Infest (festival)

Infest (originally stylised as InFest) is an annual three-day music festival held at the University of Bradford Union in the United Kingdom, featuring alternative electronic music acts, from genres including industrial, EBM, futurepop, synthpop and power noise. The event usually takes place on the August bank holiday weekend.

Infest Festival
"The UK's Premier Festival of Alternative Electronic Music"
GenreIndustrial music, Electronic body music, Synthpop, Futurepop, Rhythmic noise, Gothic rock, Deathrock, Darkwave and related genres
DatesAnnually in August, usually Summer Bank Holiday weekend
Location(s)Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Years active1998 to today
Founded by1998 "Black Lobster Promotions", 1999 "Slag Industries", from 2000 until today "Terminal Productions"
Websitehttp://infestuk.com/

History

Background

InFest was born in early 1998 through the efforts of three students of the University of Bradford - Gareth 'Gadge' Harvey, Chris 'Crusty' Molyneux, and Max 'Maxi Slag' - and the Students' Union Entertainments Manager, Floyd Peltier. The concept of the festival was originally envisioned as a one-day event for local goth bands in West Yorkshire, but the crew were able to also onboard much bigger acts, such as gothic/deathrock band Alien Sex Fiend. The student organisers were already fans of the Whitby Gothic Weekend and took the idea for Infest to the Whitby festival-goers and traders to gauge how popular the show might be. The response was positive and the first Infest festival was confirmed as 14 and 15 August 1998.

The following year (1999), the festival paid more attention towards the electronic side of the goth and industrial scene by booking Apoptygma Berzerk for their first UK show.

Reinvention

By 2000, the University of Bradford's Students' Union felt that they could not carry the costs of the festival any longer. However, an independent goth/industrial promoter and DJ named Mark 'Gus' Guy (former drummer with the indie band Kerosene), who had been advising Molyneux during the show's early years, stepped in to fill the void. As a result of the heavy involvement with Guy and his Terminal Productions company, Infest took the form it is recognised as today: the festival's theme has moved from goth/industrial crossover to alternative electronic, with a greater emphasis on power noise, futurepop, synthpop and electronic body music. However, occasionally more darkwave-style goth bands do still appear on the line-up.

The stylisation of the name had changed in 2003 to be "Infest", and from this time has grown significant international recognition. The show continues to provide a market for traders, which helps to bring the music and the lifestyle of the show's fans together. There is also a full festival program where nightclubs, DJs, bands and businesses can make their voices heard. Infest has been supported by a number of electronic record labels, notably Ant-Zen, Hands Productions, now-defunct online music store Music Non Stop, Storming the Base (part of the record label Artoffact Records). Support outside the scene has also come from software publisher Ableton, and drink manufacturers Jägermeister and Barr.

In July 2013, the festival organisers announced that "it is highly unlikely that there will be an Infest in 2014";[1] but following "an avalanche of messages of support" the organisers have decided to "throw caution to the wind and go ahead with Infest in 2014 (The reason for announcing that infest 2014 was highly unlikely was due to AltFest being proposed to occur a couple of weeks before Infest in 2014. In the end Altfest was canceled due to lack of ticket sales and financial insecurity for the viability of a new big festival that had no history on the alternative music scene)."[2]

Today

Today, Guy has a small team of people at his side, including Molyneux (the remaining member of the founding team), graphic designer Richard King, Ticket Office Manager Lee Thornton and a crew of volunteers and live production professionals.

The festival celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2018, adding an extra day that year for the occasion.

Performers

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009
  • none

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

An extra day (Thursday) was added to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the event.

2019

See also

References
  1. "Infest 2014, Official Infest Homepage". Archived from the original on 7 September 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  2. "Confirmed: Infest 2014 Will Go Ahead, Official Infest Homepage". Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
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