Mayhem Festival Organizer Tried To Book Pantera Reunion, Says No Uproar Festival This Year
With announcements of festivals coming seemingly every day, you may not have noticed that there has not been any word on a new edition of the Uproar Festival. That’s because according to the organizer, it doesn’t look like it will happen this year.
In a new interview with the Examiner, John Reese, who also produces the annual Mayhem Festival, says, “It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this year. We just couldn’t get the right acts together. Rock music is tough right now. There’s not a ton of headliners. It takes a lot of money to break rock bands, and with the record labels being where they are, it’s getting tougher and tougher on the rock and metal side to come up with new headliners that make us feel great. That’s the toughest part of the job, finding talent that wants to do it and that makes sense to play on it and draw people in.”
One headliner that would draw a huge amount of attention for any festival would be a Pantera reunion, and Reese says he’s approached them about doing it: “Do I think it’s going to happen? I have no idea. I know that a heavy, heavy tragedy happened and there are some hard feelings, but it’s up to those three dudes to decide if they ever want to do something or not. If they would decide to do I would support it wholeheartedly and I would do whatever I could to be involved. But it’s up to them.”
This year’s Mayhem Festival kicks off June 26 in Chula Vista, Calif. The lineup includes Slayer, King Diamond, Hellyeah, The Devil Wears Prada, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder, Jungle Rot, Sister Sin, Sworn In, Shattered Sun, Feed Her to the Sharks, Code Orange and Kissing Candice.
Summer 2015 Rock + Metal Festival Guide
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