Upheaval Festival 2023 Rocks and Thrashes Grand Rapids

Upheaval Festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan played host to 2 days of rock fans, killer sets, and more. With a stacked lineup that included Bring Me The Horizon, Halestorm, Falling In Reverse, and Lamb of God, there was pretty much something for everyone.

 

EACH BAND BY REVIEW

 

To honor all the bands we were able to capture over the weekend, we wanted to give an actual review of the performance and highlight their set lists, and their images. That being in one whole article, however, would be MASSIVE and would take forever to load, so we took the liberty of creating a post-per-band, that you can click on below.

 

BRING ME THE HORIZON

LAMB OF GOD

DOROTHY

MEMPHIS MAY FIRE

FALLING IN REVERSE

HALESTORM

ICE NINE KILLS

FLYLEAF WITH LACEY STURM

WE CAME AS ROMANS

SUICIDE SILENCE

CROBOT

 

HOW’D IT GO?

 

 

Photography by Ami Nicole ACRONYM.

 

While we want to glow about every little thing and not focus on the negative, let’s get this part out of the way and address what happened in regards to In This Moment. 15 minutes before their set, In This Moment dropped out of the festival. From what we know now from a passed around rumor, a portion of their stage show wouldn’t fit on the main stage, and so they chose to not go forward with their set. Whether we’ll find out later if there’s another story, we’ll see. There were many fans that we encountered that said they came specifically to see In This Moment, and felt very let down by the band overall, and weren’t mad at the festival runners themselves.

 

Asking Alexandria and New Year’s Day also dropped out, but they alerted the festival they could not attend before the weekend arrived, giving Upheaval the opportunity to secure a suitable replacement that included Flyleaf with Lacey Sturm.

 

As festivals go, food lines were extremely long. Island Noodles tends to be a pretty popular spot, but almost every line after them was also pretty packed, making it hard to get food but not miss any sets. We actually missed the entirety of The Ghost Inside while trying to get food.

 

Aside from those few incidents, most of the things that happened were positive. All the performers that actually took the stage gave it their all, and we walked away from the fest itself becoming fans of bands we’d never previously entertained before. Though the hill kicked our absolute asses, it’s a really unique way to showcase another stage at the festival (and sending special thanks to the golf cart shuttle drivers that we absolutely frequented their passenger seats on Day 2).

 

We also have to put it in print that the security team at Upheaval Festival is absolutely amazing in the photo pit when catching the incoming crowd surfers. They were also singing along with songs, and cheering on little kids that attended the fest, making heartwarming core memories for little tykes and having a crowd cheer for them.

 

So the verdict: Would we go again? HELL YEAH. We’d love to attend and cover this event in the future. It was a great time overall, and we can’t wait to see what bands are on next year’s lineup.

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