(SPRINGVILLE) – The 20th annual Gathering of the Juggalos is coming to Lawrence County Recreational Park in Springville from July 31 to August 3.
Tickets go on sale Sunday, March 17 at 6 p.m. ET and can be purchased at JuggaloGathering.com. The website will not be up until Sunday.
The music festival is described as “A party deep in the woods, in the shady trees, celebrating two decades with the Juggalo homies.”
The festival draws more than 10,000 people each year and has developed for unruliness with drugs, overdoses, fights, and arrests.
Insane Clown Posse, often abbreviated as ICP, is an American hip hop duo composed of Violent J (Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (originally 2 Dope; Joseph Utsler). They call itself “the most hated band in the world.”
Founded in Detroit in 1989, Insane Clown Posse performs a style of hardcore hip hop known as horrorcore and is known for its elaborate live performances. The duo has earned two platinum and five gold albums.
The group has established a dedicated following called Juggalos numbering in the “tens of thousands”.
Juggalos often paint their faces to look like clowns, and some sports tattoos of “hatchetman,” the logo for Psychopathic Records, ICP’s recording label.
Insane Clown Posse is known for their elaborate concert performances. In Marley Brant’s Tales from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Highway, Bruce described a typical performance: “We toss out, kick out, and shoot out into the crowd about three to four hundred two-liters of Faygo at every show…We bring with us monsters, dancing clowns, girls, trampolines, and pure and absolute madness to the stage.”
In a 2011 report, the FBI classified Juggalos as a “loosely organized hybrid gang” following violent incidents allegedly committed by fans of the group. Juggalos, in tandem with the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the government in 2014, claiming Juggalos’ “constitutional rights to expression and association were violated” by the FBI’s classification. The case was dismissed but then later reinstated in September 2015. The case was then thrown out a second time.
According to the National Gang Intelligence Center, there are more than one million self-proclaimed Juggalos across the United States. It is estimated that 85-90 percent of self-described Juggalos are peaceful, non-criminal music fans.
