Kid Rock’s ‘Rock the Country’ Festival Cancels South Carolina Dates After Multiple Performers Withdraw

After a controversial few weeks, Kid Rock’s “Rock the Country” festival has cancelled its two-day stop in Anderson, South Carolina. According to The Post and Courier, Anderson County officials learned that the festival was called off on Feb. 5, but no specific reason was given for the cancellation.

The news comes after weeks of controversy surrounding the historically MAGA-aligned festival. The series of artist cancellations fell like dominoes, and the withdrawal of Florida rock band Shinedown seemed to be the official tipping point. 

When the festival’s lineup was released last month, Atlanta-based rapper Ludacris was the first to drop out. On Jan. 16, his team announced that he would not be performing, indicating that his inclusion on the lineup was a “mix-up.” 

"Lines got crossed, and he wasn’t supposed to be on there," Ludacris’ rep told Rolling Stone.

Shortly after Ludacris’ departure, country music singers Morgan Wade and Carter Faith each quietly withdrew from the festival without issuing a public statement. On Feb. 6, Shinedown became the fourth and final band to withdraw from the festival, as the event was cancelled around the same time. On the same day, the band issued a statement on social media, causing immediate backlash.

“Shinedown is everyone’s band,” the statement read. “We feel that we have been given a platform to bring all people together through the power of music and song. We have one boss, and it is everyone in the audience. Our band’s purpose is to unite, not divide.” 

“With that in mind, we have made the decision that we will not be playing the Rock the Country festival. We know this decision will create differences of opinion,” Shinedown continued. “But we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division.”

Many people argued against Shinedown’s decision, calling the members of the band cowards and stating that they should keep their politics out of music.

In the following days, fellow Florida rock band Creed was silently removed from the South Carolina lineup, shortly before the July 25-26 tour dates were removed from the Rock the Country website completely. The band has not issued any public statement.

The festival’s seven remaining tour stops are still set to kick off in May, with artists including Kid Rock, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll, Ella Langley, and Lynyrd Skynyrd slated to headline.