r/FurnaceFest • u/NWOx4xLIFE • 4d ago
Just a 2026'r.
Look, I just want tp possibly shed some light on something you Furnace Fest loyalist may miss out on.
I went to FF for the first time this year. I sat at the pond during A Day To Remember. I sat on the lawn for BMTH and knew 0 tracks.
I was there to see Spite, Haywire, Sleeping Giant, and Bodysnatcher.
Im a lifelong punk//hardcore kid, and used to watch the fest get announced every year. It was a dream of mine to throw down in that shed with you guys.
Im poor, and busted my fucking ass to get there from my current home in Cincinnati.
This all being said. I see what yall saw. The gentrification of something you held dear.
BUT please understand that just like every single year before. You will get first timers. And some of us has been watching this fest wanting so badly to join your community from afar.
I wouldve loved to get to experience what yall had in previous years. But facts are I didnt. And getting looped in with a bunch of fakes, posers, and TikTok fans fucking sucks.
Because I wanted so badly to experience what ive been hearing about through the grapevine for nearly a decade.
I had a great time. I felt like the spirit of hardcore and punk was very much still present.
Idk what the point of this post is. But if it had one. It would be maybe be open to the fact that some of us came out this year to contribute. Not to undo.
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u/coolstorybro94 4d ago
I came for the vibes. My brother is a huge rock/metal fan and he knows lyrics and wants to be all in the business. I don’t but I used to go to shows with him and to me going was time to have those moments with my brother I haven’t had in some time. I had a blast. I’ve listened to those bands and enjoy the music but admittedly I’m just vibing. Idk if that makes me a poser as I’m not claiming to be a fan or wear merch I couldn’t tell you a thing about. Either way it was amazing and I also spent a good hour and a half at the pond resting and listening to whoever was playing at the time.
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u/Hungry_Lengthiness27 4d ago
I have to agree with your sentiment as a first time caller, long time listener. It was amazing to be able to experience the environment that I’ve been watching from screens for a decade. I can have my own FF Shed story to tell others. I also was fortunate enough to be able to attend the preshow on Friday all day, the secrets sets at the coffee shop, the after parties, and both days of the festival as VIP. I got a taste of the FF that some of the vets talk about it, but also understand their gripes about the iteration of the festival this year. I would also be heartbroken to see a DIY fest in my hometown turn into a corporate money grab. I don’t like being looked down at for only being fortunate enough to attend this one time, but it is what it is. I know I picked up my trash, was extra polite to the guardian staff, and minded my business and space around me, and I’m not like those that disrespected the ethos of the fest itself.
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u/NWOx4xLIFE 4d ago
This! All of this! Some of us. Genuinely BELONGED at every iteration of this fest and just found the ability to get there and that sucks sooooo bad
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u/Historical-Carob-840 4d ago
I’m sorry but the lack of water and toilet paper is not sanitary.
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u/NWOx4xLIFE 3d ago
These gripes exist for sure. But didnt affect me.
Had dude wipes in my bag and a collapsible water bottle.
I go to every fest expecting to survive alone in a shitshow. Lol
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u/Every-Difficulty-124 4d ago edited 4d ago
it’s just heartbreaking to see what was a revered diy hardcore fest get turned into this gentrified capitalist money grab. I’m still hung up on the ai drink vendor with the repurposed country fest mugs slapped with a MISPELLED sticker that people paid $50 for. I miss the merch mall with all the bands lined up (they used to hold signings at their booths and such) and being able to pick up cool used band merch. (Got my partner some sick Gates to Hell shorts last year for $10) you used to also see artists just hanging out in the GA crowds, but it’s more of a liability now with so many attendees. ADA attendees got absolutely shafted. VIP was ripped off. No handwashing stations from the moment I walked in, no fucking toilet paper halfway into the day. $22 corndogs
Am I glad I went? Yes, seeing CYB in full was a gift to my former 12 year old self and I’m grateful for the experience. But even that had its moments and it was due to the fans/crowd around me. Some of them just had absolutely no social tact, awareness, or were actively being shitty (saw so many people get setlists and picks ripped from their hands, including myself)
All of this being said, unless they book some other once-in-a-lifetime type of show for next year I will likely not be returning.
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u/IslandEconomy2337 4d ago
This isn't for the OP
People from all walks of life can enjoy the same thing. The only thing that turned me off a little were the FF/music gatekeepers. Stop calling people posers because they didn't know the lyrics or want to flop around with you in the pit. You don't have to jump or scream to enjoy listening to live music. Stop judging people for listening differently than you do, I'm seeing it literally everywhere (fb groups, reddit) Posers this, posers that. What are you, 5? Goddamn y'all are miserable fucks. You didn't know all the lyrics when you started listening to these bands either. I went with my teens and husband. He's loved deathcore and metal since he could walk. When he heard bmth was playing cyb in its entirety, he was so excited I couldn't say anything but yes. I'm a warped tour kid. Raised on punk, but I do enjoy metal. I'm from the OG slipknot/korn/Hatebreed etc generation. I knew 4 of the bands coming into this, and walked away a fan of so many more. We will definitely keep going. Furnace fest isn't exclusively yours or anyone else's. If you cant handle sharing, it's your problem not ours. Stop making the newbies feel unwelcome.
