Irish Metal Festival

breffni666

Its probably been done here before but why can we not have our own Hard rock/ Metal festival here. Most of the European countries have one and we seem to pay some of the highest ticket prices in Europe for show so why can we not get one of our own or import one ala Sonisphere/ Download. Would be great to get our Metal community into one big field for a weekend. The amount of Irish that travel to Euro festivals is huge so lets have our own. What you think?

nyarlothothep

It's worth trying, I mean Metallica get good turnouts afaik so there are metal fans in Ireland. Of course there will be plenty of naysayers which is understandable but you don't know how many would turn up until its put into practice. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I think it would be profitable because its 1. a popular and established genre which is niche, hence captive audience already there 2. its creating something new, there is a metal scene in Ireland but its ignored, if it weren't who knows where it could go.

scudzilla

I roadied for Breed 77 at a festival at the RDS some years back, was headlined by Motorhead with Soil, One Minute Silence and a load more.
I 'THINK' it was called Extreme Festival, the turnout was dire, i think most of the bands only played to a few hundred people and the shed wasn't even half full when Motorhead played.
The promotors must have lost a shed load of cash on that one so i guess they're a bit wary now

120_Minutes

why pay double the prices for tickets, ameneties and beer, with possibly a sub par line up and the threat of being rained on when you can go to mainland europe and get great weather, better line ups and cheaper prices?

the only inconvenience is having to travel, and even as mentioned above when we have a gig, we wont go....as at the back of our minds we know we're being ripped off.

scudzilla

120_Minutes wrote: »

why pay double the prices for tickets, ameneties and beer, with possibly a sub par line up and the threat of being rained on when you can go to mainland europe and get great weather, better line ups and cheaper prices?

the only inconvenience is having to travel, and even as mentioned above when we have a gig, we wont go....as at the back of our minds we know we're being ripped off.

Gotta go along with this line of thinking, in the late 90's, early 00's i always used to go to a Euro Festival, went to Dynamo, PukkelPop, Rock am Ring and sooooo much cheaper.
For example, Pantera headlined Dynamo in 98 i think, A Pantera shirt or Event shirt worked out at 10Sterling, The EXACT same Pantera shirt or Event shirt at Ozzfest at Milton Keynes a few weeks later was 22!!! Go Figure

lord lucan

The only way a festival would do well here is if its headlined consistently by top tier rock/metal acts. Scudzilla mentioned Extreme festival,based on that line-up the only band i'd want to see is Motorhead. The Irish metal community generally turn out for the big guns,Metallica/Slayer/Maiden etc but would shun a festival with some lesser known bands imo.

Our best bet for something good to happen is to twin with Download or Sonisphere and have headliners play Dublin and Donnington/Knebworth on alternate nights like 2006. That was a great weekend,Axl and his merry men on the Friday night and Metallica on Sunday.

Motley Crue

There's a very simple reason for no Metal festival, and that is promoters, and not just the fact that we don't have promoters in a position to put on that kind of a show (because we do) or venues which could accommodate that kind of a show (because we do) but because we don't have promoters in this country with enough capital or cash to back this kind of endeavour who believe they will succeed in making a profit

It will be either MCD or Aiken, let's face it, who put on this kind of a show and neither are going to do so because past examples ("Download Ireland" and "Ozzfest") being two that come to mind prove that as much as fans enjoy the idea of a Metal Music Festival in Ireland there just isn't the sheer numbers required to make it profitable

Metallica's show in Marley Park in August 2009 was a kind of festival billing, and probably the nearest thing we'll get to a profitable Metal festival in the South of Ireland, but the fact is with Oxegen now getting MTV coverage and being hailed as a huge stop in the map for mainstream acts every year there is no reason why the promotions behind that would divert attention, and funds, to a metal festival - least not when most metal fans can board a plane to England and see a host of events on there as well. Or go to Germany, France, Italy, Belgium or wherever...

Angron

It's a shame, but I guess it's just not feasible. Still, going to something like Bloodstock in England isn't too far out of the way.

