Pit Thoughts: Welcome To Rockville To Make Huge Waves at Daytona Beach, FL

Welcome To Rockville has been a long-standing feature during the opening of the Danny Wimmer Presents festival season. For 9 years thousands of people invaded Jacksonville, FL to rock out to some of the most amazing bands. Even Florida’s heavy rainstorms and lightning couldn’t keep people away from the festival. And now for Welcome To Rockville’s 10th anniversary, Danny Wimmer Presents has made some changes to help this festival get even bigger and better.

The biggest change was the decision to move the festival away from Jacksonville. This year the festival will be held at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FLDanny Wimmer, founder of Danny Wimmer Presents, said “After nine great years in Jacksonville, it was a difficult decision to move Welcome To Rockville to a new home – but it was a necessary decision for the festival to continue to grow and deliver the kind of experience that Florida’s rock fans deserve.” And he’s right. The Daytona International Speedway increases the festival audience capacity while at the same time providing more enhanced audience experiences. A recent $400 million renovation of the Speedway and additional $200 million invested in the surrounding area in recent years has transformed the destination into a world-class facility, including numerous hotels within walking distance, many dining options and expanded space for camping, allowing Rockville attendees a convenient and well-rounded experience.

Welcome To Rockville did make another small change in bumping back the date of the festival. While normally being the first festival to kick off the season, this time they will follow after EpicenterWelcome To Rockville Friday, May 8, Saturday, May 9 and Sunday, May 10, 2020. Average temperatures last year were in the low to mid 80s and it did not rain. We can hope the same trend will hold for this year.

For the 10th anniversary of the festival, Danny Wimmer Presents, made some great choices around the music lineup to ensure this would be a festival to remember. Metallica was announced to perform at all five Danny Wimmer Presents festivals in 2020. This includes Epicenter, Welcome To Rockville, Sonic Temple Art + Music, Louder Than Life, and Aftershock. The band will headline on Friday and Sunday evening and play two unique sets each night. This alone will be a huge draw for the festival. But, they weren’t done.

Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd will be performing on Sunday night and will be their last show ever in their Northern FL home area. “As a lifelong fan, it was an overwhelming experience to attend Lynyrd Skynyrd’s final hometown show at a sold-out stadium (TIAA Bank Field) in Jacksonville in September of 2018. Lynyrd Skynyrd is a band that has known tragedy and responded with nothing but triumph for over 50 years. They defined Southern rock, and they were a definitive part of my own rock n’ roll education growing up in Jacksonville,” says Danny Wimmer, “I’m so humbled and honored that Lynyrd Skynyrd is coming with us to Daytona Beach to celebrate 10 years of Welcome To Rockville with their last-ever North Florida area show.” This is a stellar addition to the Welcome To Rockville lineup and a great way for celebrating the 10 year anniversary. This is a performance not to be missed.

Disturbed will headline Saturday night that will surely have the fans moshing and rocking. The rest of the lineup this year has another great mix of festival veterans and first-timers including Godsmack, Deftones, Social Distortion, The Offspring, Staind, Lamb of God, Rancid, Dropkick Murphys, Mastodon, Gojira, Royal Blood, Alter Bridge, The Pretty Reckless, Anthrax, Ghostemane, Hellyeah, Hollywood Undead, and Bad Wolves. The full official lineup is:

Friday, May 8
Metallica, Deftones, Social Distortion, Dropkick Murphys, Rancid, Royal Blood, Ghostemane, Motionless In White, Knocked Loose, Bones UK, City Morgue, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Brutus, Killstation, Brass Against, Ego Kill Talent, Zero 9:36

 

Saturday, May 9
Disturbed, The Offspring, Staind, Lamb of God, Alter Bridge, The Pretty Reckless, Hollywood Undead, Hellyeah, Bad Wolves, The Darkness, Power Trip, Jinjer, The Hu, New Years Day, 3Teeth, Brkn Love, Toothgrinder, Joyous Wolf

 

Sunday, May 10
Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Godsmack, Mastodon, Gojira, Anthrax, Code Orange, Dance Gavin Dance, Sleeping With Sirens, Of Mice & Men, Sick Of It All, Agnostic Front, Fire From The Gods, Counterfeit., Airbourne, Goodbye June, Stitched Up Heart, Hero The Band

There will be three stages hosting the music artists this year with the schedule to be announced closer to the festival dates. Below is a map of the festival grounds and locations of the stages.

 

Besides the music, at Welcome To Rockville fans 21+ can enjoy multiple specialty curated beverage experiences. First, Danny Wimmer Presents is proud to offer a collaboration with Metallica’s Blackened American Whiskey and Enter Night PilsnerBlackened is a super-premium American whiskey blend, crafted by the late Master Distiller Dave Pickerell and finished in the earth shattering music of Metallica. The finest bourbons, ryes and whiskeys were hand-selected to create something revolutionary—finished in black brandy casks and pummeled by sound. I personally bought a bottle of Blackend after tasting it at Welcome To Rockville and absolutely love it. Enter Night Pilsner is Metallica’s collaboration with the rock stars of craft brewing, Stone BrewingBlackened and Enter Night will come together under one roof to offer guests a one-of-kind musical festival experience. The massive Boilermaker pop-up will feature a Blackened & Enter Night Pilsner Boilermaker, as well as craft cocktails and ice-cold Enter Night Pilsner. This exciting collaboration marks the latest in a long line of amplified guest experiences only available through Danny Wimmer Presents music festivals. Learn more at http://BlackenedWhiskey.com.

Fans 21+ can also enjoy multiple specialty curated beverage experiences including Heavy Tiki Bar presented by Kraken Black Spiced Rum, which will provide a shaded tropical oasis filled with killer cocktails.

General admission tickets, VIP tickets, camping and parking options are available now at https://WelcomeToRockvilleFestival.com. Welcome To Rockville VIP passes will provide access to all General Admission festival areas, plus: dedicated entrance lanes into the festival, access to the exclusive VIP hang area, VIP-only viewing area of the two main stages, access to the VIP tent—a shaded hang space with dedicated premium bars and comfortable furniture featuring live audio/video streams of the two main stages, air-conditioned, flushable restrooms, a dedicated merchandise stand for convenient shopping, dedicated food and beverage offerings (for additional purchase), private locker rentals (for additional purchase), a commemorative VIP-only laminate and RFID wristband.

Campgrounds will be open from Thursday, May 7 through Monday, May 11. All campers will have access to showers, portable restrooms, food and drink vendors, charging stations, information and medical services. A car or tent camping pass accommodates up to 4 people and an RV camping pass accommodates up to 6 people. See the map below for the locations and prices of camping spots.

Daytona International Speedway is located at 1801 West International Speedway Blvd, in Daytona Beach, Florida. It’s just minutes away from the Daytona Beach International Airport, and less than two hours from Jacksonville and Orlando.

 

For more information on Welcome To Rockville, visit:
Facebook: @welcometorockville
Twitter: @RockvilleFest
Instagram: @welcometorockville

 

Come join the fun at Welcome To Rockville for their 10th anniversary and inaugural festival at the Daytona International Speedway. It is certain to be a phenomenal festival.

 

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