Slipknot Festival Turns Into Fiery Riot After Cancellation Over Safety Concerns

Slipknot was scheduled to perform a headlining set at Knotfest Mexico in Mexico City on Saturday, but the band had to cancel their set due to a broken barricade that caused safety concerns. Revolver reports that the barriers were initially pushed down during Behemoth's set, and multiple attempts by festival organizers to fix it failed. As a result, both Slipknot and Evanescence, who had yet to perform, canceled their planned sets for later in the evening.

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A post shared by Will Hunt (@willhuntinc) on Dec 1, 2019 at 10:21am PST

After the cancellation, some fans stormed the stage and lit Evanescence drummer Will Hunt's drum kit on fire, and video footage of the moment went viral. In an Instagram post, Hunt shared several videos of the riot and his torched drum kit, writing, "first and foremost everyone is ok."

"We love Mexico and as a whole the fans are incredible," he continued. "The riot that happened was a small group of morons and they WILL NOT change my love for the Mexican people or our fans in Mexico."

On Dec. 1, Slipknot released a statement on Twitter addressing the cancellation and resulting damage.

"Safety – especially the safety of our fans and fellow bands – is priority number one," the group wrote. "We apologize profusely and hope you all understand. If anything were to happen to any of you, we wouldn't forgive ourselves. Also, If we could have fixed the barricade correctly, we would have gone on stage. Again, we hope you all understand and we will try to make it up to you as soon as we can."

A second tweet shared that "due to unforseen circumstances, Slipknot were not able to perform at last night's Knotfest."

The message explained that after the security barricades became an issue, it was decided that neither Slipknot nor Evanescence would take the stage.

"We had hoped to perform today, but regrettably, a situation arose onstage after the cancellation that damaged or destroyed gear that would have been necessary to play," the message continued. "We are extremely disappointed that we did not get the chance to perform, but the safety of our fans and our community is our biggest priority. We will look to get back to Mexico sometime in the future."

Evanescence shared a video on Instagram in which singer Amy Lee expressed the band's apologies that they were not able to perform.

"We are heartbroken we didn't get to play for you tonight, México City," the caption read. "Your safety, your life is more important than any show! We love you and we will be back soon, that's a promise."

Photo Credit: Getty / Randy Holmes