The 2026 ‘C.Y. Fest‘ has effectively been canceled after a week or two of controversy. Initial issues cropped up when the festival’s founder Ignacio “Nacho Corrupted” Rodriguera was hit with multiple allegations of sexual assault/sexual misconduct. As those allegations spread, a number of artists began to exit the festival, Rodriguera went on to deny the allegations, claiming they were “false” and “misinformation”. He indicated that he would be addressing the allegations through proper legal channels.
With the festival facing a collapse, Rodriguera stepped down from running the festival at the suggestion of Tankcrimes owner Scotty Heath. According to a statement initially issued by Heath, he did not know Rodriguera prior and cold-called him in an attempt to salvage the festival for the sake of the bands and fans. However, roughly a day after announcing his new role as the festival’s new promoter, Heath withdrew from the role, stating that the venue would thus be assuming the duties of overseeing the fest.
As Heath said in his exit statement:
“…There’s just too many questions came in from you guys that I don’t have the answers for, so I just felt like I was in over my head. I really… I did make a solid attempt, but I think I rushed the announcement. It was less than 30 hours after I’d done it, and everything happened pretty spontaneously, and I was just trying to get out there so quick, because the fest is coming up so soon, so I have bowed out of that, and I’ve the venues are still running the fest.
They have very competent staff and in-house people that will be doing that. But because there’s so many unanswered questions that I don’t have the answers for. I can’t do it.”
With that development unfolding yesterday, March 18th, today has now seen the festival canceled altogether. A post just made on the Instagram story of the festival reads as follows:
“C.Y. FEST 2026 IS CANCEL ALL TICKETS HAVE BEEN REFUNDED AUTOMATICALLY TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT. IT WILL TAKE 24 48 HOURS TO HIT YOUR ACCOUNT
VENDORS DM FOR REIMBURSEMENT
PRESHOWS WILL HAVE MORE INFO SOON!”
This year’s festival had been booked to take place March 28th at at The Belasco in Los Angeles, CA with the likes of Subhumans, Eyehategod, Pig Destroyer, Ghoul and more originally announced. However, numerous artists joined the boycott of the festival, or dropped off the to wash their hands of it, over the past week. Among the 13 to cancel were Subhumans, Ghoul, Dropdead, Weekend Nachos and more.
While this year’s festival ended in outright cancelation, last year’s ‘C.Y. Fest‘ was postponed to this year. A spring 2025 statement cited “unavoidable work commitments with the city of Los Angeles that cannot be postponed” as the reason for the festival missing 2025. Adding insult to injury for those that purchased tickets last year, tickets purchased for the ill-fated 2025 edition were rolled over to this year’s now scrapped event.
