Circle pits, moshing, crowd surfing and loud music might be intense for some, but for the fans, it feels like a community coming together for a great time.
Sacramento became the hottest place to be for rock music fans as the Aftershock Festival took over Discovery Park from Oct. 2-5. According to festival organizer Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP), over 164,000 estimated attendees from all over the globe crowded the grounds to listen to their favorite bands for the four-day event, generating over $35 million in revenue for hotels, transportation and businesses throughout the greater Sacramento area. This year’s festival was headlined by Blink 182, Deftones, Korn and Bring Me the Horizon.
The festival is the biggest rock festival on the West Coast and the biggest annual event for Sacramento’s economy. The city itself directly benefits from over $200,000 that DWP pays for the permit and other fees to rent out the whole park every year, according to Sacramento County Public Information Manager Janna Haynes.
DWP’s successful decade-long run of Aftershock was honored with a proclamation by the City of Sacramento, California State Senate and State Assembly “recognizing its profound cultural, economic and charitable contributions to the Sacramento community and beyond, and highlighting how the festival has firmly established the city as a premier destination for live music in California,” Aftershock Publicist Kristine Ashton-Magnuson said in a press release.
Aftershock’s growth from 2012 — with just 14 bands on the lineup — to 2025 with 116 bands has expanded eightfold. The festival used to be a two-day event before adding a day in 2019, then again adding a fourth day upon the festival’s return from COVID-19 in 2021.
Along with the growth of the crowd and the bands, there has also been a significant switch up of amenities offered over the weekend.
New attractions such as upgraded water dispensers, a dive bar, guitar wall, photobooths, a new VIP club, viewing platforms, karaoke lounge, headliner booths and vintage merchandise were brought in for the first time. Travis Buck is a creative builder with DWP who worked on the added arrangements throughout the park.
“To be able to constantly work on ideas to improve is a blessing and it’s really cool to be with a company that is constantly pushing and striving to make things better,” said Buck. Buck mentioned there are plans for even more new experiences next year.
For the first time, the festival partnered with local bar The Jungle Bird on the fourth day. The pop-up dive bar Tremors became a tiki lounge with themed decorations and cocktails for the evening.
Viewing platforms have been more of a focus this year with the added Capital Club platforms for VIP+ pass holders, and better platforms for ADA at the main stages. Rylee Monroe has been a seasoned festivalgoer since 2014 with her family and among those who think the additions have been an impressive touch to the experience.
“I have been very impressed with the growth of the amenities this year,” Monroe said. “Everyday I used the photobooth multiple times as a nice little souvenir.”
As attendance rises, so do the instances of phone theft. Monroe is among the increasing number of attendees who have had their phones stolen during festival performances. Lost and Found was constantly receiving phones and other items, and encouraged festivalgoers to use anti-theft materials or lockers for their belongings to help avoid the issue.
With such a large group of people, many experienced Aftershock for the first time ever. Jim Nowlin, who goes by Enigma, is a fire artist who attended the festival for the first time with his daughter and friends.
“The lineup is so hard to beat. It’s been on my radar for many years,” Enigma said. “I am so glad to finally come and I’m even more impressed than I thought I would be.”
This year has a handful of bands returning to the festival including Deftones, Chevelle and Hollywood Undead, who each played Aftershock in 2012.
Performances by many of the groups on the lineup were billed as reunion or anniversary sets, West Coast performances, hometown shows and Bay Area bands, including Good Charlotte, Dream Theater, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Flyleaf with Lacey Sturm, Gwar, Power Trip, Crossfade and 27 others.
The Bay Area ’80’s thrash metal band Forbidden was rebirthed in 2023 following a long hiatus of over a decade. Forbidden released a new single titled “Mutually Assured Dysfunction” on Thursday before their Friday performance.
Members Craig Locicero and Chris Kontos talked a bit about how great it is to be survivors in the industry along with the bands in attendance, still creating music and coming to festivals like Aftershock.
“We all have known each other forever so it’s great being able to do this,” Locicero said. “I think it’s an honor and I’ll never lose track of the gift that this has brought us all.”
Kontos touched on the fact the genre has now become a multigenerational endeavor and how great it is to see families in the crowd keeping it alive.
“While other music genres have come and gone, it’s invigorating and life affirming,” Kontos said. “To see the younger set of kids into it and all your old friends still coming is this great thing.”
Another Bay Area thrash metal band Exodus performed a 40th anniversary set of their 1985 “Bonded by Blood” debut album. The band’s drummer Tom Hunting talked about how the music of Exodus continues to grow, performing festivals and being proud of the Bay Area scene that blossomed throughout the journey.
“The thing about Aftershock is we can be exposed to fans who maybe don’t know about us, which is awesome,” Hunting said. “Its a different kind of electricity.”
American deathcore band Left to Suffer recruited Sacramento musician Logan Gameson to fill in for their drummer Alex Vavra for their Thursday performance. Being a part of many projects, Gameson is currently fronting as vocalist for metal band Dark Signal and drumming for The Zach Waters Band.
“I couldn’t be more stoked and just want to do a good job,” Gameson said. “This is a big opportunity, not only to perform with them but also to rub shoulders with people I maybe wouldn’t get to.”
This was his first time performing on an Aftershock stage and hopes it opens doors to doing it again in the future.
Rock fans from all 50 states and multiple other countries travel to Sacramento to experience headliner performances of a lifetime. Korn had an Ozzy Osbourne tribute, Good Charlotte brought out Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley and Bring Me The Horizon teased their upcoming tour with a laser lightshow to finish out the festival.
This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics, the city had no editorial influence over this story. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Hmong Daily News, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.
By Alyssa Branum