Diceicle

I think there's almost definately a niche for a rock / metal festival in Ireland. I would guess though that past festivals havent been as profitable as promoters would like or else they would still be going on.
I mean, we've had Feile, Sunstroke, Tattoo the Planet, Extremefest and Ozfest over my lifetime. I think what may possibly work is a Rock/metal festival along the lines of Electric Picnic, that way punters may feel they're getting something more than warm overpriced beer and a dodgy soundsystem.

scudzilla

Diceicle wrote: »

I think there's almost definately a niche for a rock / metal festival in Ireland. I would guess though that past festivals havent been as profitable as promoters would like or else they would still be going on.
I mean, we've had Feile, Sunstroke, Tattoo the Planet, Extremefest and Ozfest over my lifetime. I think what may possibly work is a Rock/metal festival along the lines of Electric Picnic, that way punters may feel they're getting something more than warm overpriced beer and a dodgy soundsystem.

Problem is take a festival EP's size and make it a Rock/Metal festival, you're gonna need 30,000 people to break even, now it's on over 2 days, so you're gonna need 2 BIG acts to headline, think Metallica & System of a Down (just an example)
Those 2 bands would cost a fortune, taking a huge chunk out of your budget for smaller on the bill bands, that's be risky for the promotors to pin a festival's success on 2 bands only.
If they went for the smaller headliners that too is also risky.
Most of the big metal festivals now have huge sponsorship which does cover there arses to a certain extent, an ew one in Ireland wouldn't have that luxury

Furious-Red

Id love to see a Metal/Rock festival but as people have said it might not be profit making . One reason is that i think in Ireland there is a smaller crowd that would listen to that kind of music when you compare what the average irish person listens to these days thats why we see acts like Rihanna/Lady Gaga/Katy Perry/JLS etc coming over here more that once a year because MCD/Aiken know that all these shows will sell out and thats why you wont see big Rock/Metal acts (bar the commercial rock acts) coming over here as much

Another reason that has been pointed out when you have the UK which is only less than an hour away and will probably end up being cheaper .

Its a pity because id love a Download/Sonisphere/High Voltage Festival over

adox

http://www.songkick.com/concerts/1483626-black-sabbath-at-dalymount-park

Probably the nearest we've had to a metal festival.

Was a great day but boy it seems a lifetime away.

Motley Crue

Furious-Red wrote: »

acts like Rihanna/Lady Gaga/Katy Perry/JLS etc coming over here more that once a year because MCD/Aiken know that all these shows will sell out and thats why you wont see big Rock/Metal acts (bar the commercial rock acts) coming over here as much

That is true, but these kind of commercial acts you mentioned are for fans who are also easier to please

That's not to say commercial music fans are stupid, by no means, their hard earned money is as much their own choice to spend as anyone else's - but metal fans are a hard bunch to please, and have strict rules about what they expect from a gig or festival, which is why there has been backlash to the likes of Linkin Park and Lost Prophets supporting Metallica (Lost Prophets were quoted in Metal Hammer last year as saying that their gig opening for Metallica in Dublin was the hardest they'd ever played because of the violent reaction of the crowd)

The point is that commercial music fans are pleased with Rhianna, JLS, Katy Perry or whatever twice a year - whereas a lot of Metal fans question the idea of Metallica coming here more than once a decade without a valid reason. A lot of people will go but if you check the attendance for Metallica in 2003 and then 2004 you'll find a lot more people went in 2004 for Slipknot, not to see Metallica again. Attendance for Iron Maiden? A lot of people went to that gig for Marilyn Manson.....sad but true....a lot of people also went to Metallica because it was the only choice they were given in terms of a major metal concert in Ireland

smackbunnybaby

A festival was attempted before, but it just didnt get enough support which was a pity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Darkness

It takes years before festivals begin to turn a profit unless they get major sponsors.
If you look at those line ups on wiki the average metaller would say it's too underground for them and not enough to get them in...

