October 2021

In its fourth year, the 2021 Blue Ridge Rock Festival was held over the long weekend of September 9 – 12 on the grounds of the Blue Ridge Amphitheater, and the event was the biggest ever in the festival’s histo- ry. According to the organizers, 160,000 tickets were sold, bringing daily projected attendance to 40,000. The Blue Ridge Amphitheater site is a 300-acre field where stages can be installed and arranged in any necessary or convenient configuration. The Blue Ridge Rock Festival is the first large-scale use of this new space, and it will surely be its continuing home since the festival organizers also own the venue. Be- sides this festival, the new site could host any num- ber of other events from fairly modest ones to large multi-day gatherings, given its scalable nature. Blue Ridge bills itself as the fan-driven festival, taking its cues from the people who come to hear the mu- sic. They let the public make suggestions and vote on which acts they want to see perform. There was quite a bit of last-minute shuffling this year – but that was true for every festival, because of covid-19. The final slate was impressive, including headlining bands like Shinedown, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Deathpunch, Breaking Benjamin, and Megadeth. The supporting cast constitutes an amazing list, too: Clutch, Jelly Roll, Lamb of God, Body Count, Kills- witch Engage, Papa Roach, Motionless In White, Cypress Hill, Anthrax, Seether, Suicidal Tendencies, Fozzy, Sevendust, The Offspring, Corrosion of Con- formity, Mastodon, and on and on. The line-up is definitely one of the best at any festival this year in its size, quality, and scope. How can all these bands be at one festival? For one thing, there was an extra day this year. Like many fes- tivals, Thursday was added to the usual Friday, Satur- day, and Sunday as a way to make up a little for not holding a festival in 2020. More than the extra day, Blue Ridge has six stages. It is a gargantuan endeavor and it can keep you roaming to catch your favorite bands – it also makes sure there is never a moment without music. This year’s festival received the best gift an outdoor even can get: beautiful weather. There was no rain on any day, and while it was a little hot on Sunday, it is really hard to find something to complain about, weather-wise. Sure it was a little dusty but I’ll take that over rain any day of an outdoor music festival. There were a few rigidities, especially on the first two days. For people who experienced a problem with their tickets or parking or camping, then it was a rough time. There are always some problems for events of this size, and given the huge leap in scale from this year to the previous one, and covid-19-re- lated issues, a reasonable person had to expect some problems. I had difficulty getting to the site the first day myself, and a couple of harrowing adventures finding my car at night, but the situation improved every day. So, even though there were some troubles, there were also thousands and thousands of fans there all four days of the festival having an amazing time. The stages were arranged in a clever way. There were two large stages. Right next to each of them was a smaller stage. That allowed music to be nearly con- tinuous in those spaces all day. Separately, there were two other stages, let’s call them medium-sized. That is the six stages altogether. The grounds were enor- mous and the distance between the two most distant stages was pretty big. In between, though, there were all those other stages so music was always in earshot. Like with any big festival, you did have to make a few tough choices for bands that were playing at the same time on different stages. The toughest ones for me were when Lamb of God and Seether were on over- lapping schedules, and Cypress Hill and Body Count. Really, though, it didn’t happen all that much for the bands I wanted to see – pretty amazing considering the number of stages and the number of bands. Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Danville, Virginia Words and photos by Wayne Edwards 16