Iron Hills Country Music Festival canceled in Birmingham: ‘We had to make the hard choice’

The new Iron Hills Country Music Festival has been canceled in Birmingham. Organizers announced the cancellation on Thursday, about three weeks before the event was set to debut at Sloss Furnaces.

“Rising costs and lower-than-expected ticket sales” were to blame, according to a statement on the festival’s website. Refunds for folks who bought tickets will be issued automatically via Eventim (formerly SeeTickets.com), organizers said.

Iron Hills, planned for Oct. 11-12, had announced a lineup of more than 20 acts, including Travis Tritt, Turnpike Troubadours, Chase Rice, Ryan Bingham & the Texas Gentlemen, Midland and Jo Dee Messina.

“The difficult decision was made after it became clear that the festival would be unable to deliver the quality experience fans deserve,” organizers at Iron Hills Productions said in a Thursday news release. “The combination of increased production costs and softer-than-expected demand made the event financially and operationally impossible to move forward with this year.”

Iron Hills was the brainchild of Johnny Grimes, Chad Johnson and Josh Williams. Grimes and Johnson are organizers of Furnace Fest, a three-day event in Birmingham that showcases heavy rock, thrash, punk and metal bands.

Furnace Fest 2025, also planned for Sloss Furnaces, is set for Oct. 3-5. The festival — a reboot of a “DIY punk rock festival” that was held in Birmingham from 2000 to 2003 — made its return in 2021 and has continued at Sloss over the past four years.

Grimes has made his mark on Birmingham’s music scene in another way: He’s one of the partners who bought WorkPlay in 2023, renovating and reviving the concert venue at at 500 23rd St. South.

“While the Iron Hills Music Festival cancellation is a tough moment for all involved, organizers remain steadfast in their commitment to Birmingham’s music community,” organizers said in the release. “WorkPlay, the team behind Iron Hills, will continue to focus on its long-standing sister event, Furnace Fest, which has been built over more than two decades as a beloved tradition in the city.

“Faced with the challenge of sustaining two festivals during such uncertain economic conditions, we had to make the hard choice to step back from Iron Hills in order to save and strengthen Furnace Fest,” the release said. “This ensures that Furnace Fest can come back for years to come, continuing the legacy and community it has fostered in Birmingham.”

Iron Hills Productions had scheduled a third music festival, Magic City Flow Fest, on Oct. 18 at Sloss Furnaces, but announced in early September that the date had been moved to May 9, 2026.

Magic City Flow, a hip-hop festival, evidently experienced pushback from concertgoers because it was scheduled on a Saturday in the fall. (Among other things, it’s a prime time for college football.)

“We’ve heard your feedback and want to make Magic City Flow the best experience possible for our community,” organizers at Iron Hills Productions posted on Sept. 8 via Facebook and Instagram.