TankTheTech blasts Blue Ridge Rock Festival following disastrous weekend, 200 workers strike

A significant amount of online chatter has emerged surrounding the recent Blue Ridge Rock Festival that took place over the past weekend. The yearly gathering in Alton, VA, encountered severe weather conditions during its opening night on September 7th, resulting in widespread disorder and uncertainty. Numerous accounts from festival-goers described challenges with transportation between the festival grounds and campgrounds, as well as extensive damage to tents and campsites caused by the adverse weather.

Nevertheless, while the festival ultimately met its cancellation on September 9th due to severe weather, there have been conflicting narratives emerging from both attendees and those involved in the tour regarding the festival's demise. 

In a video posted by TankTheTech, who was part of Electric Callboy's crew during their performance at the festival, he candidly recounts his experience. He took care to emphasize that his views are solely his own and should not be attributed to the aforementioned band. In the video, he provides a detailed timeline of communication breakdowns within the festival, a lack of preparedness, and more.

According to Tank, Electric Callboy, who took the stage on September 8th, encountered challenges such as minimal stage assistance, an initially uncooled dressing room, and what he described as "non-existent" catering. He was informed that the catering issue was a consequence of the disruption caused by the previous day's storm at the festival.

Tank also voiced grievances about the scarcity of water backstage and the prolonged delays in transportation around the festival's backstage area, which hindered both his and the band's experience at the festival. He asserted that this situation was pervasive among nearly all performers at the event.

One notable incident he highlighted was a last-minute change in the schedule for a signing session, which he claimed had been agreed upon in advance. Apparently, this change was not communicated effectively by the festival organizers.

Tank alleged that the signing session lacked security, and the fans who had lined up appeared to be there for a different band, as the updated signing schedule had supposedly not been shared with the festival attendees. This confusion escalated when another artist, also scheduled for the same time, arrived, resulting in a minor altercation and leading Electric Callboy to ultimately abandon their signing plans.

Tank went on to describe significant delays in securing transportation and stagehands to swiftly transport the band's equipment to the stage and initiate the setup process for their performance. Expressing his general exasperation, he laments in the video:

What I started realizing in that moment was that every single fucking thing that I advanced with that festival never got relayed to anybody. So, I realized that the staff at the festival was basically flying blind. The stage manager had no advances on anything. The stagehands that were there—which was not many of them—I only saw like 4 or 5 all day, and at a festival like that you usually have a dozen per stage, nobody knew what was going on. They didn't know what the bands had.

I started realizing that all of the on the ground festival staff that was supposed to be doing hospitality and artist relations, they were all completely stressed. And it hit me that nobody has prepared these people for anything that's going on with this festival. And I felt so bad for them. I hold no animosity whatsoever to the festival staff here that was on the ground working. It was complete chaos.

Despite asserting that they had communicated with the festival's production team a month in advance, with subsequent follow-ups concerning the load-in and equipment setup, Tank asserted that during the transition, the stage manager assigned to their stage seemed unaware of the band's equipment requirements, including video carts and more. Tank empathized with the manager, stating that he appeared to have been unexpectedly thrust into a chaotic situation.

Tank also alleged that there was insufficient power available during their scheduled performance time. The stage electrician claimed they had not received adequate information about the band's specific power needs, leading to a frantic effort to set up their video carts. Fortunately, with the generosity of another band scheduled to perform after Electric Callboy, they were able to share some of their power resources.

Tank did acknowledge that after their performance, the air conditioning in the band's dressing room had finally been repaired, and catering was provided. However, he contended that access to water remained limited. He went on to describe that the festival-related issues persisted for him and the band.

He claimed that there continued to be confusion when it came to loading the band's equipment back up, resulting in a two-hour delay. He expressed disbelief, saying:

I found out that they only had like one flatbed truck and forklift for the entire festival, with 40 bands performing daily. It's just mind-boggling. The logistics are insane.

Later, he characterized the overall experience by saying: 

This is a level beyond 'Fyre Festival,' and I only say that because at least the bands actually got to perform.

Tank also mentioned that he had a face-to-face conversation with the festival's promoter, Jonathan Slye, during which he vented his numerous grievances about the festival.

According to Tank, Slye was reportedly taken aback by the band's experience. He allegedly informed Tank that the production staff had been hired from the 'Sick New World' festival. Tank claimed that Slye explained he had taken on the festival with the intention of "changing it" and had invested "millions and millions of dollars" to ensure its smooth operation.

Tank offered the following on why he chose to speak out about the festival and his personal experience: 

I feel that people should be held accountable for this and that's why I'm talking about this. Again, this was the most unorganized, unprofessional, unsafe production I've ever been a part of in my entire life touring. I can't speak for any of the other bands because I don't know how it was on the other stages.

We were not on the main stage, I don't know how it was for bands like Slipknot and Danzig that were there the same day. But I do have friends, I do have friends in a lot of camps that were on the other stages. I heard a lot of the same things from other people.

When I saw that the festival was canceled the next day due to 'weather', I was like no fucking way. I looked at the radar immediately and there was no weather in that area, at all. They canceled that festival because it was a shitshow. I talked to some friends that were there on that Saturday and I was told that a lot of the festival staff had walked off. They said 'no, we're not doing this anymore.' They left.

The festival is blaming the weather for the cancelation for everything. Maybe that first day with the storms was what made everything go sideways. So you could maybe say weather was a reason, but it was not the reason. The reason this festival canceled is because it was an utter shitshow from the day it started getting planned. That's my opinion from what I experienced.

According to a report from WDBJ7, several festival workers employed by the event have raised concerns about inadequate sanitary facilities, with only six porta-potties allegedly provided for a workforce of over 150 stagehands during the festival's two-week setup.

The report also indicates that a list of demands was presented to the festival organizers on the night of Friday, September 8th, on behalf of the staff working at the event. This list, as outlined in the aforementioned report, included requests for additional showers, more water stations, improved catering for the workers, safer shelter, better leadership, and complete transparency in their work conditions.

As per the report, the festival workers threatened to go on strike at 5:00 pm on Saturday, September 9th. Earlier that day, festival organizers had issued a statement announcing the cancellation of the festival's programming on Saturday due to "severe weather" and promised to provide further updates at the same time the strike was scheduled to commence.

Stagehands interviewed by the publication stated that the festival organizers did not agree to their demands, leading to approximately "80%" of the staff walking out within two hours of the strike deadline. An official announcement regarding the cancellation of the remainder of the festival was made on Saturday.

Interestingly, WDBJ7 also received information from the Halifax County Sheriff's Office indicating that the festival reported the sale of 45,000 tickets for the event. However, the Sheriff's Office estimates that the actual attendance at the festival ranged from 50,000 to 60,000 people.

As of now, no official statement has been given by the festival but they did share a brief message eluding one is coming.