The Sound and Fury Festival organizers have provided us with a statement about the incident over the weekend which saw the show to be cancelled. The festival, which had gone on the previous two days without incident, was shut down after an attendee rode a motorcycle into the pit during Backtrack's set. Apparently security chased the motorcyclist out of the building, but not before he rode through the merch and backstage areas. Many other attendees apparently followed the action outside, where fights began to break out between them and festival security, and a full trash can was thrown at the guards.
Part of the statement includes:
At the end of the day, no one was hurt or arrested and property damage was minimal (one broken window). The staff, venue, security and police were all absolutely incredible to Sound and Fury as a whole. Their actions helped to stop any potential fight that could have broken out, which would have caused unwanted repercussions for all parties involved with the festival (promoters, bands, venue, attendees). We want to apologize to all the kids and bands who made special efforts and traveled so far to be there for the weekend. We were very sorry to see that the weekend ended as it did. It crushed us to see months of work and anticipation get flushed down the drain in less than 20 seconds. Realize that it is just two people putting on this fest and we are held directly liable for anything that happens.
Based on what we saw ourselves and were told by others, hereâs what, as best we can tell, happened: During Backtrackâs set, one person was dared/challenged to take his motorcycle into the venue and ride around. We were immediately alerted, and for everyoneâs safety, security escorted the person out while he was still on the cycle. Once outside the security guards wanted the person to get off his cycle in order to speak with him. Seeing this some onlookers encouraged the person on the cycle to run as he might get in trouble if he stayed. As he attempted to flee, security reached for him, some of the bystanders considered the act to be a hostile one and a mob began to surround security. Joey and Ray immediately called the police. The primary concern was for the safety of the attendees and because of the "mob mentality" that was being witnessed (thrown trash cans/bottles/punches), before the situation got any worse we decided to shut down the show.
At the end of the day, no one was hurt or arrested and property damage was minimal (one broken window). The staff, venue, security and police were all absolutely incredible to Sound and Fury as a whole. Their actions helped to stop any potential fight that could have broken out, which would have caused unwanted repercussions for all parties involved with the festival (promoters, bands, venue, attendees).
We want to apologize to all the kids and bands who made special efforts and traveled so far to be there for the weekend. We were very sorry to see that the weekend ended as it did. It crushed us to see months of work and anticipation get flushed down the drain in less than 20 seconds. Realize that it is just two people putting on this fest and we are held directly liable for anything that happens.
Rumors and hearsay will exist, but based on all the information we have gathered, this is pretty much the extent of what happened. We choose instead to focus on the positives of the weekend, most importantly that the first two days went by with minimal incidents, proving that as a scene, we can put something like this together.
Sound and Fury is an amazing opportunity for us as a community of hardcore kids to get together and have fun at a perfect location. Fighting, assumptions, or petty disagreements will only ruin our chance to recreate this event. It deeply hurt us that someone thought this would be alright to do.
We are hoping to reach a compromise with the Earl Warren Fairgrounds so we will have the opportunity to host Sound and Fury 2011 at such an excellent venue. You will see us again next year.
-Joey Cahill and Ray Harkins