Rock The South will not take place in June after all. Organizers and the City of Decatur said Tuesday the festival has been postponed and rescheduled for Oct. 1-4 after severe weather and unprecedented rainfall soaked the event site.
The move shifts the country festival by several months and expands it to four days, a change that affects ticket holders, campers, artists and staff who had planned around the original June dates. The weather left organizers with no practical alternative, they said, because the amount of rain that fell at the venue made postponement unavoidable.
The new schedule keeps most of the lineup intact. Zach Top is set for Thursday, Oct. 1, Jason Aldean will headline Friday, Oct. 2, Jessie Murph has been added as a Saturday headliner at no additional cost, and Riley Green will perform Sunday, Oct. 4. Organizers said the headliners were available for the new dates, which removes one of the biggest potential complications from the rescheduling.
That still leaves a question that matters to anyone who already bought a pass: whether the postponement would force a second round of planning. It will not. Tickets and camping packages purchased for the original dates will be honored for the October event, and organizers said attendees who cannot make the new dates will receive an email next week with information.
There is still some unfinished business. An updated daily lineup will be released in the coming weeks, and the full impact of the rain on the festival grounds has not been spelled out publicly. What is clear is that Rock The South has moved from a June weekend to an October run, and the festival is now betting that better weather and a longer schedule will let it deliver the same event in a different season.
