Fans feeling safe ahead of 'Welcome to Rockville' festival at Daytona International Speedway

DATYONA BEACH, Fla. - Daytona International Speedway is filling up with rock fans. Welcome to Rockville, a four-day music festival that starts Thursday at noon.  

"Two nights of Metallica and just some really good music. And a slice of normal," said James Walker.  

He and three friends flew in from Cambridge, England for the event.  This is the largest music event in Florida since the start of the pandemic.  

"We haven’t had a festival for two years and we got the opportunity to come over," Walker said. 

He and his friends are well aware of what happened at the Astroworld Festival in Houston where eight people died, and hundreds were injured when the crowd rushed the stage.  FOX 35 News asked the group if they had any concerns about safety at this event.  

"No, not really, no.  There’s always surges in the pit. Nobody really gets that bad or hurt," Dan Reid said.  

"It doesn’t happen at metal gigs. Well we’ve never experienced it and we’ve been to festivals around the world," Walker chimed in. "The crowds are amazing. High energy.  But if someone gets knocked down get picked up straight away."

Krystie Nava has attended several music festivals around the world with her friends.  She’s the smallest member of the crew and shares a different perspective, saying she’s felt the rush of the crowd and it scared her.  

"But it was partially my fault because I got this big whirlwind feeling that I should go to the front for a band I’ve never seen and I won’t do it again," Nava said.  

She prefers to stay to the back or to the side of the crowd now. 

Welcome to Rockville’s producers released a statement to FOX 35 News saying, "Danny Wimmer Presents is constantly assessing and reassessing its security, safety, and crowd control measures to maintain the most up-to-date best practices in the industry.  As with every event we produce, including Welcome To Rockville, we work closely with local officials, police, and fire, and the venue to have a coordinated and comprehensive strategy that is implemented and executed during the event to ensure the highest safety for our guests."

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