We’re officially halfway through the “biggest rock festival in America” – Florida’s Welcome to Rockville – and Dan Slater is there. He brings us all his experiences on ground from the last two days of the event in Daytona Beach, Florida. You can look back at his day one and day two coverage here.
A festival this size requires a feat of organisation, and I’ve been impressed by the way it’s been handled. All the workers, from Guest Services to gate wardens, bar staff, vendors, volunteers and litter pickers seem super chill, and happy to be here. Many are obviously metal fans themselves, and even the old folk running the shuttle back to the campsite are jokers, squirting us with water pistols etc. One security guy ran across the road to specifically request that I “Keep on rocking!” That level of acceptance extends across to all patrons – I personally haven’t seen a hint of aggressive behaviour anywhere. It seems the spectre of Woodstock ’99 has been vanquished forever, despite many of the same bands appearing on this bill.
Around the time the tarmac stopped bubbling on Day 3, Beartooth took to the Apex stage. I knew the Columbus five-piece were epic on record – I discovered these guys from hearing the opening bars of “Greatness or Death” blasting from the ears of my seat neighbour on an aeroplane – so I was expecting great things live. Human Tassie Devil Caleb Shomo delivered in spades, initiating more back and forth crowd yodelling than Freddie Mercury in his prime. The chorus of “I was Alive” – “When I di-i-ie, I’ll know I didn’t just live, I was ali-i-ve!” – may go down as the weekends most uplifting refrain.
Linkin Park were one of the most anticipated bands on the bill, and rightly so due to a hotly debated new singer, Emily Armstrong, and their first new album (From Zero) since 2017 and former singer Chester Bennington’s tragic suicide. The atmosphere was palpable when their backdrop lit up with swirling pixels announcing their arrival, the audio segueing from a stylised “Castle of Glass” into “Somewhere I belong”.
For the next 90 minutes, the band covered most bases, with Mike Shinoda doing the bulk of the heavy lifting, vocals-wise. Anyone who’s heard new single “The Emptiness Machine” will know Emily is packing quite a set of lungs, so it’s a pity she didn’t use them to full effect. Far too often she pointed the mic at the crowd, leaving us to sing Chester’s iconic lines, from “Crawling” and “In the End” among others, instead of belting them out herself. This could betray a misplaced lack of confidence. If so, I hope it dissipates soon. You don’t buy a dog and bark yourself!
Well, maybe that’s just me. Apart from that, and splitting their set into four ‘acts’, a structure which produced sections of dead space where momentum was in danger of being lost, the evening was a success, with the live debut of “Let you fade” giving the fans something special. The hubbub from the homeward-bound fans spoke of satisfaction with the recovery of a band from an oftentimes fatal situation.
And that brings us to the final stretch – Day four of four. As the site gradually came alive between 9am and 11am, countless fork lift truck loads of ice were ferried hither and thither, golf buggies with important-looking people whizzed up and down the hallowed track, and hospitality staff wondered up to bars dressed like extras from a Kiss show, an incongruous image in the blinding morning sun.
The weather gods even threw us a Sunday bone with a smattering of cloud, and the relief when one covered the sun for even a few seconds was palpable. I’m sure this was much appreciated by the fans of Mudvayne and Insane Clown Posse, two bands in the line-up which increased the acreage of creepy fan face paint on site by a good 10%. This is also the day I finally found one of the cool-down tents – a white marquee full of chairs, like a Baptist revival church but without a pastor and occupied by chattering goths. They were there all along, but with a site this large, there are too many nooks and crannies to explore fully. Case in point, I only came across the Milagro tequila truck on Day 3! There were also cool buses and a shaded concourse inside the grandstand. As eloquently put in the festival FAQ – ‘The only thing that should be melting is your face from the killer guitar solos!’
The final day’s bill was one of hard-hitters, building from early-afternoon battlers Snot and Filter through surprise revelations Daughtry, who grabbed my attention from the middle of the field with vocalist Chris Daughtry‘s ode to belonging, “Heavy is the Crown”. After that, it was like guns firing up and down the length of the main field between the Apex and Octane stages. BOOM! Chevelle prove their live show squares their on-record intensity, a feat I didn’t think possible. CRACK! Mudvayne respond with a snarling, dripping performance to match their startling appearance. [Take note, Slipknot: this is what scary masks look like!]
The guns fell silent then in anticipation of the King of Grotesque, Marylin Manson, who’d scored the coveted dusk slot, as usual. Despite being in his mid-fifties, Manson is still appealing to the kids, as evidenced by a 14 year-old with a rubber chicken named Korn who tried to persuade me her mother hadn’t even been born the first time I saw him play, back in 1996. Fortunately her maths was out, but not by much! More restrained than back then (i.e. no razor blades or spit requests) but still plenty zealous enough, the current line-up of Spooky Kids (including female guitarist Reba Meyers, all flying hair and vitriolic backing vocals) played a balanced mix of new and old. “As sick as the secrets within” (from 2024 album One Assassination under God) spliced “Sweet Dreams” and “Dope Show”, his intro to the latter finishing with a declaration “I am a a drug addict”. His tone left us unsure if this was a childish boast or a brave, AA-style admission, but either way, The Beautiful People left satisfied.
Of all four headline sets this Rockville, Korn proved the tightest, still giving it everything after thirty-plus years. Opening with “Blind” and closing with “Freak on a Leash”, they filled the gap with melodic nu metal classics including “Twisted Transistor”, “Coming Undone” and “Got the Life”. Their no-nonsense stage presence was a stark contrast to those artists who can’t seem to stop babbling between songs. They held Rockville in thrall until the end, making sure everyone left happy after a bone fide spectacle.
And that was a wrap! While the Florida heat did its utmost to slay the crowd’s enthusiasm (I for one would have experienced much more music had it been a little milder), Rockville fought back with an array of water-based cooling options, and we survived. Almost every band I saw ripped through their sets with glee – there wasn’t a dud among them – and the range of genres represented ran the gamut of metal heaviness from, say, tungsten to osmium (at 22.59 g/cm³ the densest metal in the periodic table).
Welcome to Rockville will be back in 2026. If you’re looking for a huge, well-organised, trouble-free, four-day metal festival to attend next year, and as long as you can take the heat, keep an eye on their official website to see how it’s shaping up. Next May is only eleven months away!
This article covered the 17th and 18th of May, 2025. For more details about Welcome to Rockville, head to their official website. Photos by the author except for photos of Linkin Park and Korn, provided by the festival.
