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Northern Darkness Festival - Cancelled


Important information regarding the Northern Darkness Festival. The event, which was scheduled for the 8th of December, 2013 and featured bands like At The Gates, Decapitated, Napalm Death among others, has now been cancelled. Tha main reason lies in very low ticket sales.

The organizers of the fest issued the following statement: "Today we must deliver the disappointing news that The Northern Darkness Festival has been cancelled. The aim of the festival was to bring the best in unsigned and International death and black metal artists from around the world to a new event in the UK more akin to the European festival line-ups.

Unfortunately despite a lot of interest from bands wanting to play from all over the world we have not seen the same level of interest from the general public and to date ticket sales have been extremely disappointing, and it is with this in mind we have to make to unfortunate decision not to continue with the event. In short events like this can not take place if people do not want to come and support them, with less than 2 months to go until the event date less than 15% of available tickets have been sold and the majority of those were from outside the local area and even other countries.

We wanted to give the North East a place on the metal festival scene and had hoped to grow the festival over the coming years into a major international event but without fans wanting to come and support an event of this size we are left with no option but to cancel.

We would like to thank those that showed support for the event and to all the bands billed as well as those who applied to take part in the unsigned band competition and those who did purchase a ticket in advance. The UK does have some stellar alternative festivals with Bloodstock and Damnation Festival but it appears the UK was not quite ready for The Northern Darkness."

Source: northerndarkness.co.uk
Event: Northern Darkness Festival 2013 [CANCELLED]
Posted: 11.10.2013 by Abattoir


Comments

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Comments: 7   Visited by: 48 users
11.10.2013 - 21:08
SoUnDs LiKe PoP
Even as someone who isn't a huge fan of most black/death metal, this is disappointing to see. With how confident most fans of the genre seem to be with the superiority of their brand of metal, it's sad to see their seeming unwillingness to support something like this. Then again, I haven't seen the ticket prices, so maybe they were just ridiculously high, in which case, perhaps the festival deserved it? Or maybe there are just even less fans of this type of music than I thought. Then again, those are some big names that were slotted to play...
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I lift weights and listen to metal
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11.10.2013 - 21:41
Vombatus
Potorro
This kind of thing really disappoints me. You see how some promoters move their ass to get shit done and get no response from the fans. Yet when they go all lazy and don't bring anything people complain about not having enough shows in their area.

For this case it's quite suprising considering the bands booked, even if I don't know how the "scene" is in the area....
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12.10.2013 - 03:50
Synapse
This is disappointing indeed yes, but hardly surprising at all. I absolutely love the bands and genres that would have been represented at the Northern Darkness festival, however, they really messed up in a couple of ways in my opinion.

Firstly, their ticket price, for a brand new festival (granted, a lot of the bands were quite big and very good, but still) was extremely overpriced, £40 for standard entry. Secondly, they were in direct competition with the very close by, and much longer running Damnation festival.

Damnation festival caters for a very similar niche, but with more broad bands, is cheaper, very close by, being only in Leeds, and also has a bigger following. So expecting people to choose Northern Darkness over Damnation at a higher price, with less amount of bands and overall variation, seems a bit silly in my opinion. The ticket price should have been about £25 I reckon.

But still, disappointing nonetheless
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12.10.2013 - 05:04
AtrumHiberna
I think there are many reasons other than the low presale.
First of all, there was not adequate promotion. from the comments i've read in facebook many people in the uk haven't even heard of it before.
secondly it is the location (newcastle) along with the day the festival was supposed to take place. living in the uk myself, i know that it is pretty hard and (most importantly) very costly to get to newcastle, even for those who live in the northern major cities (e.g. manchester, liverpool, leeds) and the fact that it was going to take place on a sunday really wasn't going to help those who are having a job the next day. in addition, on a sunday there are much less train and bus routes and there are no routes after maybe 10 or 11 pm.
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This is my worship, this is my path...
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12.10.2013 - 09:57
Machiavelli
Account deleted
I'm done spending money on big events. All the drunk assholes... all the putrid smelling metalheads with their massive insecurities and egos. I'd much rather go with a smaller venue with better sound, cheaper drinks, cheaper entry, and more focus on style of music. Less volumes of assholes, easier parking... I used to dig the vibe of a large crowd but not anymore... hanging out with an army of metalheads just seems lame now.
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12.10.2013 - 13:44
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Elite
The entrance fee certainly can't have been the issue for people not buying tickets. 40 pounds is dirt cheap for such a fest (Damnation is even cheaper and that also surprises me)

I think it had to do with promotion first and foremost. I only found out about this festival when it was announced that it would be cancelled. Usually even I see promotion for these sorts of festivals pop up all over the place, but not for this one.

Like someone here said getting to Newcastle is costly and it is held on a SUnday (which is never a good day not even for matinee gigs)
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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16.10.2013 - 23:56
I've heard there's more to this than logistics and apparent lack of promotion. I don't know how true any of it is, but it would certainly put me off buying a ticket.

Word is, the company promoting this has gone through multiple name changes in the past few years, all involved in cancellations/fuck ups of varying degrees/non-payment of bands etc. Also, the ONLY previous gig the company had put on under their current name, was Xisforeyes/Reflection in Exile/Armaros/Decrepit Monolith (a bunch of local bands) for £4 entry. This is apparently well known in the north east, so understandably, most people local to the area were a bit skeptical when they announce an all-dayer headlined by At the Gates. Anyone that was tempted by the lineup, was put off by reputation, and planned to pay on the door to avoid the risk of losing their cash.

This, coupled with lack of promotion, the farce over things such as buy-ons, internet popularity contests, and backstage passes (for an extra fee) that bands weren't told about, and it's a miracle they sold as many tickets as they did.

As I said previously, I don't know how much truth is in the rumours, but if that's the kind of thing that's in everyone's heads, you aren't going to sell tickets.
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