Back in 2007, a group of dedicated, loud rock fans created a festival and conference in Calgary called Noctis Valkyries Metal Festival.
By the time Scarab Productions retired the festival in 2013, Noctis had grown considerably in size, bringing in a range of top-ranked, stylistically dissimilar metal bands like Venom and Pig Destroyer, along with a carefully curated group of local groups and speakers for various industry panels. The festival’s demise is still mourned, but it also set musician, promoter and perennial Noctis attendee Tyson Travnik on the path to starting Farmageddon, an open-air metal festival that took root in a field outside Edmonton four years ago.
Now Travnik has set his sights on creating his own festival and conference here in Edmonton dubbed Shredmonton, under the auspices of his company Prairie Fire Events. The first year of the three-day metal get-together is an ambitious one, bringing in extreme groups like Goatwhore and death metal veterans Dying Fetus to both the Starlite Room and Brixx Bar & Grill. It also nods at the Alberta community with slots for bands like locals Disciples of Power and Calgary’s Exit Strategy.
More tellingly, Travnik has resurrected the conference aspect of Noctis, booking a day of seminars at the Shaw Conference Centre full of musicians, promoters, writers and industry vets to speak on matters of interest to the metal community.
Travnik deems Shredmonton to be something of a sister festival to Farmageddon, which is skipping a year and planning to return for 2017. He spoke to the Journal about the Alberta metal scene and his plans for Shredmonton.
Q: The music side of Shredmonton will be an easy sell, but is it harder to interest metal musicians in panels?
A: No, not really. It’s a very tight-knit scene and very family-based, and while you’ll see a certain amount of elitism, it doesn’t really apply here. The people we’ve brought out for the conference are iconic in that community, and they know what they’re talking about. None of this is about a right or wrong way to do things as a band.
Q: You also get to bring in bands that you love for the festival part as well.
A: Absolutely. I’m big into power metal, so I’m excited to see Thunderstone (Helsinki, Finland), for instance, and The Spruce Moose (Edmonton). Honestly, a big reason why we bring in the headliners is so we can also show off the talent in our own backyard. Those (headliner) shows would have a high turnout no matter where you book them, so it’s a chance to feature a band that might normally only get 10 or 15 people a night. But they’re so good. I’ve been on and on like a broken record about the talent in Western Canada.
Q: There’s plenty of good bands out there, but unlike places where there’s a sizable culture for supporting local music, we only have a tiny community.
A: Saturation is a big part of it. We have bands touring in China, playing packed shows over there, but not here. It’s all numbers, really. A band can tour out east, hitting Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, even Ottawa, and they’re not far away from each other. It’s tough to do that in the west. That being said, the scene might not be large but it is tight, and it’s strong and growing.
Q: You’ve made the effort to book western Canadian bands like Scythia, With Malice and Armifera under the international headliners, so I imagine the workload is a little easier than it is with Farmageddon. What do you have left to do for the week?
A: It’s definitely easier to deal with because everything is situated at the venue, but there are a few details left, like picking up musicians from the airport. Just doing some last-minute promotion stuff. We were over at the tattoo convention (last) weekend, because tattoos and metal music, they kind of go together.
Preview
Shredmonton
With: Goatwhore, Dying Fetus, Thunderstone, Disciples of Power, more
When: Friday to Sunday. Conference is on Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Where: Starlite Room and Brixx Bar & Grill, 10030 102 St. (Music) Shaw Conference Centre, 9797 Jasper Ave. (Conference)
Tickets: The Shredpass is $140, available from the Shredmonton website, shredmonton.com. Individual day passes are also available, as well as a single-day pass for the conference.
