Amy Lee Recalls The Riots After Evanescence’s Last Show Was Cancelled Due To A Safety Issue

In her recent interview with Cuartel Del Metal, Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee talked about what happened during the band’s last concert at Knotfest Meets Forcefest in Mexico. Lee explained the reason why they had to cancel the show and how the fans reacted to the cancelation.

Two iconic festivals decided to form a new festival entitled, Knotfest Meets Forcefest which started on November 30, 2019. The Festival’s headliners were Slipknot and Rob Zombie also featuring Evanescence, Behemoth,  Suicidal Tendencies, and Exodus. However, the plans for the festival had to be changed due to a series of unfortunate events.

During the Behemoth’s performance, the stage barricade was broken and the crew couldn’t fix it until the shows of Evanescence and Slipknot. For both the safety of the performers and the audiences, their shows were canceled. The fans got very frustrated about the news and the riots and great vandalism started. During the riots, Evanescence’s instruments were set on fire and got serious damage.

Although the festival officials wanted to reschedule the concerts, it was impossible due to the damage. Amy Lee shared her devastation saying that they were so excited about performing but they had to leave because of the safety precautions that were taken by the festival promoters. It was supposed to be the band’s last show before the pandemic and they were very disappointed about the inability of performing. She also added that they didn’t feel anger towards the fans but only sadness after the riots.

Here’s what Amy Lee stated:

“It was just so heartbreaking to have come all the way there. We love Mexico; it’s like a special treat to go there. We had Thanksgiving here in the U.S.; it’s like a big holiday in America. So we all were home with our families for Thanksgiving, and then the very next morning all got on planes and were going to Mexico and really excited for the show. And it takes a lot of work to set it up. We rehearsed for, like, a week.

We had this whole thing planned. We were gonna play ‘The Chain’ for the first time — everything. And then to be there all dressed and ready to go, and to see the situation just not happen… The barricades weren’t secure. The fans were excited, and the more people move, as the night goes on, the more the barricades were coming apart and they were hurting people. If we came out there, it would have hurt people.”

Lee went on:

“It’s a matter of safety. You always have to make that right choice when you’re bringing thousands of people together. There’s an element of that. It was just a really hard thing to sit there for hours, hoping they could fix the situation, waiting to go on and then have to know that they couldn’t do it and to drive away and see all of our stuff and all those people…

We drove past as all the people were hearing the announcement that we weren’t gonna make it, and they were just standing there and listening, and you could see our set, and it was, like, ready to go. It was heartbreaking. And then later, of course, there was a riot — way, way, way later on in the night — and stuff got burned. That sucked too. But we were never angry at our fans. I hope they all know how much we love them… It was just a horrible situation.

And that was our last show before the pandemic— like, we didn’t play it. And it turned out to be the beginning of such a weird time for us. It was just very much like nothing that we’ve ever been through before. It was very fitting, actually. It set up how 2020 was gonna be.“

You can watch the interview and the riot below.

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