Perhaps-no...definitely-the most notorious music festival in the country is going to be changing locations after seven years. The Gathering of The Juggalos, the flagship festival for the Insane Clown Posse and Psychopathic Records, will be moving from its current home in Cave-In-Rock, Ill. for the 2014 festivities. The Clowns themselves seem to know where the new location is, but they won't give any hints.
"Jumpsteady [Violent J's rapping brother] just returned from our brand new Gathering site and it's a doozy! (Whatever the f--- a 'doozy' is)," tweeted ICP on Tuesday.
The only ideas we have, and color us obvious, are that the new Gathering location will be somewhere in the Midwest, because duh. Although the Juggalos are surely eager to find out the new locale for next year's festival, many from Cave-In-Rock are happy to see it go.
For one, organizers reportedly had issues paying for the event this year. Vendors and local businesses alleged during September that nearly $300,000 in checks from ICP and co. had bounced. Jerry Fricker, the sheriff of Cave-In-Rock, was also relieved to see the festival leave. Aside from the lawlessness one expects from a typical music festival crowd, he said that many of the fans who received hospital care (of which there were many...more than 25 overdoses were reported this year) did not have forms of ID, which made both bureaucracy and receiving enforcing payment difficult. He estimated that the county lost more than $20,000 annually as a result of the event.
Having watched coverage of the Gathering from years past, we admit that we're more than curious to check it out. Just not in our backyard.
