“Rock The Valley” The two-day music event in West Virginia, may not be the music showcase it has been promoted to be.
“Rock The Valley” is a two-day showcase of rock and metal in New Martinsville, WV. The event, which is set to take place October 4th and 5th 2025, is being held by Charles Morgan Entertainment LLC and is set to feature a collection of artists with a heavy influence of local and independent artists from surrounding areas. WSRR Radio first learned of this event in late 2024 on Facebook, where it has been heavily promoted. In a post looking for local artists who would like to join the two-day lineup, the official WSRR account commented, offering to put the organizers in touch with any local or independent artists we play, as our station covers much of the surrounding area and has worked with many talented artists.
While the initial reaction to this event was overwhelmingly positive, both by up-and-coming artists and residents of the WV area, things slowly began to snowball into a confusing web of unanswered questions. Many comments under the official event page began to shift from support and optimism about the success of the show to questions about full lineups not being announced prior to tickets going on sale, ticket pricing, and missing information about previously advertised bands. While initially advertised and promoted both via Facebook “Artists Announcements” and on official promotional images for the event, it would appear several independent artists are now being left off the bill without compensation, a reason, or even a response as to why they have been removed. In fact, as of the time of writing this article (June 8th, 2025), the headliner for the Sunday night show has yet to be announced despite tickets being sold and the official “Rock The Valley” website stating”Headliner coming on May 31st”. Notable bands that have been previously advertised but are no longer involved in this event include: The Daze, BADE, Black Hole Zion, and Appalachian Hustle.
WSRR Radio has reached out to several of the bands who have been unceremoniously removed from the bill either abruptly or without explanation. The identities of these individuals have been kept anonymous to protect their respective bands’ privacy.
*It should be noted that Wesley Morgan is listed as the “Founder” of Rock The Valley despite it being presented under the Charles Morgan Entertainment LLC*
“We have not gotten paid and we were recently removed from the lineup. No response to my emails or DM’s from the festival but I have not caused them any trouble to even warrant this kind of behavior.” … “Also, I will say that I gave him a range of what we had gotten paid for other events. Some were really well paid for us. Then I followed up with “Personally, we would rather help you make this a success and have you ask us back on a regular basis”. I gave him a range of numbers that I thought were fair for a new fest and a band at our level. He followed up with a higher number than what I asked for in the contract. We signed our contract on 12/1 and got communication until 12/23/24. We did not do or say anything negative to or about this guy and the fest. We also did not ask for anything additional.”
“I’ve been watching it like a hawk, they’ve been deleting comments on their Facebook page about the lineup and anything that’s remotely negative about it, I commented genuinely about ten times…and they deleted all of those comments” … “They won’t respond to alot of bands right now, it’s really fucked up what they are doing. If they’re going to kick us off the fuckin’ bill, they could at least tell us”.
Along with these quotes from some of those involved, others have reported not getting paid, contracts being ignored, and having comments removed.
WSRR Radio has also reached out to Charles Morgan Entertainment LLC via the official Rock The Valley Website about the removal of these bands, but as of this article, have received no response.
The purpose of this release is simply to share the accounts and experiences of the talented artists who have been removed from the Rock The Valley Event, had their contracts ignored, or have been unable to contact those in charge to gain clarification. WSRR Radio would also like to extend the offer to ANY artist who was removed from this event without explanation to have their music played on WSRR Radio. We hope this commentary has shed some light and understanding on the events surrounding Rock The Valley and will give the artists involved a louder voice to the injustice they have faced.
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