As heavy-metal fans eagerly await the first power chords of Welcome to Rockville at Daytona International Speedway , preparations for the mammoth music festival already have shifted into high gear on the Speedway’s sprawling infield.
“We start about two weeks before the festival happens,” said Chamie McCurry, chief marketing officer for Danny Wimmer Presents, the Los Angeles-based promoter that presents the event. “We’re on-site for about 20 days total, including festival days and load out.”
It will take more work than ever this year to produce the four-day outdoor concert festival that will unfold May 9-12 in Daytona Beach. The event has expanded exponentially to feature at least 150 bands on five stages , one more than in previous years.
It’s a lineup that includes such main stage headliners as the Foo Fighters, Mötley Crüe, Slipknot, Jelly Roll, Disturbed and Limp Bizkit as well as dozens of up-and-coming acts worth watching.
Lifelong rock fan Steve Chmielewski , who estimates that he has attended more than 1,000 shows in his lifetime, ranks Welcome to Rockville among the best he’s ever seen.
The longtime owner of Steve’s Downtown Music in DeLand, Chmielewski has been a regular at the festival since it moved to Daytona Beach from Jacksonville in 2021. He was among the record-setting estimate of 170,000 fans that attended the 2023 edition of the event and plans to attend three days this year.
“It’s the biggest concert festival that Volusia County has ever had,” he said, “and it just keeps getting bigger ever year.”
More than 100 semi-tractor trucks, 2,000 workers power Rockville
Behind the scenes, Rockville arrives with a production entourage that also continues to expand, McCurry said. Planning is a year-round job that involves multiple site visits by teams involved in show production, food and beverage, merchandise and other aspects of the event, she said.
It takes more than 100 semitractor-trailers to deliver the infrastructure required to transform the Speedway’s 180-acre infield into an outdoor concert venue, complete with two main stages that tower six stories in height.
That doesn’t include some 80 tour buses that will shuttle bands and work crews to the site throughout the four-day event. A staff of 2,000 workers, including locals, will be working at the festival, a total that includes roughly 400 production professionals and stagehands as well as 1,000 food and beverage workers, McCurry said.
For fans, there will be some new wrinkles at this year’s Rockville.
On Wednesday, on the eve of the festival’s official opening day on Thursday, access has been expanded to a pre-festival campground party that had previously been presented exclusively for on-site campers.
For a $15 ticket, anyone can catch Garage stage performances by Hinder, Saliva, New Year’s Day and Flaw that start at 8:45 p.m. Wednesday. Visit welcometorockville.com for details.
Also new is the Church of Rock & Roll , a stylized “karaoke dive-bar” experience where fans can belt out classic rock tunes or newer hits throughout the festival. “We’re also planning some pop-ins and surprise performances there throughout the weekend,” McCurry said.
For those looking to escape the heat, the IcyBreeze Dome offers a respite with blasts of cold, dry air generated by water and ice.
Also new is the Blackened Burger Bar Pop-Up , a collaboration between celebrity chef Chris Santos, Metallica, and Blackened Whiskey master distiller Rob Dietrich. It offers three custom burgers and signature cocktails crafted exclusively for festival visitors.
Weather can be a wild card at Welcome to Rockville
Amid all the preparation, the weather forecast is a wild card that defies advance planning.
Rockville veterans undoubtedly will recall the disruption to the weekend’s schedule at the 2022 edition of the event, when a series of severe thunderstorms resulted in the cancellation of performances by two of the event’s four headliners, Korn and Guns ‘N Roses.
In case you missed it: Welcome to Rockville offering partial refunds for bands canceled due to severe weather
Ahead of this year’s festival, McCurry advises fans to visit the FAQ page on the event’s official website, welcometorockville.com , to become familiar with where exits are at the event and the promoter’s policy related to severe weather.
“The most important thing to remember is that any decision we make is rooted in band and fan safety,” McCurry said. “It’s never a good feeling for us to pause or delay a show, but we know it’s sometimes a necessity to ensure our fan’s safety.
“We advise all fans coming to the festival to have a personal safety plan, to know where they are meeting friends, where they are exiting to get back to their vehicle and to just be prepared.”
Rock fans offer welcome boost to Daytona Beach hotels
In the tourism realm, the outlook is sunny about the impact that Rockville has on hotel occupancy and business at other tourist-related spots, said Lori Campbell Baker, executive director of the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“Welcome to Rockville is huge for this destination,” Baker said. “It attracts a diverse audience and immerses them in the Daytona Beach area — some, for the very first time. In terms of impact, it’s become one of our major events and guests stay in accommodations throughout the area.”
That sentiment was echoed by Jim Berkley, general manager of the 744-room Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, the area’s largest hotel.
“The Hilton is already 100% sold out over all Rockville nights with nice rate growth over the prior year,” Berkley said. “We are turning business away over those nights at this point. Rockville levels up to one of the Top 5 events that occur annually in Daytona Beach.”
Rockville offers another example of the power of special events to drive business in Daytona Beach, said Domien Takx, vice president of operations for Ormond Beach-based Premier Resorts & Management.
Premier properties include Hilton Garden Inn, Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, and Best Western Daytona Inn Seabreeze, all in Daytona Beach, as well as the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, Daytona Beach Shores.
“A four-day event like this creates high room demand and we anticipate selling all of our hotel rooms at high rates for the entire four-day event, Takx said. “This has materially helped us to generate additional room revenues in an otherwise slower month of the year.”
Sold-out rooms also are reported by Manoj Bhoola, president and CEO of Ormond Beach-based Elite Hospitality Inc.
Elite’s roster of area hotels includes the three properties near the Speedway — the Best Western Plus International Speedway; Hampton Inn by Hilton Daytona Speedway Airport; and the Hilton Garden Inn at Daytona Beach International Airport.
“We have been sold out at all three of our Daytona Beach hotels for the Welcome to Rockville festival for months now with a healthier ADR (average daily room rate) than last year,” Bhoola said. “Surprisingly, we already have multiple inquiries for next year’s event.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: As Welcome to Rockville stages rise in Daytona, heavy-metal fans gear up
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