Diceicle

scudzilla wrote: »

Problem is take a festival EP's size and make it a Rock/Metal festival, you're gonna need 30,000 people to break even, now it's on over 2 days, so you're gonna need 2 BIG acts to headline, think Metallica & System of a Down (just an example)
Those 2 bands would cost a fortune, taking a huge chunk out of your budget for smaller on the bill bands, that's be risky for the promotors to pin a festival's success on 2 bands only.
If they went for the smaller headliners that too is also risky.
Most of the big metal festivals now have huge sponsorship which does cover there arses to a certain extent, an ew one in Ireland wouldn't have that luxury

I agree with your points. The amount of people bothered to go to something the size of EP would be unlikely to happen. My point in referencing Electric Picnic originally was that, apart from the music on offer in EP, you have other aspects of entertainment like art installations and silent discos etc, while those may not be to the metal communities taste, I think you can see my point. So if a promoter was to take a punt and put on a more boutique festival, offering something different, even without some monster names, it it possible it could be a success.

Furious-Red

I think if MCD restart Oxegen as a more Download/Sonisphere/Reading&Leeds/High Voltage festival and keep T-Vital as the more V-Festival/Creamfields/Global Gathering could work.

Eg for heavier festival you could have different types of rock playing so say for arguements sake the 3 headliners were System of a Down , Pearl Jam and The Killers , kinda like what R&L used to do and have a strong mix on the undercard could work

jpm4

smackbunnybaby wrote: »

A festival was attempted before, but it just didnt get enough support which was a pity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Darkness

It takes years before festivals begin to turn a profit unless they get major sponsors.
If you look at those line ups on wiki the average metaller would say it's too underground for them and not enough to get them in...

Exactly. Fact is that Irish people don't like metal very much. Sure they like Metallica, Maiden, ACDC, Linkin Park, Slipknot and whatever else I guess, but they are all huge bands. Underground stuff like in the above link? Forget it. A tiny handful are interested. A good metal festival would be wasted in this country to be honest, I wouldn't blame promoters for not bothering.

c - 13

Something along the lines of big day out (aus) could potentially work but it would need a giant budget.

It has a mix of all genres from pop to dance to metal scattered across multiple stages.

2010 one had mastadon, fear factory, lily allen, dizzee rascal and faithless (i think) amongst others.

scudzilla

c - 13 wrote: »

Something along the lines of big day ouy (aus) could potentially work but it would need a giant budget.

It has a mix of all genres from pop to dance to metal scattered across multiple stages.

2010 one had mastadon, fear factory, lily allen, dizzee rascal and faithless (i think) amongst others.

problem with a festival along those lines over here, would be all the chavs, knackers and metal fans in one place, would be a disaster IMO

c - 13

Yeah valid point. Didnt see any hassle at DBO though. You could always keep the stages seperate i suppose but that kind of defets the purpose.

MetzgerMeister

From organising metal gigs in my hometown, I know exactly how promoters feel about metal festivals here.

It's a lot of hard work, we barely made enough to break even. We felt like an Irish festival compared to Siege of Limerick which was like an English festival

Along with that, we had people constantly asking us (after the 1st one we did in November 2010) when the next one was on. We did loads of stuff on facebook, got flyers printed, posted them all around town. More than half the people who said they'd go, didn't. Typical Irish, they'll give out about nothing like that going on and when something does happen, they don't support it!

As someone mentioned above, it would be a good idea to have something like a metal stage at Oxegen with big bands playing. It would be a win-win situation for the promoters and the fans alike.

MetzgerMeister

scudzilla wrote: »

problem with a festival along those lines over here, would be all the chavs, knackers and metal fans in one place, would be a disaster IMO

That's a chance they would have to be willing to take. With that said, we didn't allow any knacks or chavs into our gig

Mental Mickey

The Download Ireland thingy in '06 in the RDS(with Metallica & GnR headlining), was a goodie.

They should do that more often.

Beekay

Furious-Red wrote: »

I think if MCD restart Oxegen as a more Download/Sonisphere/Reading&Leeds/High Voltage festival and keep T-Vital as the more V-Festival/Creamfields/Global Gathering could work.

