Friday’s Welcome to Rockville came out swinging…and sweating, as both the Florida sun and the music lineup brought serious heat to Daytona International Speedway.
By mid-afternoon, temperatures were soaring into the 90s, with festival staff spraying water over the crowd to provide some relief. Bowling for Soup kicked things off on the Apex Stage, declaring themselves “the best band to ever exist” before launching into their anthem, “High School Never Ends.”
Frontman Jaret Reddick and bassist Rob Felicetti kept the crowd entertained with their signature banter. Reddick gave a shout out to his home state of Texas before teasing, “This song is about the great state of Texas… it’s called ‘Ohio’,” which earned laughter before the band dove into the track.
The band asked if anyone knew they wrote the theme song to this show “Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day,” famously known as the theme song to Phineas and Ferb. The crowd cheered and jumped in, at one point taking over the chorus themselves.
In classic Bowling for Soup fashion, Reddick poked fun at himself for going two songs without a beer before cracking one open and chugging it mid-set. The band kept the good vibes rolling with fan-favorite “Girls All the Bad Guys Want” and closed their set on a high note with the nostalgic pop-punk hit “1985.”
| READ: Welcome to Rockville Reveals Set Times, Lineup Changes |
However, the music might not have been the biggest topic of the day. As the heat index climbed, festival organizers made the move of dropping water bottle prices from $4.50 to $2 shortly after 5 p.m. and, an hour later, announced that re-entry would be allowed for all attendees.
Artists such as metal’s Kublai Khan and beatdown hardcore band Knocked Loose took the stage – with circle pits galore – as well as pop-punk favorites New Found Glory, alt-rock icons of Jimmy Eat World, and the woman-fronted metal band Jinjer. We caught up with progressive metalcore band ERRA’s frontman JT Cavey, who delivered a fiery set. Look out for the interview via TicketNews.
Notably, Sublime performed, marking one of their first shows with Jakob Nowell – the son of the late Sublime member Bradley Nowell – after the departure of Rome Ramirez.
As the sun finally dipped, festivalgoers caught a welcome break from the heat. Taking the Octane Stage around 9:00 p.m., Good Charlotte delivered a high-energy set packed with nostalgic hits.
Throughout the performance, frontman Joel Madden kept the crowd engaged, noting that Welcome to Rockville marked the band’s first Florida appearance in quite some time. Early in the set, he asked fans to raise their hands if it was their first time seeing Good Charlotte live. “Knowing so many people haven’t seen us before has changed the whole show for me,” Madden shared. “It’s gonna be a big singalong tonight.”
One of the standout moments came when the band surprised the crowd by bringing out Brendan Brown of Wheatus. The audience erupted as Madden and Brown teamed up for a crowd-pleasing rendition of “Teenage Dirtbag,” turning the infield into a massive singalong.
Good Charlotte closed their set with one of their most iconic tracks, “Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous.” Before the final chorus, Madden paused to address the audience once more: “This is gonna be the biggest singalong and biggest jump of the day.”
In true rocker fashion, the crowd obeyed, singing every word and jumping in unison as the band finished their closing number.
| READ: REVIEW: Shinedown, Three Days Grace Bring the Heat to Daytona’s Welcome to Rockville Night One |
Immediately after Good Charlotte’s set, the crowd in front of the main Apex Stage began chanting “Green Day,” and the lights around the stage went down, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Queen’s iconic “Bohemian Rhapsody” rang through the speakers, and all 50,000 people in the crowd could be heard singing along, uniting fans for arguably one of the greatest songs in rock history.
As per every Green Day show, the Energizer Bunny took the stage, dancing around in a bunny suit and hyping-up the crowd. Then, the screens around the stage displayed a compilation of Green Day records and clips from music videos with Queen’s “We Will Rock You” playing in the background.
Finally, after a highly-anticipated entrance, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool arrived on-stage, marking their debut at Rockville. They immediately brought the energy with their smash-hit “American Idiot.” As we figured, Armstrong cheekily tweaked the lyrics from “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda” to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda” – the lyric change has caused controversy over the past year (though it’s worth noting that Green Day has always been anti-government, and this should be a surprise to no one).
“Holiday” immediately followed, and Armstrong once again changed the lyrics to “the representatives of Florida have the floor.” During “Know Your Enemy,” he asked the crowd who could sing along and ended-up bringing a young girl on stage – who ultimately lived every Green Day fans’ dreams by jumping off a speaker and looking out into a sea of people.
“Look at this, this is fucking beautiful right now,” Armstrong said, addressing the crowd. “This, Florida, is the beginning of a hot summer.”
Green Day continued with hit after hit – and didn’t take a single break in-between songs. They delivered a fiery rendition of Dookie’s “Longview” – telling the crowd that “you’re rowdy tonight, I love it” – followed immediately by “Welcome to Paradise.” This crowd was by far the largest and most energetic at the fest thus far; crowd surfers filled the air, people sat on top of each other’s shoulders, and fans were jumping up and down to classics like “Hitchin’ a Ride,” “Brain Stew,” and “St. Jimmy.”
Notably, the trio played two songs off their latest, 2025 record Saviors: “Dilemma” and “Bobby Sox.” Although this is their 14th album, the crowd received the new music well, belting out the lyrics back at Armstrong, and it felt like these songs have been out for years, rather than just a few months.
A huge blimp that read “30 Years of Dookie” soared over the crowd, and at one point, dropped hundreds of little blimp balloons over the audience, taking inspiration from the cover of the famed 1994 record.
They rounded-out the night with American Idiot’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Jesus of Suburbia,” followed by the fan-favorite and smash-hit “Time of Your Life,” sending green confetti through the sky. The moment felt surreal – seeing the punk-rockers perform a compilation of their hits over the years – at the biggest rock festival in North America.
This is exactly what a rock show should feel like: sweaty, heavy, loud, and above all – unforgettable.
Stay tuned as TicketNews stays on-site to review the third day of the festival at the Daytona Speedway on Saturday, featuring a headlining performance from Linkin Park.
