Review: OZZFEST About 'Approved' Craziness

August 30, 2003

Charles Passy of the Palm Beach Post reports that for most of Ozzfest 2003's 14-hour duration, bands encourage concertgoers to engage in all sorts of mayhem. "Let's get bleeping crazy," is the day's common refrain.

"So what happened at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre [in West Palm Beach, Florida] on Thursday [August 28] when Ozzfest arrived for its final tour date of the long, hot summer? The young crowd — of better than 17,000 — took the advice to heart: After an early-evening rain turned the lawn area into a sopping mess, some revelers made a sport out of taking huge chunks of grass and mud and throwing them every which way. Ozzfest quickly became Sodfest. And how did the festival respond? In the name of keeping order, it asked them to stop.

"That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the kind of commercialized rebellion Ozzfest has been successfully peddling since its inception eight years ago. Sure, you can go nuts — as long as you play by the festival's narrow definition of the term: Wear black, spend umpteen dollars on food, drinks and drug culture-inspired merchandise and, if you're a woman, show your breasts as often as possible. Apparently, sod-throwing is more a crime than encouraging the female population to reduce themselves to sexual objects.

"Of course, Ozzfest isn't just about rebellion — packaged or otherwise. It's also about music, a loud, primordial sonic landscape that never fully goes out of fashion. And although one could argue that the festival's moment has passed and rock has discovered more artful and subtler forms of expression of late, the fact remains that heavy metal will always rule the day with a certain crowd." Read more.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).