Upheaval Festival has been around for four years now. Grand Rapids' biggest metal/rock fest of the year boasts some of metal’s top bands, such as Disturbed, Korn, Breaking Benjamin, and Avatar. The fest has turned to bringing in top metalcore acts and rock and pop punk bands. This year’s lineup was no exception to the madness. With top touring bands like Godsmack, Killswitch Engage, Beartooth, Badflower, and Bad Omens, to name a few. Returning for our second year, we brought the Get Some Magazine party with us so you could all glimpse this two-day monstrosity. Three stages, 30 bands - HELL F**KING YES!

DAY ONE

Festival vibes hit so much differently than show vibes. It’s a whole higher adrenaline rush. Walking to the venue and seeing droves of people lined up to see their favorite bands is surreal.

Opening our day one coverage on the Upheaval Stage was Flat Black. Formed during the “COVID years” by ex-Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Jason Hook and dropping their debut album “Dark Side of the Brain” in July of 2024, this band got the main stage rocking and head banging to open the day.

Next up on the Lookout Stage was Utah’s rockers Citizen Soldier. As fans were making their way from the main stage, those who already braved “The Hill”, were ready to rock with the boys. Fans were witnessed singing along and we got a few crowd surfers to start the day.

We usually don’t get a chance to get to the Rising Stage, which is Upheaval's smaller rising bands stage, because of time constraints. We had a small band from Phoenix called Sinshrift, which had the opportunity to open for Godsmack back in April. The band can be described as “Melodic, Aggressive, and Infectious”. SInshrift had the crowd at The Rising stage infected with great music. This is one of those rising bands you must see live to experience what they bring.

We made our way back down to the main stage for Saliva. Saliva rocked their set and had the crowd moshing and crowd surfing. Fans cheered for more after every song, and Saliva gave them the hits they wanted. Saliva played a hit complete set, which left the crowd hungry for more. Texas’s Austin Meade brought his southern/ hard rock to the Lookout stage. Many fans were excited to catch Austin, and he rocked the stage for them.

We made our way back to the Upheaval stage to catch some old-school metalcore with Of Mice and Men. Fans seemed to have finally woken up when this band hit the stage. A giant pit opened, and crowd surfers began to follow suit. Barricade security was busy with this set, catching crowd surfers. It was good to see the boys get a lot of action. The fans stayed busy during this set and finally gave a great performance of their own.

Killswitch Engage, Sevendust, and Godsmack were this first day's three headed metal monsters. Killswitch rocked the fans on the Upheaval stage. They were giving them a set of old-school beat-down metal. Fans moshed and crowd-surfed the entire set. Sevendust put a brutal beating on the Lookout stage. The band took control of the several thousand people smashed into this hilltop stage area.

They were giving a compelling performance as the sunset. Godsmack hammered out some great new songs mixed with their older, old-school music. There was no quiet soul in the packed 20 thousand-plus open field for their set. Fans were definitely excited and, at times, were heard over singing lead man Sully Erna. Ending the opening day with a bang, we’re looking forward to another action-packed day tomorrow.

DAY 2

The beautiful thing about Upheaval Fest is that it brings music for everyone. Day 1 was geared more towards old-school rock and metal heads. Day 2 brought us a nice mix of old-school metal, metalcore, and a lot of more popular younger bands.

We opened the day with Ovtlier, whose performance set the tone for what the day had in store for us. The set was filled with tons of crowd surfers and mosh pits. It was the right choice if this was the band to get the crowd going early on. Their new song, “Warriors,” dropped in July, which is an absolute banger. Check it out.

The next couple of bands, Sleep Theory, Shallow Side, Drowning Pool, and I See Stars, gave the fans old, young, phenomenal sets. It looked like the Saturday crowd was here to party with the amount of crowd surfers within these three sets. Barricade security had their hands full, and we were only five bands into the day.  Badflower put on a great set that had fans screaming and singing along with them. The energy was starting to build up as the band played their set. Old-school industrial rock band Stabbing Westward had another killer performance on the hilltop stage. This band is showing its age after being around for 30+ years but still puts on a killer performance.

Fans packed in to see Beartooth on the main stage. The band brought a whole new energy to the crowd. It was time for the fans to kick into high gear. Multiple pits opened in the enormous crowd, and crowd surfing never stopped the whole set. The boys on the barricade got their asses handed to them during this set, which was the most crowd surfers we saw all weekend. When Beartooth hits the stage, you know you’re in for a wild ride. Rocking out their set with a great mix of songs incorporated with many pyros, this was the highlight of the day so far. It was going to be a tough act to follow.

From Ashes to New kept the energy surge on the hilltop stage. It looked like everyone down by the main stage had packed their way into this crowd. Fans overflowed and were spread everywhere to see this band play. From Ashes to New brought that excellent Nu-metal sound to the stage, giving us a set filled with some of their newer songs mixed with the older bangers.

Massive droves of people made their way back to the main stage. Everyone in the park packed in to see the final act of the evening, Bad Omens. With nightfall moving in, the stage went black, and the opening intro dropped. The fans here went crazy. You could hear this crowd erupt if you were anywhere within a mile of this place. The opening number, Artificial Suicide hit, and mosh pits, opened throughout the crowd again. Crowd surfing ramped up again, and crowd energy was at an extreme level now. Like I said earlier, festival vibes are a whole different energy. Bad Omens gave the fans the most memorable sets they could provide. High energy, fantastic lighting show, and pyros, what more could fans ask for?

As photographers, we had a blast photographing our favorite bands and watching the crowd interact. It’s always nice to get out of the confines of our venues to experience the festival settings. All pictures were taken with a Cannon R6 Sigma 2.8 24-70.

***Bad Omens pics were taken by my photographer protégé Brittany Lynn from Pennsylvania.  Due to Bad Omens “no pit” clause, all shots were taken from the crowd. Follow her on Instagram @pullthetriggerbrittphotography

UPHEAVAL FESTIVAL 2024