Gathering of the Juggalos

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Overview

Gathering of the Juggalos is annual festival hosted by Psychopathic Records^[17] and founded by Jumpsteady, Insane Clown Posse, and their label in 2000. The festival, named after Insane Clown Posse fans, hosts a pageant, wrestling, and performances by artists on the Psychopathic Records label. Although the gathering has been portrayed by the media as riotous, juggalos insist the event to be an understanding and loving gathering of family.

Background

On July 21st, 2000, the first Gathering took place in Novi, Michigan at an Expo Center and lasted for two days, with over 7,000 fans in attendance. MTV^[2] reported on the event saying that fans stormed the stage and started fires. In 2015, the first outdoor Gathering of the Juggalos^[1] was held and since then has been an outdoor weekend event which has been held in a different location almost every year. In addition to musical concerts, the Gathering of the Juggalos features multiple activities. The gathering has acquired annual traditions such as carnival rides, midway games, and helicopter rides, juggalo karaoke, an open mic, comedy, ladies oil wrestling, a wet t-shirt contest, a Ms. Juggalette competition, Hog Daddy's Hellfire and autograph signings.

Notable Developments

On November 20th, 2007, Vice^[15] writer Thomas Morton wrote about his experience at the music festival in an article titled “In the Land of the Juggalos."

In 2009, an extreme advertising-style infomercial for that year's Gathering was widely circulated online (shown below, left),^[7] which was subsequently parodied on Saturday Night Live (shown below, right).^[8]

On August 14th, 2010, reality star and performer Tila Tequila suffered facial injuries after being pelted with rocks and other objects on stage at The Gathering.^[19] The same day, TMZ^[20] posted photos of Tequila's face following the incident (shown below).

On September 26th, 2011, filmmaker Sean Dunne posted a 23-minute documentary titled "American Juggalo" on the video-sharing site Vimeo, which includes interviews with self-described Juggalos attending The Gathering (shown below). In the first two years, the documentary received upwards of 1.6 million views and 370 comments.

On July 12th, 2013, an infomercial video for The Gathering was uploaded to YouTube, featuring the mock local newscast "Hatchet Action News" donned in clown makeup (shown below). Scheduled to be held from August 7th to August 11th at Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, the 2013 Gathering boasted performances from metal bands, underground rappers, stand-up comedians, a foam party and two Guns N' Roses cover bands. As of August 2013, The Gathering of the Juggalos has amassed more than 248,000 likes on Facebook.^[9]

In 2013, more documentaries were created about the event including a Fuse documentary titled, "Inside The Gathering of The Juggalos" which has gather over one million views in six years (shown below, left). The feature-length documentary WHOOP DREAMS^[4] was released in September 2014 (Official Trailer shown below, right).

On November 19th, 2015, Broadly released a short documentary on Juggalettes and feminism surrounding the Miss Juggalette competition (show below). The video gained over 2.6 million views in four years.

20th Annual Gathering

On April 4th, 2019, Yahoo entertainment uploaded an interview with Insane Clown Posse to talk about the 20th Gathering of the Juggalos (shown below, left). The festival was hosted during the weekend of August 3rd in Springville, Indiana. On August 6th, Replicon Radio uploaded a video of ICP's full set (shown below, right).

The Daily Beast^[3] released a series of photos from the event saying,

"Insane Clown Posse’s final night set ended with juggalos setting fire to picnic tables, chairs, and anything that wasn’t tied down as other juggalos lamented about 'goddamn juggalos' that were going to get the festival kicked out of another city. As the fire burned and the festival came to an end, juggalos gathered ‘round the fire and paraphrased a popular pro wrestling chant: 'We fucked up! We fucked up!'"

Impact

The annual event has been referenced in numerous television shows. In 2011, an episode of the TV show Workaholics aired in which the main characters attend a Gathering (shown below, left). May 19th, 2013, Moe referenced the Gathering of the Juggalos in a Simpsons episode (shown below, right). The festival also launches much discussion on subreddits like r/juggalo^[5] and r/InsaneCringePosse.^[6]