Northern Symphony Festival

So, it's been over a week now since I hosted Northern Symphony, the UK's first symphonic metal festival, in Selby and I'm still buzzing from it. Yeah, there were some issues during in the day but they were resolved soon enough.

A few people have asked me why I didn't do it in my hometown where I usually promote. Aside from the major lack of symphonic metal fans in Bridlington, I just fancied doing something outside of Brid. I used to promote in Hull until mid-late 2012 and so Northern Symphony was a breath of fresh air for me.

How did the idea came about...

I wrote a guest article last year, under the pseudonym Jarl Solheim, for Femetalism about the symphonic metal scene in the UK. The article can be read here. While I was drafting up the article, I began thinking about organising something that was just totally symphonic metal and touched on as many areas of the sub-genre as possible.

It was obvious the idea would never work out in Bridlington, so I began scouting for other areas to do it. The midlands and the south were too far away and awkward to get to with me being reliant on public transport, so a venue in Yorkshire was the best option for me. Eventually, after a couple of weeks of scouting the internet and some posts on Facebook, it was suggested that I try use The Venue in Selby - Which I must say is an absolutely fantastic venue. After some discussion to the owner, the date was fixed in for 4th April 2015.

The preparation and the lead-up...

With the date booked in and The Venue confirmed, I began short listing bands for the festival who I then proceeded to contact to book. The response from UK bands was exciting, surprising and confusing as well. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of decent symphonic metal bands in the UK but the amount of times I got an email from a thrash band or an old school power metal was ridiculous.

The first two acts I confirmed were Quietus and Scandelion, the latter of which was introduced to me by a musician I've know for a while and of course it turned out he plays for them! Securing the headliner was the hardest part of the booking process for NSF as it seemed like everyone I asked to headline was unavailable. Eventually I found the ideal headliner in the form of Winter In Eden.

As the weeks went on, I eventually booked a second venue (The Riverside in Selby) to serve as a second stage so I could try touch down on the various forms of symphonic metal like I originally hoped to do so.

The day itself...

When the day of Northern Symphony itself came, I woke up with a sense dread, all sorts of negative thoughts running through my head such as No one will show up and my personal favourite It's all going to go tits up. No one will work with me again. Of course, it didn't help put my mind ease that an event of a similar nature was happening the day after Northern Symphony and said event cropped up some time after Northern Symphony had been announced.

By the time I got on the train to Selby, I was on the verge of becoming a nervous wreck. To make matters worse, I was heavily hungover.  Not a good idea.

When I arrived at the venues, everything seemed to be running smoothly, so I flitted between the two talking to bands and letting them know what the crack was. Soon enough, doors opened and the first band of the day, A Clockwork Opera, were on stage. They were the only band I saw a full set of since they didn't clash with any of the other bands and they were extremely impressive, especially for their debut show.

Disaster struck on the main stage, which was being hosted in The Venue, some issues occurred that causes the schedule to be delayed, leaving me and others concerned that Winter In Eden wouldn't be able to play their full set. Fortunately, as the day went on, we almost caught back up with the schedule and WIE not only played their full set but a couple of encore songs as well.

As the day went on, I flitted between the two stages, catching what I could of every band's set and getting feedback from people about the event. It;s safe to say that Northern Symphony 2016 is on the books, so watch this space.

Photo credits: Craig Andrews - Femetalism.co.uk