If you want to see Ozzy Osbourne and Godsmack this weekend, they won’t be playing Fort Myers. You’ll have to drive to the Fort Lauderdale area instead.
For the first time in six years, the annual Fort Rock festival won’t be happening at JetBlue Park.
The move sparked an outcry when Fort Rock organizer AEG Presents announced it last year. More than 1,300 comments piled up under Fort Rock’s Facebook posts — mostly from unhappy fans.
“Fort Rock was the one thing my family looked forward to every year,” wrote Ryan Russell, of Lehigh Acres. “You are destroying a wonderful thing that brought an entire community together.”
Six months later the transplanted Fort Rock takes place Saturday and Sunday at Markham Park in Sunrise. And some fans say they’ll grudgingly make the drive — and they're even optimistic about the expanded venue and its bigger lineup.
“I didn’t want it to move,” said Anthony Fasciano, 41, of Cape Coral. “It started in Fort Myers, and that was a lot closer, and I didn’t have to travel. So that kind of sucks.”
Nevertheless, Fasciano plans to travel to Sunrise with his daughter Francesca Fasciano, 15. It’ll be her first metal festival.
Besides, Fasciano said, it’s about time he saw metal icon Ozzy Osbourne. Fort Rock’s 2018 lineup boasts 24 nationally known bands including Osbourne, Godsmack, Five Finger Death Punch, Stone Sour, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin and Killswitch Engage.
“We’re very excited,” Fasciano said. “It’s going to be one great band after another.”
Other fans, however, plan to stay at home instead.
“(I’m) definitely not going and very disappointed that they moved it,” said Erin Hazel, of Lehigh Acres. “We chose to spend our concert money on 98 Rockfest in Tampa last Friday and seeing the Foo Fighters this Wednesday.
“This is the first Fort Rock we are not attending. But it won’t be the last Fort Rock we skip now that they took it away from us.”
John Valentino, of AEG Presents, said he understands why people are upset.
“We relate to that,” he said, “and we certainly don’t want to abandon our friends and fans in Fort Myers.”
That’s why AEG Presents is running the same amount of radio promotions in Southwest Florida as everywhere else, Valentino said. “Metal fans are dedicated fans. I think, at the end of the day, if you’re a metal fan, you’re going to go where the show is, if you can.”
Many Fort Myers fans hated the move, but Valentino said Fort Rock had to keep growing. And the only way to do that was to move to a bigger metropolitan area and a bigger venue.
So far, things are going well for the transplanted fest, Valentino said. Ticket sales are up compared with last year, but he wouldn’t discuss specifics and didn’t have statistics on the percentage of Fort Rock attendees from Southwest Florida.
“We really enjoyed our time in Fort Myers and the Southwest Florida area," Valentino said. "But if you look around the country at the size of some of these events, they’re 20,000 to 35,000 people (per day), a lot of them. And we just couldn’t accommodate or grow into that.”
Fort Rock spent five years at JetBlue Park in south Fort Myers, where it attracted as many as 23,000 people every year for two days of big-name rock and metal bands such as Rob Zombie, Def Leppard and Soundgarden.
But JetBlue Park could only handle about 15,000 people per day, Valentino said. Markham Park’s Special Event Field, meanwhile, can hold about 60,000.
The new venue and its anticipated bigger audience also means Fort Rock can bring in bigger bands. If the fest had stayed at JetBlue, Valentino said, AEG Presents never could have afforded an A-lister like Ozzy Osbourne.
“Now we can spend more on talent,” he said. “It’s allowed us to bring in bigger acts.”
Still, it remains to be seen if Southwest Florida fans are willing to make the drive across Alligator Alley.
“I’m not (going),” said Jeffrey Michael Felton, of Lehigh Acres. “They took away the only festival we had other than the ... ones at Dixie (Roadhouse) that are 21-plus, therefore secluding the young fans in the area from going to shows/discovering new music.”
But Shaun Ertischek, of Naples, said he wouldn't miss Fort Rock, despite the new location.
“I am very disappointed that it moved but will be attending this year as I have for the last several,” he said. "It's still such a great show with so many top bands that a two-hour drive is worth it."
For those who want to make the trip to Sunrise, general admission tickets are $89 for one day or $160 for both days (plus taxes and fees). VIP tickets are also available. Learn more at fortrockfestival.com.
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells (Facebook), @charlesrunnells (Twitter), @crunnells1 (Instagram).