For those that haven’t heard, Carolina Rebellion‘s Sunday show was cancelled after only 6 bands played due to weather issues. While the Tickets said Rain or Shine, the event organizers obviously hadn’t figured on any rain whatsoever because there were no screens around the stages to protect against any weather. After a late start, and several bands not taking the stage, Buckcherry was the last band to take the stage. Three hours later the event was finally officially cancelled. The crowd was less than pleased.
Mainly due to the complete lack of information coming from the event organizers. They had a Twitter Feed and a Facebook page that was being updated all day telling everyone to come out that the show was still on. And then once it got too bad for the bands to play (or the bands simply refused to play in those conditions), they stopped updating the feeds.
Put 30,000 people in a mud pit, in the cold and rain, and then don’t give them anything to do for 3 hours. Promise them a show Rain or Shine and then leave them to their own devices for three hours with no communication. They’re lucky the crowd of predominantly drunk rednecks didn’t tear down the stages for them directly on top of them.
This after 3 years of questionable decisions on what they are trying to create as a world renown festival. The first year the organizers didn’t expect more than 10-15,000 attendees. 30,000 people showed up. There simply were not enough facilities or concessions to handle double the expected occupancy.
Year two had them move the location of the festival to the middle of nowhere in Rockingham, NC. It was a giant dustbowl with brutal heat and sun and absolutely no where to go to get out of it.
Year three saw them move the event for the third time. A much better location as far as having parking and hotels around it to stay at. It is now housed outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and overall it seemed like a good location. However the stages were so far apart and the bands started on one stage as the last note was still ringing out on the other so that you missed the first couple of songs of each band. There was simply no way to get from one stage to the other while wadding through 29,999 other people in a timely fashion.
And then there was the weather this year canceling the first two day event in the history of Carolina Rebellion.
The organizers, AEG LIVE and THIRD ARM Entertainment have released the following statement on their website announcing their plan to partially reimburse concert goers or offer them a free 2nd day ticket to next year’s event.
You can read it all below.
From Carolina Rebellion‘s website:
Dear Rebels:
Please forgive the length of this letter. But we feel we have some explaining to do.
First, we want to thank each and every one of you for enduring the rain and coming out to show the country just how hardcore the Rebels really are. We also want to thank you for sticking with us and for taking the time to voice your comments, praise and criticism.
We’ve had some bumps in making Carolina Rebellion into the massive, world-recognized festival we believe it can be. We produce many successful events around the country, including Rock on the Range, Welcome to Rockville, and Rocklahoma, and we see great things for Rebellion. But before we can grow it, we have to earn your trust. Therefore we want to let you know where we think we’ve gone wrong and what we’re doing to fix it.
A successful festival must have a predictable experience. And to be predictable, we have to be in the same venue each year. For three years we have tried different locations and are happy to say that we feel that Rock City Campground at Charlotte Motor Speedway is the right venue, and we hope to make it our long term home. By staying in the same place, we can focus on improving the overall festival experience. For instance, we are looking at how to better position the stages and the time between bands. You have also asked about the extent of the weather protection for the stages themselves. We are addressing this with the staging company and will consider bringing in different pieces of equipment next year that provide more protection from the elements. Please keep sharing your thoughts and ideas. We want you to know that we are listening, and we will keep listening.
Regarding the late cancellation due to inclement weather, many of you have pointed out that the tickets say “Rain or Shine.” That is true, unless and until safety becomes an issue. This is no different than any large sporting event or other outdoor event. We were monitoring the weather in real-time from the National Weather Service and coordinating with the bands and local law enforcement every step of the way. In hindsight, we regret not giving you more information on how, if, and when the show might continue. Our lack of information was not meant to be deceitful. The weather pattern was constantly changing on Sunday, making it difficult to give you a concrete message, and we all were really hoping the weather would clear and the show could continue. By 7:15pm, it was decided by all parties that conditions were not going to improve and that it was unsafe to keep going.
We absolutely did have a cancellation plan in place with local law enforcement. That plan required that before making a cancellation announcement, we had to forewarn our staff and security to ensure a safe and orderly exit. It takes a bit of time to make sure that message has been communicated to all. Once we had everyone in place to manage a safe exit, the public announcement was made. As unpleasant as the rain was for all of us, it was imperative to only release information in an organized and safe fashion.
Your safety is not our only responsibility. We are also responsible for your experience. We want a long term relationship with you. And while we appreciate that many of you have pointed out that we cannot control the weather, we don’t feel that we did all that we could under the circumstances to maximize your experience. Many of you have asked about a make-up date. We would love to do that but it takes many months to plan an event of this magnitude, and there are many variables involved, most importantly artist availability. We just cannot give you a guarantee today of when and how we would put on that event or what bands would play or where it could be held.
So, we’ve decided to do the next best thing by giving you a ticket to next year’s Sunday show day absolutely FREE. That’s right, you will receive the financial equivalent of a Rebellion general admission ticket for Sunday and it won’t cost you anything. We also understand that some of you may not be able to or want to attend Carolina Rebellion next year. Rather than just say we are sorry, we want to make sure everyone is offered something. So, if you are not interested in a free ticket to next year’s Sunday show, you can instead opt for a 20% refund of the face value of your 2013 ticket purchase.
Here is how this process will work:
1. Click on this link anytime now through Tuesday, May 14th at 11:59pm ET to “Register A Claim” with Rebellion. You will be asked to fill out a form that will include your 2013 Ticket Confirmation Number, name on credit card, address, phone, email, etc. The form will also ask you if you would like to opt for the free Sunday show ticket in 2014 or the partial refund of your 2013 purchase. Note that we will not be extending this deadline, so please make sure to register your claim by the cutoff date and time.
2. After we have received all of the registered claims, we will verify your 2013 purchase information within our system to make sure everything matches, and we will begin processing the claims. Note that this will take some time, so please be patient, but we will get to all claims.
3. If you request a partial refund, we will initiate a credit with your credit card company or issue you a check. If you request a free Sunday show ticket to the 2014 festival, we will send you a unique code via email when we announce the 2014 festival info, and you will have a specified period of time to use the code to make your purchase at that time, which will include the free Sunday ticket. The unique code will deduct an amount equivalent to the base general admission ticket price for one day from your purchase.
We truly do value each and every one of you, because without you, there will be no Carolina Rebellion. Because it is impossible to customize a remedy for each individual, we are trying to do what the majority of you are asking for. We look forward to 2014, a bigger and better experience for you, and hopefully for much better weather.
If you have further questions, please feel free to email us at rebellioninfo@aeglive.com or leave a voice mail message on our hotline,
314-726-8020. We will get back to you as quickly as we can.
Sincerely,
The Carolina Rebellion Team
