Last Saturday, heavy metal and rock fans gathered in Mexico City for Knotfest Mexico, the latest edition of Slipknot‘s highly successful traveling festival. The festival was well on its way when Slipknot had announced that they had to cancel their set due to safety concerns arising from a broken barricade. It was identified during Polish extreme metal band Behemoth‘s set.
#KnotfestMexico pic.twitter.com/Sxo9Ot5pol
— Slipknot (@slipknot) December 1, 2019
Evanescence‘s set, which preceded Slipknot’s, was also cancelled as festival organizers were unable to remediate the situation. In an Instagram post, the band had gathered to promise fans in Mexico that “[they] will be back soon, that’s a promise.“
Cancellations are never well-received, but rarely to this extent. Soon after the announcement, things spiraled quickly out of control as videos showing moments of vandalism and chaos surfaced. Attendees can be seen storming the stage that had then been set up for Evanescence’s set. In an even more shocking development, fans (?) were seen lighting Will Hunt’s drum kit on fire. YouTube channel ‘DELAWER’ compiled all the videos documenting the chaos on Saturday night, as seen below.
The next edition of Knotfest is slated to take place in Bogota, Colombia on December 6. We hope for the sake of music and everyone’s safety that history won’t be repeating itself.
