Poppy’s Rockville Set Ends After One Minute as Severe Weather Stops Festival

Poppy’s performance at Welcome to Rockville was stopped after less than a minute on Friday evening when severe weather and lightning protocols shut the festival down.

The annual rock and metal event is taking place this weekend from Thursday to Sunday, May 7 to 10, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Guns N’ Roses, Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance, Bring Me The Horizon, Turnstile and The Offspring are among the acts at the top of the bill.

Poppy had only just started her set when the warning systems kicked in. Weather alerts appeared on screens across the site as a thunderstorm moved through Volusia County, Florida, and crowds were directed to campsites, cars or the festival grandstands for safety.

The storm threat eventually passed, allowing the rest of Friday’s programme to continue. Foo Fighters later closed out the main stage.

Poppy released her seventh studio album Empty Hands in January. It arrived a year after Negative Spaces and again paired her with producer Jordan Fish, formerly of Bring Me The Horizon, and songwriter Stephen Harrison of House Of Protection.

Speaking to NME ahead of Empty Hands, she said working with Fish again felt like “the right choice”. “There’s a really nice point of consistency where you no longer have to explain yourself or your reasoning, and it’s understood and accepted,” she said.

She also discussed the contrast between Negative Spaces and Empty Hands, saying the difference was “very evident.” “When the others hear it and decide to call it a genre or put their goo on it, that’s up to them,” she said. “I know where the line is drawn. To articulate that gives a bit of a disservice to it, because it muddies the presentation.”

In March, Poppy also teamed up with Son Lux’s Ryan Lott for the Marathon anthem “In Death We’ve Just Begun.”