Rock The Country music festival will no longer make a stop in Anderson County.
The tour dates were July 25-26 in Anderson, and the lineup included Creed, Gretchen Wilson, Shinedown, and Ludacris when it was first announced on Jan. 12.
Anderson County Administrator Rusty Burns confirmed to the Anderson Independent Mail on Feb. 6 that the national country music festival would no longer include Anderson as a site.
Last year, 47,000 people attended the event in Anderson.
Anderson County has hosted Rock the Country for the past two years, according to Burns.
“The event was a huge success drawing tens of thousands of visitors, making a multi-million-dollar economic impact on the Upstate,” Burns said. “Of course, we are disappointed that Rock the Country will not return to Anderson this year.”
This news comes after controversies over perceived themes related to the Make America Great movement and other artists’ withdrawal from the summer festival.
On Feb. 6, Shinedown announced it would no longer perform on the tour.
“Our band’s purpose is to unite, not divide,” the group said in a social media message, which was reported by Rolling Stone magazine. “We know this decision will create differences of opinion. But we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division.”
Other artists also dropped out of the tour earlier, including Morgan Wade, Carter Faith, and Ludacris.
Several media outlets, including Rolling Stone and People, reported on Jan. 16 that rapper Ludacris would not perform at the Anderson festival after being listed as one of the artists on the schedule. A rep for the rapper told Rolling Stone that the inclusion of Ludacris was “a mix-up. Lines got crossed, and he wasn’t supposed to be on there.”
Some fans were disappointed in Ludacris dropping out and expressed their outrage on Rock The Country’s Facebook page.
“Was the only reason I considered going. He and Nelly were getting too much backlash for selling out to a “MAGA music festival,” one fan wrote on the Facebook page.
Burns said Anderson County is already planning additional major events and will make “exciting” announcements soon.
“Anderson County is committed to bringing high-quality arts and entertainment to our community,” he said.