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival. That fest will take place this year July 23rd-25th at the Ohio State Reformatory (aka “Shawshank State Prison” from The Shawshank Redemption) in Mansfield, Ohio.
“Taking our festivals down last year was one of the most painful experiences our company has ever lived through,” stated Danny Wimmer. “And it wasn’t just painful for us, it was hard on the bands, fans, partners, cities and vendors. It has become clear to us that we will not be able to have our festivals this spring, and for a variety of reasons, it is not possible to produce all of our annual festivals in the window of Fall 2021, so we made the difficult decision to only produce Aftershock, Welcome to Rockville and Louder Than Life this year.”
He added, “Focusing on these three events, along with Inkcarceration Festival at the end of July gives as many fans as possible, from all over the country, the chance to rock again.”
DWP has also partnered with Sixth Man for a new five-day cruise and private island festival set to take place in Harvest Caye, Belize, from February 16th-21st, 2022, with details to be announced in the coming months.
Of course, all of these festivals are contingent on whether it is safe for large-scale outdoor concerts to return. Stay tuned as lineups are announced for the aforementioned festivals. In the meantime, visit the Danny Wimmer Presents website for ticket information.
