Rebel Rock Festival 2021 Canceled Mere Hours Before Its Start

There are a lot of very disappointed people in Orlando right now. I mean, there are always a lot of very disappointed people in Orlando. But, like, especially disappointed today.

Lambgoat reports that this year’s Rebel Rock Festival has been canceled — literally just hours before it was set to begin today. Although a Thursday night “Taco Metal Party” pre-festival show, featuring Volbeat and P.O.D. (among others), apparently went off without a hitch. But the festival proper — which would have included performances by Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed, Suicide Silence, Sevendust, August Burns Red, Underoath, and Five Finger Death Punch, amongst others — ain’t happenin’.

So why was the festival canceled at the last second? Not for the reasons you might assume! A statement from the fest’s organizers explains:

“We are deeply and utterly devastated to announce the cancellation of this weekend’s Rebel Rock Festival.

“After this week’s severe weather and despite our crew’s effort to improve the ground conditions around the Main Stage over the last three days, our venue partner has deemed the area unfit for artists, crews, vendors, and fans. We were able to get in the Taco Metal Party on Thursday by using the B-Main grounds while continuing to work on the conditions of the Main Stage grounds. The amount of water dropped this week simply proved to be too much to clear to provide you a safe festival environment and experience. We can’t tell you how heartbreaking it is to see two years of work be tackled by mother nature.

“We’ll share more information about refunds as soon as possible.”

Even if you don’t love all or any of the bands on the bill, you’d have to be totally heartless not to feel for the ticket holders. With a big event like this, there’s little doubt that many fans traveled significant distances to attend the festival, and now this happens.

The other, arguably even more major bummer, of course, is that between COVID-19 and the weather, Mother Nature is pretty clearly not just trying to “tackle” us so much as she’s trying to snuff us out. We treated her like shit, and she’s had enough. In the not-too-distant future, shows being called off due to weather disasters is gonna become commonplace.

Happy Friday!!!