In this extremely bleak moment, it’s an act of almost overwhelming confidence to announce the lineup for a summer music festival. Many of this summer’s festivals have already been cancelled, and it feels like it’s only a matter of time before more are shut down. But this past weekend, one festival — set to take place in July — went ahead and unveiled a lineup anyway, while allowing for the possibility that the festival simply couldn’t happen.

California’s Sound And Fury Festival has been happening every summer for years, and it’s probably America’s biggest and best festival for hardcore and for the various strains of music associated with hardcore. Last year’s festival looked like an absolute monster; I have watched the video of Have Heart’s incredible reunion set many, many times. While the festival has called Los Angeles home for a few years, it’s now set to happen 7/11-12 at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, north of LA. I hope that happens. It looks killer.

Over the weekend, Sound & Fury announced the first wave of bands playing this year’s festival, with more to come on the way. The lineup includes some truly huge bands from across the hardcore landscape: Knocked Loose, Touché Amoré, Angel Du$t, Jesus Piece, Fiddlehead. It has has some of the fastest-rising, most talked-about hardcore bands out there right now: Gulch, Portrayal Of Guilt, One Step Closer Never Ending Game, Magnitude, Regional Justice Center. It features plenty of acts that are rooted in hardcore even though they make music in different genres: Nothing, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Anxious.

There’s God’s Hate, the only-intermittently-active band led by the great pro wrestler Brody King. There are smaller hardcore bands who could conceivably have breakout moments: Result Of Choice, Gunn, Slowbleed, Absence Of Mine, Method Of Doubt, Risk. There’s Sunami, whose spectacularly ignorant three-song demo was enough to get a buzz going. And there’s the grungy Pennsylvania post-hardcore band Superheaven, who broke up in 2016 and who have only played a handful of reunion shows since. If this festival actually gets to happen, it should be fucking sick.

But of course, we don’t know how the world will look in July, and there’s every chance that this festival will not happen. In a statement posted on their website, the Sound And Fury organizers say:

Due to current world events, we must accept the possibility that we may have to cancel the festival. Things are changing rapidly and it’s impossible to say how the situation will ebb and flow over the next few months. We are 115 days away from July 11, and are hopeful and optimistic that Sound and Fury will go on as planned. But we will take a pragmatic approach to hosting the event. If it’s not conducive to health and happiness, the festival will not happen.

If Sound and Fury is canceled, all weekend passes will be fully refunded. Just to be safe, we recommend you select lodging that allows for cancellation and travel that allows refunds/credits.

We are actively monitoring the situation and will update all of our channels with any major news.

Fingers crossed. You’ll find all the relevant info here.