Louder Than Life expanded to four days with Metallica headlining
Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) has canceled Epicenter, Sonic Temple and Welcome to Rockville spring festivals due to the coronavirus pandemic. The fall festivals — Louder Than Life, Bourbon & Beyond and Aftershock — will still go on as scheduled with Louder Than Life expanding to four days and Metallica rejoining as a headliner after bowing out earlier this year due to frontman James Hetfield’s admission into rehab.
“There are no pre-existing guidelines for what festivals should be doing during this unprecedented time. Like the rest of the music industry, we continue to assess new information and make the best-educated decisions possible. We know you have been anxious for updates from us and we are at a point where we can answer many of your questions about how each of our festivals may be affected by COVID-19,” organizers share.
They continue, “We are crushed to say that Epicenter, Welcome To Rockville and Sonic Temple are being canceled due to the governmental restrictions on mass gatherings. We respect these directives and recognize they are in the best interest of the greater good, as well as the health and safety of our fans, musicians, partners, and staff. Before accepting this fate, we worked really hard to try to reschedule the festivals. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts, venue availabilities and a number of other factors out of our control made postponing impossible. Make no mistake, each of these festivals will return in May 2021 bigger and stronger than ever!”
Full refunds will be issued to everyone who has purchased passes to Epicenter, Welcome To Rockville and Sonic Temple. Ticket holders will also be given the option to apply their pass to 2021 or exchange it for another 2020 Danny Wimmer Presents festival.
Organizers insist they will be sharing who will be headlining Louder Than Life, Bourbon & Beyond and Aftershock when the time is right. “Please understand that here at DWP, we’ve been debating when it is appropriate to announce our lineups and put passes on sale for our remaining festivals. Our heads say we need to hold off on these announcements until we have more certainty in the world. But our hearts say the world needs positivity and some things to look forward to. We’ve been paying close attention to what you are saying on our social media and two themes consistently emerge. First, you do want something to remind you of the better days ahead. Second, times are financially hard for all of us.
“While we want nothing more than to give you the full lineups for Aftershock, Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life, we just don’t feel like it’s the right time. But we did hear you loud and clear that you want some good news. And good news we have. We are adding a Thursday to 2020 Louder Than Life and, are you ready . . . the newly added Thursday will be headlined by none other than Metallica. Yes, Metallica is back! We simply couldn’t accept that after all we’ve gone through together this year that there would be no Metallica performance East of the Mississippi. And Metallica agrees!
“We have also arranged for many of the bands from Sonic, Epicenter and Rockville to play at Louder Than Life and will be announcing that as soon as we feel appropriate. Because we were not able to reschedule the spring festivals, we want Louder Than Life to be an inclusive celebration of all of those festivals. It’s not a perfect solution, but these are imperfect times. It is our sincere hope that we are all able to heal together with massive celebrations this fall.”
DWP is offering all current pass holders for Louder Than Life admission into the fourth day for free. They are also deferring the next installment payment on the layaway plan for a month and offering refund options through March 27th, due to the current financial crisis impacting the world.
Anyone who hasn’t but wants to secure a Louder Than Life pass can for $1 down per pass. Payments will start on May 3rd and split evenly in May, June, July and August.
Should the pandemic not end in time for Hometown Rising, Louder Than Life, Bourbon & Beyond or Aftershock, DWP assures that all passes will be refunded in the unfortunate event that any of these festivals are prevented from happening because of COVID-19.