‘Rock the Country’ in review


The Rock the Country music festival spanned from June 7 to 8 and featured headlining artists Kid Rock and Jason Aldean. [Rock the Country Facebook]

Home » Arts & Entertainment
Posted June 13, 2024 | By Caroline Brauchler
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After a weekend full of country music, brutal heat and massive crowds, community opinions on the Rock the Country music festival are in.

The festival spanned from June 7 to 8 and featured headlining artists Kid Rock and Jason Aldean. While the festival was advertised as taking place in Ocala, it was held at the Majestic Oaks Farm in Reddick.

Majestic Oaks owner Ronnie Diamouro told media outlets that there was a total of nearly 40,000 attendees on the 100-acre property for the festival. Officials reported that 475 people received medical care from Marion County Fire Rescue over the course of the two-day event. MCFR received 526 total calls to the scene of the event, 399 of which were medical-related.

We transported 32 patients from the event venue to local hospitals. We had over 475 patient interactions at the concert venue. These interactions were dealing with heatrelated illnesses, falls and intoxication,” said MCFR spokesperson James Lucas.

The number of calls to the venue surpasses the typical number of calls in a weekend for the entire county, officials said. During the weekend before the event, the department received 497 calls for all of Marion County.

Concertgoer Isabelle Reynolds said that despite the heat and the crowds, she enjoyed the event and felt that most others did, too.

“I just kind of like wanted to go hang out with my friends, have a good time and listen to some live music, because that’s always fun,” she said.

Reynolds purchased her ticket from someone who couldn’t attend at the last minute and said she didn’t have many expectations going into the event.

“There were a lot of people there. I was pretty amazed by how many people, and how many people continued to come in after us,” she said. “You’d look around and you see this huge sea of people.”

She said she noticed a lot of people receiving medical care, but whether from heat exhaustion, dehydration or alcohol consumption, she couldn’t tell.

“There was a lot of medics there, and I did see a lot of people on the ground,” Reynolds said. “(The medics) would come and they talked to them. I saw a lot of people getting fluids.”

Reynolds said the venue had a large, air-conditioned pop-up tent area where concertgoers could go to cool off, plus water stations for people to be hydrated.

The festival was open to all ages, and there were children present.

“I didn’t see any fights,” Reynolds said. “I didn’t see any people doing anything crazy so if parents want to bring their kids to a music festival because they like the artist or whatever, they’re being safe, and the kids are hydrated and not getting overheated, then that’s up to them.”

Community member Aaron Thomas said when he saw photos of the event online, he said he felt that children should not have been allowed to attend based on the environment. Thomas didn’t attend the event but felt compelled to speak about the photos he saw on the Rock the Country Camping Community Facebook page after the concert.

“They’re literally posting children in political clothing and writing how people were inappropriately dressed,” he said. “There’s literally a giant cross while they’re doing this out there. You know, it’s just seems like a lot of hypocrisy.”

Thomas said he felt the event was misrepresented as a concert, given all of the political ties to the event. A video message from former President Donald Trump was played on the big screen for attendees, and Trump, who was recently convicted on 34 felony charges, introduced Kid Rock on stage.

“There was an actual message from Donald Trump,” Thomas said “It was a Trump rally. It’s not a concert.”

In Trump’s message to attendees, he said “All of you in attendance are the true backbone of our great country; hardworking, God-fearing, rock and roll patriots.

Reynolds said she saw a lot of attendees wearing Trump-related clothing but she didn’t feel that the event was overly political.

“I saw (Sheriff) Billy Woods there, there were a lot of politicians that were there,” Reynolds said. “I don’t want to say it was a political rally. I think it’s kind of coincidental.

“I think, honestly, people were just there for the music, they were there to have a good time,” she said.

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