SLIPKNOT's COREY TAYLOR Looks Back On KNOTFEST MEETS FORCEFEST Debacle: 'We Still Don't Know What Happened'

February 13, 2020

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has spoken out about the "security issue" that caused the cancelation of the band's appearance at the Knotfest Meets Forcefest in Mexico City in late November. According to reports, the stage barricade broke during BEHEMOTH's set and it was impossible to fix it in time for either of the two scheduled closers — SLIPKNOT and EVANESCENCE — to perform.

Speaking to Rock Antenne before SLIPKNOT's February 9 concert at Olympiahalle in Munich, Germany, Taylor said about the Mexico City debacle (see video below): "The barricades were compromised. And breaking in — there were so many people that it was an absolute security issue. And they tried to fix it — I can't even talk about it without rolling my fucking eyes — they tried to fix it with, like, bike racks. It was fucking insane. They were, like, trying to wire bike racks to this thing. You go hold 25 thousand people back with some bike racks. Are you fucking shitting me? Our production manager, our security team took a look at it and said, 'I cannot sign off on this' — for the public's safety.

"We still don't know what happened," Corey continued. "We still don't know why it was compromised, because our security team walks that all day long to make sure everything is in place. And it was compromised in a way that someone had to have done it. But we don't know who, so, obviously, we can't point fingers or whatnot. But there was no way that we were gonna put our fans at risk, the security team at risk andEVANESCENCE at risk, because they were going on."

Some fans at the festival reacted angrily at the cancelation, storming the stage and destroying equipment, including EVANESCENCE's gear.

"Sadly, EVANESCENCE, their equipment was destroyed, but we've paid for that; we made sure that they were taken care of," Corey said. "And the risk of what could have been is actually less than what could have happened. I would rather lose thousands of dollars' worth of equipment that can be replaced than have even one person get hurt. That was the most important thing.

"The riot happened — we think — because people got in from the outside; there were people who were able to get in from the outside who hadn't even bought tickets," Corey added. "And they chose to ignite a situation and make it worse. So we don't blame our fans down there. But, you know — lesson learned."

The first-ever Knotfest Meets Forcefest was scheduled to be held over two days at the Parque Deportivo Oceanía venue. Last year, Knotfest joined forces with Forcefest, combining two massive festival brands over one weekend. The Knotfest day was scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 30, with Forcefest happening on Sunday, December 1, headlined by Rob Zombie.

SLIPKNOT is continuing to tour in support of its sixth studio album, "We Are Not Your Kind", which was released in August via Roadrunner Records.

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