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By: Larry Cochran

When I think of music festivals, I think of mostly single day experiences with multiple stages of music, vendors peddling assorted wares, food and band merchandise. If you're lucky, a festival may have some games of chance where you can win festival merchandise or a special sampler given out to promote bands on the festival. There are some other great festivals out there which are multiple day affairs promoting every genre of music and bringing together a diverse crowd of individuals for the love of music. I can guarantee you, however, that there is no festival experience on this planet like The Gathering of the Juggalos.

For four days from August 11th to August 14th 2010 in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, More then 10,000 fans of the Insane Clown Posse will gather and celebrate with their favorite bands in a festival like no other. The Gathering of the Juggalos does feature your standard music festival fair including four nights of main stage concerts featuring 30 different acts from across the musical spectrum. They've got Saliva, Kittie, Dope and CKY for the rockers. They've got a plethora of acts representing the past three decades of hip hop including: MC Hammer, Lil Jon, Busta Rhymes, Ice Cube, Vanilla Ice, Bobby Brown, Mystikal, Juvenile, Xzibit, E-40, DJ Quik, Paul Wall, Mastamind, Paris and even the godfather of P-Funk himself, George Clinton!

The main stage also features the most popular independent acts from some of the labels best known to their fan circle. The Gathering features the most talked about independent rapper around now, Kansas City, Missouri's Tech N9ne supporting his brand new album, All 6's and 7's which debuted on Billboard's Top 200 at Number Four and on the Rap Albums chart at Number One. He brings along his Strange Label mate Prozak along with his usual entourage. Suburban Noize Records, long time friends of ICP's Psychopathic Records, also bring forth their best to the Gathering of the Juggalos with the Kottonmouth Kings and (HED) P.E. Psychopathic Records (and its subsidiary Hatchet House) will not be outdone however and bring forth its entire roster as they've done for the past 11 years that they've been doing The Gathering of the Juggalos. They'll be represented on the main stage by newest signings The Dayton Family, as well as "The Hatchet Warrior" Anybody Killa, Boondox, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Twiztid and the Insane Clown Posse along with Psychopathic's two super groups, The Psychopathic Rydaz and Dark Lotus.

In case you didn't watch the video above this, The main stage of the Gathering will be hosted each night by a different celebrity star and this year's lineup of celebrities is The Gathering's best yet. The least well known would be Jumpsteady who is the brother of Violent J and a Psychopathic icon in music as well as wrestling. Dustin Diamond who is best known as Screech from Saved By The Bell as well as from his appearance on VH-1's Celebrity Fit Club and who is no stranger to the juggalos will be hosting one night of the main stage as well. The names keep getting bigger as they go on. A founding member of Public Enemy as well as star of VH-1's "Flavor of Love" and a Comedy Central roast, Flavor Flav will be bringing his particular brand of entertainment to the GOTJ main stage this year and all I can say to that is "YEAHHHHHHHHHH BOYEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

The biggest coup of this year's Gathering of the Juggalos has ICP and all of its fans #WINNING in a big way with all the publicity being garnered by their final guest host, the most talked about man in Hollywood right now, Charlie Sheen!! He's confirmed it on Twitter and after speaking with Violent J, I felt the love for Charlie. He's raw, he's raucous and he doesn't care what anyone else things of him and that makes him a perfect fit for The Gathering of the Juggalos. The news garnered a spot on the hub of celebrity gossip as well as more mainstream publicity especially in the wake of last year's Tila Tequila incident.

The Gathering of the Juggalos will not just be about the main stages, there will be tents going on all night featuring the hottest acts in the underground scene across the nation and the world . The Gathering will also feature five events from ICP's Juggalo Championshxt Wrestling over the four days as well as open tryouts for JCW. The wrestling roster includes a who's who of the recent legends of wrestling with names like "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Terry Funk, King Kong Bundy, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Scott Hall, Booker T, Raven, The Honky Tonk Man, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, X-Pac and female wrestler/turned porn star Chyna among many more including recent internet wrestling darling "Officer" Colt Cabana.

The Gathering of the Juggalos promises 24 hour action over these four days and many of the JCW events will be starting at midnight after the main stage and the underground tents going all night along with a comedy tent featuring stand up from names like "The Innovator of DYNO-MITE!" J.J. Walker, Half Baked and Big Money Hustlas star Harland Williams, the awesome Brian Posehn and even a special "Wrestler Night" of comedy featuring many wrestlers turned comedians including icon and New York Times Bestselling author Mick Foley!

In addition to the music, wrestling and comedy, The Gathering of the Juggalos will also be featuring Helicopter rides around the festival grounds, Carnival rides and games, Seminars where you can meet and ask questions of your favorite artists, wrestlers and comedians including a special ghost hunting seminar with Scott Tepperman from SyFy's "Ghost Hunters International." They'll be offering open mics for people to do their things along with karaoke, beauty contests and dating games. They'll also be having special parties where you can have a chance to eat with some of your favorite artists. My favorite and the one I had to ask Violent J himself about (in my interview posted down below for you to check out) was Violent J's Prince vs. Michael Jackson BBQ. It's a very cool concept and if you wanna know what it is, you'll just have to listen to the interview at the bottom.

Violent J was a pleasure to talk with on the phone and you can hear in the interview about how much love he has for his fans coming out to the festival and how much love they have for the show and hopefully any questions I may not have answered in this article can be answered in the interview or by going to check out their site at www.juggalogathering.com.

You can also check out their recent appearance on TBS's Lopez Tonight at this link.

If you have any questions or feedback, you can leave them here or feel free to chat with me on Twitter at @LLGhoulJ and please follow the official Pop Culture Madness Twitter account at @PCMTweet.