Mayhem Festival Is Coming Back In 2020

With how many rock and metal festivals are going down in America this year, it's easy to forget about Mayhem Festival, a traveling all-day fest co-created by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. But until its demise after the unprofitable 2015 run, Mayhem Fest was one of America's biggest metal tours, featuring acts like Slayer, King Diamond, Avenged Sevenfold and Rob Zombie as its headliners. And now, it appears that Mayhem Fest will be making a comeback in 2020.

The festival posted the following image to their Instagram, with the caption, "don't call it a comeback. #mayhem2020".

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While the post certainly suggests a new incarnation of the tour, maybe there's something different in store. For example, after it ended as a traveling tour, Lyman's main breadwinner Warped Tour celebrated its legacy with a series of one-off festivals -- maybe 2020 will see three Mayhem Fests around the country.

That said, Lyman was part of the reason Mayhem Fest eventually ended. During 2015's tour, the Warped Tour founder did an interview in which he said, "What happened was metal chased girls away because what happened was metal aged...Metal got gray, bald and fat. And metal was about danger. When you went to a metal show, it was dudes onstage; there was some danger in it..."

This became a PR issue, with bands like Lamb Of God coming out and speaking against Lyman. That said, these are also some of the reasons Kevin claims that Warped Tour eventually died. In the latest episode of our podcast Inside Track, the festival founder says that a loss of punk rock's principal values -- and a foolhardy tendency to respond publicly to widespread complaints -- led to Warped going under.

“Ultimately, when I started to think about winding this down after 25 years, it was, ‘I think we’ve lost the sense of community,’” Kevin told Kerrang!. “It took a community to make Warped Tour go. Some of that was self-inflicted...I thought you addressed the fans that complain on Twitter! I was addressing everyone and tried to keep that conversation going, but you realize that you can’t really negotiate, debate, or educate on social media!”

Keep your eyes peeled for more Mayhem Festival news right here. In the meantime, to hear Kevin's thoughts on Warped Tour's legacy, listen to the latest episode of Inside Track below:

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