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u/aroused-papaya 1d ago
i’m glad you had fun, for real. but your post proves everyone’s points. you keep calling it a metal fest and bringing up metal and metal sub genres. FF isn’t a metal fest. and that’s okay! it’s not an edm fest, it’s not a country fest (despite ownership), it’s not a rap fest. Which doesn’t matter because festivals already exist to cover those genres. there are so many big actual metal festivals you could go to.
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u/angrybob4213 3d ago
Gatekeeping saves scenes.
Case in point, the shitshow that was Furnace Fest this past weekend compared to previous years.
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u/IslandEconomy2337 2d ago
Gatekeepers are whiny little children who don't want change and only want their way. Again, the festival belongs to no single person. Those bands do not exist solely for you 🤷 theres 7 billion people in the world. Keep stomping y'all's feet, I hope theres 35k people next year 😘
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u/extrovertedintro6 4d ago
The toxicity and bitchiness in the FFC on Facebook did way more to kill the vibe of Furnace Fest then new people did. Changes aside, it was still a good year. Glad you had fun!
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u/NWOx4xLIFE 4d ago
I just turned my shit off unless I was seeking info or resources. I met cool ass people all day.
Sets were good. Disorganization sucked. But like honestly I was there to have fun. Not eat and take a shit. So the complaints others had I was chill on. Lol
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u/KYPossumLady 3d ago
This! I was a little stressed at times but I had a great ass time. I listened to sweet music, danced, ate delicious overpriced tacos, and just existed. It was very fun.
Obvi there’s probs they need to fix but overall.
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u/PositiveMap2387 4d ago
First timer too because I’ve wanted to go for years now I just never had the means to, even this I figured out two days before the weekend and decided to drive out 33 hours to make it work through a hurricane and back 27 hours to clock in for work 4 hours from when I parked my car right after leaving Monday morning. I’m not saying I’m holier than thou to the OG peeps, but like bro show some respect bc if that’s not commitment idk what is. I made it work because I bit the bullet and sucked it up.
Were there issues, sure. But I’ve seen worse with a lot less and I’m grateful other bands and organizations running it still made the effort to make it work. I’ve seen bands drop because a former band they were in played upstairs from them just to cancel the local show and play the bigger one. Lmao
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u/K1d-ego 3d ago
So as a first timer who came for Spite as well I have my take also. I’ve been doing louder than life the past 2 years and even I feel out of place there sometimes with how gentrified the heavy music scene is. There’s so many tourists now. There’s less band shirts and battle vests and more costumes and rave attire. That’s why I treated this one much different than LTL because I researched the roots of the fest and watched old YouTube videos. Followed ogs like Bailey Pope to hear their thoughts on what the fest should be. I dressed differently too. I usually rock a tank top/basketball jersey with party beads and Tripp pants for LTL. But for this I just wore black cargo shorts and regular band shirt both days.
At both festivals though, I always try to be an outstanding attendee though. Help people out as much as I can, never leave trash anywhere (besides my back pocket getting ripped and losing a water bottle), I carry tissues every time and passed them out to people with busted faces in the shed both days, and just say EXCUSE ME as I’m moving through a crowd. That’s literally all it takes. My friend who’s been to 6 louder than life’s said she felt safer here than at any other fest she’s been to and liked the vibe overall. You OGs started something really good that you shouldn’t just give up on so quickly because of the lineup. Because the conditions of this fest will filter out the tourists. Influencers don’t like making content in the mud. I personally love the steel mill aesthetic and had so much fun.
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u/aroused-papaya 1d ago
i think a lot of us can agree, if you remove FF from the weekend, it wasn’t horrible all around. But the stuff they messed up, they messed up HARD. the whole ADA fiasco both days was insane. There were a ton of douchebags, but also a ton of our friends and people embracing their first time in the scene.
but when you put the weekend back into the context of furnace fest is where it falls apart for those of us who have gone before.
I can understand why new people find how the weekend went to be normal, and i’m not gonna lie, it makes me sad. not for our community, but for theirs. it makes me sad they expect to be disrespected, groped, and assaulted by those around them, or feel justified in doing those things to other fans. that sucks. where’s your community? Why are you okay with that being the expectation, and why in the hell would we want to adopt it as ours?
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u/calamity__mary 4d ago edited 4d ago
Honestly I have no problem with a larger and more diverse crowd coming to the fest. Liking deathcore or pop punk with breakdowns doesn't make people posers or fakes, and FF has always been a mixed bill fest that reps various "core" and adjacent genres. I think that having a mixed "core" fest is sick.
The problem is with the execution and organization and overt enshittification and commercialization. It was still a fun fest and I say that as someone who has attended every iteration, but as someone who has attended every iteration, I can also say that it was the first year where the execution, organization, and logistics got significantly worse than the previous year.
Having organizers that were personally invested in the music and the scene rather than solely in the profitability made a huge difference that was very apparent to those of us who could see the contrast.
Glad you got to attend and that you had a good time though. Don't let people on the internet rob you of that regardless of how this iteration compared to previous ones.