How a CT music festival went from much hyped to canceled shows, a change in venue and angry fans

For a certain breed of rock fan, the Capulet Fest looked to be one of the top events of the summer, headlined by acts like Senses Fail and Nothing More , who have been known to sell out arenas on their own.

The three-day festival, for which tickets ran from $65 for a one-day pass to $700 for a full weekend VIP experience, had been promoted on posters and billboards around the Connecticut for months. The promoters spent months dropping cryptic hints about the participating bands before the full 55-act lineup was announced.

The Capulet Festival also had momentum. It happened successfully at the same venue, Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Thompson, the year before.

On Thursday morning, less than a day before the festival was set to start, Thompson Speedway announced that the venue “would like to confirm that the Capulet Fest is no longer happening at our facility. All additional details about the future of the event will be coming directly from Capulet. Thompson is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with Capulet Fest or Capulet Entertainment.”

It was five hours before the festival’s producer, Capulet Entertainment , would release its own public statement on Thursday afternoon that it was moving the festival to The Webster in Hartford. A revised schedule was announced where over 30 bands would play the club on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

On Friday, the respected indie music website Brooklyn Vegan reported that 20 of the originally scheduled bands would not be playing the festival, including two of the biggest and best known acts on the bill, Senses Fail and Nothing More. Other important online music news sites, from American Songwriter and Stereogum to Metal Injection and MetalSucks.net reported on the rapid overnight changes happening at the Capulet Fest. The story became national news and hit like a bombshell in the tight-knit music community.

It’s impressive that the festival could find anywhere to move at all at such short notice, but The Webster was far from an ideal alternative. The club, located on Webster Street in Hartford, is over an hour drive from Thompson Speedway and the hotels where some attendees had gotten festival discounts. Downtown Hartford Is not known for its outdoor camping facilities, though the festival stated it had arranged for some parking areas around The Webster to be blocked off for RVs and campers. Another issue: The Webster had already booked its own shows for that weekend and had to make changes in its own schedule to accommodate a three-day festival.

Then there’s the matter of size. Thompson Speedway is an outdoor venue that can fit up to 10,000 people. The Webster has a capacity of 1,200 plus an additional 250 for its “Underground” space. As it turned out, that was plenty of room for what transpired Friday and Saturday, with many bands and fans staying away.

Based on information posted by attendees , two dozen bands played on Friday and Saturday: August Burns Red, Blessthefall, Haste the Day, Until I Wake, Ekon, Archers, If Not for Me, Gina Fritz, American Dream Machine, Skillet, Red, Adelita’s Way, Hollow Front, Mike’s Dead, Deadlands, Set for the Fall, Uncured, Major Moment, Livekill (whose set was cut short), Valeria, Saved by Skarlet, Magnets for Maniacs and Dystopica.

That’s a mix of some national headliners, local acts who joined the festival by promising to sell a certain number of tickets in advance to their fans (a common practice in some rock scenes) and some mid-level acts. Some of the festival bands were already touring together and simply returned to touring after losing a Connecticut gig.

And while 24 acts in a single venue in the space of two days may seem seem a remarkable achievement, the metal scene is generally known for quantity as well as quality, and seeing 10 or 12 bands in a single day at venues like The Webster or Toad’s Place is not uncommon.

In any case, the stripped-down, reconstituted and relocated Capulet Fest ended Saturday night. The band Livekill was told to stop playing and get off the stage in the middle of their already short set. The nine bands scheduled to play at The Webster on Sunday, including Taproot, Lacey Sturm and Islander were canceled.

In a statement, The Webster posted that the event promoters had failed to meet financial and other agreements with the venue.

The festival did not post on social media until 11:06 p.m. Saturday night that Sunday’s events would not be happening

“Sunday is no longer an option,” the since-deleted post read. “We fought. We wrestled with obstacle after obstacle. We became a target. We became hated, even when we were doing our best to save something and give you the best show possible. No one sees the sacrifice. All they do is judge. We did everything we could. We hope you had fun. We did our best. Thank you to everyone who came out and had a blast. We hope you enjoyed the meet and greets. We hope you enjoyed the music. Goodbye.”

The event was founded by Connecticut-based novelist, Estevan Vega, who over the past decade or so has turned his love for metal music into the booking and promoting of metal concerts.

This was the third year for the festival, which began as a single-day indoor theater event in Rhode Island in 2022 and moved to Connecticut last year. In the aftermath of this year’s debacle, it has not generally been acknowledged that last year’s two-day Capulet Fest worked out well at the speedway and fueled enthusiasm for this year’s even grander lineup. Some of the bands playing this year also played last year, and in an interview with the music blog Amp , Vega is quoted as saying “Having a successful track record last year definitely helped land” some major acts for the 2024 slate.

Connecticut has a thriving metal scene, of which The Webster is a key part. Many of the bands that did not get to play at the abridged Capulet festival may still playing the state in coming weeks and months.

There have still been no public statements about refunds for ticket buyers.

A “ Victims of Capulet Fest ” Facebook page was created over the weekend. On it, discouraged ticket holders shared information on how they are attempting to get refunds. Some of the bands involved are explaining why they played, or why they didn’t. Besides bands and fans, there are also complaints from food vendors and merchandise vendors who had planned to sell their wares at the speedway and were blindsided by the change of venue.

On Monday, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced that he will hold a press conference regarding the Capulet Fest at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Capulet Entertainment has not been responding to requests from the media to comment on the festival.