I went to Madness in May at Byrd's Adventure Center exactly once. I'd been to Rocktoberfest plenty of times but had never been to a "mud" oriented event before, other than some drag racing.
It was eye opening, I know it's Arkansas and we have some hardcore Hillbillies and Rednecks, heck I grew up with several and have some redneck tendencies myself. That Madness in May event though, that was an experience. Alcohol lowering already barely existing inhibitions and fueled by group think mob mentality. I saw some things.
Pretty sure I saw a guy die. They had a mechanical bull over in front of the stage, girls ride free of course. This drunk guy climbed on top of the gazebo next to it to get a better look at the show. Guy on gazebo instantly became a target, bottles and cans flying through the air at him. Several made contact. Then a bottle smacked him in the head. I can still hear the sound. Drunk dude's lights were turned off instantly, fully limp, ~8' fall to the ground. He was too far away to see and no one near by cared in the slightest.
We watched a brawl in one of the mud pits. A couple drunk guys got in a yelling and insult match on either side of the pit. It wasn't long before they met each other in the pit. It was like a damn cartoon. I watched one guy literally kick the other in the ass so hard that his foot got stuck. Like hopping around on one leg with his other up the dude's ass. He had to use both hands to pull his foot away. I looked at my buddy to confirm I'd just really seen that, and his eyes were bugging out of his head in disbelief too. The noise the recipient of the "ass kicking" made upon impact is also scorched into my psyche.
I've been to plenty more events at Byrd's but that's the one and only Madness in May I've been to. I think it changed its name to Mudstock or another similar event took its place.
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