For the second time since the festival’s start in 2013, country music’s faithful won’t be flocking to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan, for Faster Horses this summer. A message posted on its website stated it was “taking the year to make plans for a bigger and better Faster Horses,” leaving fans wondering what the future of country music festivals in the Midwest looks like.
Founded by Brian O’Connell, president of country touring and festivals at Live Nation, Faster Horses quickly became known for its hard-partying guests and big-name artists, including Tim McGraw, Morgan Wallen, Jason Aldean, and Luke Combs. The “party of the summer” hasn’t been all laughs and good times, however. There have been numerous accounts of criminal sexual assault (in November 2021, MLive reported there had been 30 reports since 2013) and seven deaths.
2021 proved to be the festival’s deadliest year, with four deaths occurring in a 24-hour period. Three of the four, Kole Sova (19), Dawson Brown (20), and William “Richie” Mays Jr. (20), died of carbon monoxide poisoning while staying overnight together at the Junction campground. The friends — former classmates at Michigan Center High School — installed a generator in the wrong direction to their trailer, causing exhaust to vent back into the camper and exposing the friends to deadly levels of carbon monoxide. The families of the young men filed a lawsuit against Live Nation and Michigan International Speedway, alleging the shrunken campsites caused an unsafe environment, leaving them no other choice but to install the generator the way they did. The Jackson-based lawyer representing the families, Ron Marienfeld, argued the festival played a role in their deaths.
“Our position is that the campsites were shrunken by a third and it didn’t leave room no matter where you put the generators for proper ventilation,” Marienfeld told Hour Detroit in April 2024.
Marienfeld and his team sought the expertise of an event management specialist, who testified that both the reduced campsite size and lack of proper generator education contributed to the deaths.
“The main thing is there should have been more warning with the size of the campsite, and they should have told them to keep the generator 10 feet away,” Marienfeld said.
The lawsuit, filed in Lenawee County, was struck down in the lower courts, and their decision was upheld in a 2-1 ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals. Marienfeld’s application for an appeal was then denied by the state Supreme Court.
Meeka Sova, Kole Sova’s mother, was also in attendance at the 2021 Faster Horses festival. Since the death of their son, Meeka and her husband, Jerry Sova, have returned to the festival every year to hand out carbon monoxide detectors to campers “People wanted to give us money for them, but we told them we’re doing this because we want to make sure you guys are safe,” Sova told Hour Detroit.
The couple started a charity, For the Boys, in September 2022 as a way to honor their son’s and his friends’ legacies and spread awareness about carbon monoxide poisoning. Since its inception, For the Boys has distributed 2,750 carbon monoxide detectors.
While the festival’s pause in 2025 does not appear to be related to incidents from previous years, it has rekindled discussions regarding festival safety and the culture surrounding Faster Horses. Hour Detroit contacted Live Nation for comment, but the organization could not be reached.
A New Direction
While there is no Faster Horses festival this year, there is something nearby for music fans over at The Groves of Michigan campground, a little over a mile from the Michigan International Speedway.
The Country Roads Music Festival — which takes place Friday, July 18, to Sunday, July 20 — is offering three days of music and festivities.
Founder Darci Keyes, who purchased The Groves of Michigan two years ago, hopes to inject a more intimate, laid-back vibe into the small Irish Hills community. She also wants to take advantage of an abundance of homegrown talent, putting the spotlight on country artists from Michigan and the Midwest.
“A lot of the bands play around the area at The Machine Shop [Flint] or District 142 [Wyandotte],” she says. “All in all, we will have about 20 Michigan bands.”
Michigan artists like The Gasoline Gypsies, the Family Tradition Band, BlueSkye, and Louie Lee will be performing onstage and around bonfires located throughout the campground. While many of the supporting acts are local, Keyes tapped out-of-towners Restless Road, Colt Ford, and Drew Baldridge to headline Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Keyes plans to have something for everyone at her festival, including an art gallery in the woods, cornhole tournaments, morning 3K trail walks around the approximately 215-acre property, food vendors and a drink tent, and perhaps a barbecue competition between food trucks.
Keyes purchased the campground with the intention “to do some small festivals,” she says. “I don’t think we had a country music festival in our plans because of Faster Horses. But when they canceled, we [knew] there would be somewhat of a void for country music in the area.”
Plus, for many local campgrounds and small businesses in Brooklyn, the July “hillbilly sleepover” that called Michigan International Speedway home for more than a decade provided an essential economic boost. Faster Horses has drawn upwards of 40,000 attendees to Lenawee County, a region home to fewer than 100,000 residents.
She wants to make it clear the Country Roads Music Festival will be a much different scene from Faster Horses.
“I think there are a lot of people that stayed away from Faster Horses or that went to Faster Horses and didn’t go anymore just because it had kind of gotten big and had gotten to be more of a party scene,” Keyes says. “And that wasn’t necessarily their jam. So I think that we cater to slightly different demographics and crowds.”
Keyes emphasizes her commitment to providing a safe, enjoyable experience for campers at The Groves, which has 1,600 campsites.
“We’re definitely very conscious about making sure people are safe and making sure we don’t have generators where the tents are,” Keyes says. “And where the RVs are, they have to be more than 6 feet away from the RV. We’ll also have EMTs on-site 24 hours a day the whole weekend.”
Whether or not Faster Horses does make a comeback, Keyes sees a place for the new festival to continue. “I think we would keep it and just move it a bit later in the season,” she says. “As long as it’s successful and people want to come here, I think there’s room for both of them.”
This story originally appeared in the July 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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