Monster Energy Welcome to Rockville Festival Delivers to the Community Posted by Story and photos by

GDN - The dust has settled on another Monster Energy Welcome to Rockville Festival. In its fourth year, the festival held in Jacksonville Florida’s Metropolitan Park has grown in popularity expanding from one day in 2011 and 2012 to two days for 2013 and 2014.

The dust has settled on another Monster Energy Welcome to Rockville Festival. In its fourth year, the festival held in Jacksonville Florida’s Metropolitan Park has grown in popularity expanding from one day in 2011 and 2012 to two days for 2013 and 2014. Rock and metal fans are enjoying an ever growing selection of yearly festivals that have them coming together in greater numbers and this year’s numbers seem to indicate they are here to stay, further uniting fan, artist and community in a mutually beneficial way.

This year’s Rockville Festival featured Gemini Syndrome, Volbeat, Rob Zombie, Avenged Sevenfold, Within Reason, Silvertung, Trivium, Twelve Foot Ninja, Five Finger Death Punch and Butcher Babies among others totalling over 40 bands. Four stages, fan interactive vendor booths, food, beverage and a perfect weather weekend along the St. Johns River saw the attendance numbers increase by 60% over last year according to Producer Danny Wimmer of Danny Wimmer Presents. The selling out of hotels in the area that played host to the 40,000 fans and businesses seeing a noticeable increase in sales for the festival represent a huge financial windfall.

Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown who spoke to the crowd on Saturday afternoon, expressed his support for the festival and considers it a vital part of the City’s efforts to revitalize downtown.

Benefits of festivals for both fan and artist are evident from the fans who overwhelming agree that being able to see so many different bands for the price of a single concert ticket is a huge reason they flock to these types of festivals.

Speaking to the members of the band Silvertung who was making their first appearance at Rockville, lead vocalist and guitarist Speed said, “If we can walk away with 200 or 1000 people who finally get to hear Silvertung, that’s our main goal.” Skoot the bassist says about festivals, “I think it’s more bang for your buck, it’s a great thing...money’s tight these days.” A sentiment shared by fans. Silvertung band members include Speed, ZZ, Skoot and Danno. The guys overwhelmingly agreed that it’s humbling to see so many people come together, become new fans, make new friends and look out for each other, very much showing just the kind of community feeling there exists among rock and metal fans.

And community is something that these guys are all about. In the last two years they have performed at over 30 charity events including those to benefit Wounded Warriors, Cerebral Palsy, Children’s Cancer and Rock for Sara in an effort to do what they call giving back to the community.

Sunday saw the festival opened on the Monster Energy West Stage by recent Grammy winning band Within Reason. They began their set with a Linkin Park riff that got the crowd warmed up, and the set just exploded from that point.

The band performed its new song “Enemy” which is due to be released this Tuesday, May 6 as its first radio single. Members Chris Dow and David Koonce, and Tour Manager Eddie Webber took a few moments post show along the river to discuss the mutually beneficial aspects of these festivals for artists, fans and communities. Dow and Koonce agreed that the diversity of their music plays very well into the festival experience, and that the mix of the crowd brought together definitely exposes their music to those who might otherwise never see them live.

“I definitely think the festival thing is great. It’s all about playing in front of more people everyday,” said Dow. Fan favorite Rob Zombie and Korn closed out the festival on Sunday and with the 2015 Rockville Festival a year away, fans and artists alike expressed predictions of the festival becoming extending to a third day, not unheard of as other festivals around the country are three and four days, but that remains to be seen. The community of rock and metal fans clearly love these events as the increasing numbers indicate, and that could mean Jacksonville could see the benefit from this annual event for years to come.

Sponsors for the 2014 Monster Energy’s Welcome To Rockville include Monster Energy, Jack Daniel’s, The Crazy Dave's Music Experience, Jägermeister, Metro PCS, f.y.e., Ernie Ball Guitar Strings, Matador Beef Jerky, Thirty Three Star, First Coast Powersports, X102.9, Godzilla, U.S. Air Force, Folio Weekly, Revolver, ESP, Alternative Press, Loudwire, F*ck Cancer, Skratch n Sniff, Roadrunner Records, Lost Angel, Zippo, UBER, Goody’s Popcorn, Brabble, fanpass.tv, Foley Family Wines, and Jack Hanania.

Music equipment companies participating in this year’s Crazy Dave’s Music Experience at Monster Energy’s Welcome To Rockville include: Ashdown Engineering, CAD, Chauvet, Dunlop Manufacturing (MXR, Dunlop, Cry Baby), Epiphone, ESP Guitars, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (Jackson, Charvel, EVH, Squier), Hercules, Ibanez, Korg (Vox, Blackstar), Kramer, Ltd, MXR, PRS Guitars, Ultimate Support, and Yamaha & Steinberg. Publicity by Ashton-Magnuson Media.