Eg for heavier festival you could have different types of rock playing so say for arguements sake the 3 headliners were System of a Down , Pearl Jam and The Killers , kinda like what R&L used to do and have a strong mix on the undercard could work

They kinda did that in '08 didn't they? When they had RATM headline the Sunday. I waited until the Sunday to buy an unused weekend ticket off a workmate for €50 and went to see them....didn't really look like as many people turned up to see them as the you'd expect for headliners (madness in my eyes:D)
My guess is the people that go to Oxegen just wouldn't be as interested in RATM etc.

I know NIN headlined a lower stage aswell a few years ago, don't know how that turned out though!

jack presley

If we didn't get a metal festival when we were rich, I think the chance of getting one now that we're broke is pretty small

No one's going to put the money up to fund a festival and then have 12,000 out of 30,000 tickets sold

GrizzlyMan

jpm4 wrote: »

Exactly. Fact is that Irish people don't like metal very much. Sure they like Metallica, Maiden, ACDC, Linkin Park, Slipknot and whatever else I guess, but they are all huge bands. Underground stuff like in the above link? Forget it. A tiny handful are interested. A good metal festival would be wasted in this country to be honest, I wouldn't blame promoters for not bothering.

yes this is very true, Ive been to the Day of darkness a few times and loved it but most of the crowd like myself were deadicated to the underground scene. Lowend festival was another failed one just lasted one year.


Theres also the Dublin day Of Doom and the Cork winterfest

MetzgerMeister

IMO, the thing for us Irish to do is support our own metal bands. We have an awful lot of them and they are amazing.

We should build up these bands' names by having them play all over the country. Kind of keep them to ourselves if you know what I mean.

Things like the Siege and Thurles Metal Mayhem (my one) should be much more widespread. Getting these bands known is, in my opinion, much more important than getting big name bands to play festivals here.

Furious-Red

Beekay wrote: »

They kinda did that in '08 didn't they? When they had RATM headline the Sunday. I waited until the Sunday to buy an unused weekend ticket off a workmate for €50 and went to see them....didn't really look like as many people turned up to see them as the you'd expect for headliners (madness in my eyes:D)
My guess is the people that go to Oxegen just wouldn't be as interested in RATM etc.

I know NIN headlined a lower stage aswell a few years ago, don't know how that turned out though!

Yea that is true nowadays . If they would have headlined anytime before 2007 there would have been a great turn out for RATM , but now Oxegen has become more of a drink/fashion show festival these days instead of a Music Festival.

I went to see NIN that year and they were great but the turn out once again was pretty bad which was very noticeable . I think those kinda of fans are going to Electric Picnic .

Anyways dont wanna turn this topic into another Oxegen topic .

They could easily try a one day festival/gig like the Metallica ones and even have a small stage for local irish Rock/Metal acts to perform on

Beekay

Furious-Red wrote: »

Yea that is true nowadays . If they would have headlined anytime before 2007 there would have been a great turn out for RATM , but now Oxegen has become more of a drink/fashion show festival these days instead of a Music Festival.

I went to see NIN that year and they were great but the turn out once again was pretty bad which was very noticeable . I think those kinda of fans are going to Electric Picnic .

Anyways dont wanna turn this topic into another Oxegen topic .

They could easily try a one day festival/gig like the Metallica ones and even have a small stage for local irish Rock/Metal acts to perform on

I'm fans of both NIN and RATM and I go to EP :pac::pac:

And as someone who has gone to Rock Am Ring 3 years in a row and Download twice....it's much better going to Europe/abroad to get your rock/metal festival fill...they do things so well. If they did try one here I'd imagine it to be completely ballsed up!

LH Pathe

What was the festival where sabbat played a farm at a countryside crossroad a few years back; more of that please

cnk38

could nt agree more.we re paying a small fortune for tickets in this country.surely one of the promoters here should be able to bring something like sonisphere to the phoenix park or marley park.i ve gone to sweden the last two years for sonisphere and its only 40,000 people- easily managed and well run.i know the ticket price will be more expensive here either way bit thats an insurance issue apparently.i think the promoters here are too afraid to get behind metal unless its its a metallica or maiden etc