What Ever Happened To The Bloody Holly Festival?

A young lady asked me "what ever happened to The Bloody Holly Festival" and I thought that might make a good blog. It may not, because some of you will not like what I'm going to tell you.

So first off, let's address the name "Bloody Holly Festival".  We were on our third year of the festival when a family member took exception to the the name. I find this funny because this past weekend thetattoo convention was actually using a picture of Buddy Holly half skeleton faced and no one seemed to bitch about that. Anyways in that third year we lost our headliner at the last minute so we just dropped the name at the same time. Anyways, the loss of the name didn't kill the festival.

So let's go back to the future. I occasionally get heat for not being that big of metal fan or supporter, but this is where critics don't know their asses from a hole in the ground. I don't have to be a big fan or supporter to still want to try to hook people up.  The Bloody Holly Festival was 100% my idea. I approached the promoter and said, we're kicking so much ass with The FMX Birthday Bash and X-Fest, we should put on a metal festival. He agreed and for those three years he put together some AMAZING lineups.

The problem is, the metal community is too small and they did not turn out in sufficient numbers to make these festivals worth anyone's time. Sorry, but that's a fact. Year two* we brought the biggest metal band in the world, "Lamb Of God" and an incredible array of support and it was pure financial death. Year three we brought "The Pedal To The Metal Festival" in under the Bloody Holly name, and when we lost Zak Wylde we just went back to the original tours name, partially because we thought the festival was diminished with out it's co-headliner.

So, don't let anybody tell you the name thing killed the festival, if it was selling any tickets we would have held on tightly to the name, or even let it morph into something else if it was even remotely financially viable. The thing that killed Lubbock's only metal festival was, Lubbock's metal fans, or lack of them.

*FYI-The Year Two Lineup, or biggest disappointment was:

Lamb Of God, Lordi, Hatebreed, Drowning Pool, 3 Inches Of Blood, Behemoth, Static-X, Daath, Ankla, In This Moment, Nile, The Showdown, Mondo Generator,  The DeadSee, and The Sword. (Circus Diablo cancelled ahead of the show).