Carolina Rebellion is THE Monster of all festivals in size and talent. With 4 stages that span the grounds of Charlotte Motor Speedway the festival included a Ferris wheel, the Harley Davidson ride experience, jewelry, clothing, blow up couch vendors, a food village with countless spots to get your grub on, The Music Experience, Fuck Cancer, and much more.
In terms of musical talent, Muse performed their only American Festival set on day 3 of Carolina Rebellion.
The Rebel himself, Billy Idol, brought down the house with the help of thousands of Rebels.
Playing tracks from their #1 album ‘Ember’, Breaking Benjamin was clearly a crowd favorite.
Other bands that highlighted this epic 3 day weekend included: Queens of the Stone Age. Alice in Chains, Tremonti, Five Finger Death Punch, Pop Evil Godsmack, Trivium, Shinedown, Parkway Drive, Bullet For My Valentine, Cane Hill, Asking Alexandria, Palisades, Butcher Babies, Clutch, Red Fang, Halestorm, New Years Day, He is Legend, Code Orange Them Evils, Joyous Wolf, Toothgrinder, Jelly Roll and Struggle Jennings, STP, and Counterfeit. That is just a taste of who played on the 4 stages. Allow me to be your virtual tour guide of all thing Carolina Rebellion as they happened for us. Always remember that festivals can be tailored to you as to how you want them to roll out, so your music adventure will differ than ours and epic events are subject to change.
On the interview front, we had the opportunity to share the mic with Tremonti, He is Legend, Parkway Drive, Asking Alexandria, Toothgrinder, Bad Wolves, Jelly Roll, and Struggle Jennings. So what did they have to say? Stay tuned to find out.
I can’t leave out some of my favorite experiences at festivals. They include the FYE tent where I dropped rent money to score all vinyl must-haves. That is how much swag I scooped up. Then there are the Zippo sessions where I got to hear my bands strip down to acoustic and melt my heart. That is where I fell in love with Counterfeit, a new band that has chilling vocals and sexy accents. I am a huge fan of The Music Experience where I can not only see fans and bands jamming on instruments but where I can take a jam on them myself. It is also a place where signing and meet and greets go down. For me, a surreal experience was walking to The Music Experience to see what was happening, and on my way, I ran into Witt, lead vocals for Cane Hill and he stopped and chatted. Not going to lie – it was a huge fangirl moment. Then when I got in the tent there were Them Evils hanging with fans doing a quick Jam and just being fun. This is why a festival is so much more than bands on a stage. It is an experience beyond any other.
Afterward, I headed over to the FXck Cancer tent. FXck Cancer is a non-profit organization that gives terminal cancer patients their rock and roll dreams, allowing them to meet their favorite bands and get side stage. I have seen what they do first hand and how the cancer patients, of all ages, come to life. It is one of the most heart changing moments you can see.
Speaking of experiences that are awesome and new this year, was the Harley Ride experience. What pairs well with hard and heavy music? How about hard and heavy bikes that are right on site.
Huge props to DWP, AEG, and Monster Energy for having not only having so many icons of music on the stage at one festival but such a large diversity of music that had something for everyone on the Rock ‘n Roll scale.
For info on camping, tickets, and lineups for next year’s festivities, go to the Carolina Rebellion page on Facebook or CarolinaRebellion.com. Horns up and we’ll see your pretty faces at Carolina Rebellion next year.
