Scroll around anywhere on the internet regarding Knotfest right now, and all you will see is a land of disappointment.
As you probably know, I am a rock festival veteran. I have been attending them since 2008 every year with most of them being a 3 day affair! I love going to them and will continue to every single time! So when I heard Knotfest was returning to Iowa, I immediately jumped on tickets. The day came, and we made the trek out to Indianola to enjoy the single day show with 30,000 other metalheads.
Now you are probably thinking, “Here goes Ned on a rant about lines, water, etc.” Actually? Only a little, cause unlike many others…I was able to secure water thanks to a nursing wife. During Lamb of God’s set, we did stand in line for water just to see them run out on a consistent basis, wait for refill, people cutting in line….it was in nice terms? A shitshow…we attempted food, but that did nothing…we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, but cause we were focused on the show, we made it through. Again…we’ve been doing this since 2008.
Remember that nursing wife thing? Since my wife needed to pump, we headed to the nicely provided nursing station (thanks for that) and out of nowhere? The Med tent starts handing out FREE water! I was able to secure 4 cans…then SUDDENLY the Knotfest Tasting Tent opened up as another water stand, but the problem is…no one knew about it. So I grabbed a couple more cans, paid for them, cause no one was there. I actually attempted to be a good samaritan and headed to the STILL insanely long long line for water and tried telling people, GO THERE! I hope some people listened…
Long lines aside…damn it was a good show. I think Tech 9 should have played where Suicide Boys was, Megadeth was AMAZING (probably my highlight of the show), Trivium I think is fronted by The Rock, and Slipknot was also great…although I hoped they would play more Iowa/first album stuff.
Many people were unlucky and forced to stand in lines, for me though cause I was able to secure water…my mood got better, until we had to get into the car in the valley and hope we’d get to the hotel at a reasonable time, which….yea….we didn’t.\
I imagine they will bring it back again some year cause there is just TOO much money to make there. The organizers should be thankful it wasn’t hotter, cause then? Oh boy…there are ways to do this right and better, I’ve seen it with 80,000 people many times over.
Just ask me, I’ve only been doing the rock fest thing since 2008!
