Afterburn aims to end Cleveland's music festival drought

State of play: The latest contender is the inaugural Afterburn Music Festival, which takes place Aug. 14-15 at Victory Park, a 60-plus acre sports and entertainment facility in North Ridgeville.

• The event, put on by venue operator Victory Entertainment, features more than a dozen rock bands, including Third Eye Blind and Skillet.

What they're saying: Afterburn bills itself as an "accessible alternative" to festivals like Chicago's Lollapalooza and Columbus' Sonic Temple, which drew more than 180,000 people to Historic Crew Stadium last month.

• "We knew a rock festival was something Cleveland was sort of missing," Joe Borkey, president of Victory Entertainment, tells Axios. "This event, located right off the turnpike at this giant space, can fill that void."

Flashback: Cleveland has struggled to sustain a major music festival — one that can draw tens of thousands of people — since the World Series of Rock in the 1970s.

• The graveyard of one-and-done fests includes K-Rock radio's Kuyahoga Fest at Blossom Music Center in 2006, the InCuya Music Festival on the downtown Mall in 2018 and Kid Cudi's 2022 Moon Man's Landing festival in the Flats.

The other side: Northeast Ohio did have WonderStruck, which ran from 2016 to 2023 in Kirtland, Lake County, before being derailed by an ongoing legal battle.

• The annual Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival draws 75,000 fans to Mansfield, but is an 80-mile drive southwest of Cleveland.

Borkey says Afterburn is anticipating 10,000 people across two days during its first year.

• "We hope to be as big as one of these other Ohio festivals, one day," he says. "Right now, we're a good foot-in-the-door for people who haven't been to big festivals and want to try it out."

If you go: Single-day tickets start at just over $115.

• Two-day passes start at around $213.