Welcome to Rockville Becomes a Three-Day Festival

Welcome to Rockville Becomes a Three-Day Festival – Part 1

By Barry Nadler

April 27, 28, and 29, 2018

Little did I know, when I called my daughter and told her to get in her car and meet me in Jacksonville, Florida, that it would change the course of her summer.

My daughter is 20 years old and is both a rock fan and a K-pop fan (Korean Pop music). Sometimes she surprises me with what excites her. For example, a while back, we talked about her going to the festival with me and without hesitation, she responded with “Hell yes! I get to see Ozzy! Going off the rails of the crazy train!” and then proceeded to play air guitar for me.

So, when I knew I had a ticket for her, I surprised her by telling her to skip a day of college and come for the weekend to Welcome to Rockville.

She did indeed get to experience the heavy metal legend, Ozzy Osbourne, for the first time, with Zakk Wylde at his side.

Welcome to Rockville was a three-day music festival this year. The lineup contained over 50 bands, including some interesting surprises, such as Billy Idol.

One the first day, we arrived mid-day. It is a two-hour drive from Orlando, where I was and approximately the same distance from Tallahassee, where my daughter was.

We had a hit list of five bands to see on Friday. We successfully saw most of the full sets of Trivium, The Used, Halestorm, Five Finger Death Punch, and Ozzy

Osbourne. Personally, I was most excited to see Five Finger Death Punch. I know they put on a great show because I had covered them two years prior – without Ivan Moody. So, the opportunity to see them as a full band was exciting to me. I had seen Ozzy twice prior, so I knew what to expect with him. I was actually pretty surprised by how much I liked Trivium and Halestorm. Trivium was a local band from Orlando. They were part of the scene here before I was involved. Many of the local bands I cover know them from the bar scene.

Speaking of the local music scene, we were greeted by a nice surprise as we walked up to the ticket booth to get our media badges. Several people in front of us were Bobby Keller and Meka Kyoto of the band Meka Nism. It was great to have friends I could wander the festival with and have some people that could hang out with my daughter while I was shooting the various shows. Over time, this small group became a group of about 10-12 people that made up various friends from the local music scene.

One of the interesting moments in Ozzy’s set was a 20-minute guitar solo by Zakk Wylde. He came off the stage and went up and down the center aisle of the crowd. As great as a good guitar solo is, it probably was longer than necessary. Ozzy has a catalog of music that could easily fill three hours of time. I suspect he needed the break. It’s hard to believe the man is still doing this at 79 years old. But, he is still killing it and he deserves every ounce of respect he gets.

We closed out our evening, before Ozzy’s set by sampling some pizza from one of the vendors. It was actually pretty good pizza too.

When I asked my daughter who she liked most from the day, her response was quick – Ozzy! Interestingly, something else happened at Ozzy that would be the thing that later would impact her summer. A young man that was slightly older than her offered to put her on his shoulders. This action became the start of a friendship that would last for the three days of the festival for her.

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Trivium

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The Used

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Halestorm

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Five Finger Death Punch

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