We’re all about promoting the little guy with a grand plan here at DyingScene and following that train of thought, we though we’d share with you an event that caught our eye recently.
The hopefully ironically-titled CrapFest launches this year in the UK city of Liverpool. The event will take place at the city’s Phase One venue on 25th August and features an eclectic stack of bands looking to leave their stain on the once acclaimed European Capital of Culture. Whereas many all-dayers these days have a clear overarching theme, CrapFest is varied to say the least.
The brainchild of featured two piece Crapsons, Mike and Andy, the event is clearly looking to bring together a host of bands that don’t generally fit into a particular genre/scene; maybe they don’t want to fit with anything. Liverpool has a long history of promoting unique and interesting music and this will be no different.
Headlined by punk rockers Healthy Junkies and featuring the always-raucous Habits, Crapsons themelves, Salt The Snail, and Mr. Ted to name a few, the all-dayer has already sold out of its lower-priced early bird tickets but there are full price ones still available. If you’re keen to get involved in this diverse cluster-fuck of a show, don’t sleep on it!
You can find all ticket and other information for CrapFest here. You can also see the full lineup on the promotional poster below, as well as some words from the team behind the event.
CrapFest promoter and one of half Crapsons, Mike, spoke to us about the impetus behind putting on such an all-dayer:
“The name CrapFest itself I’ve had on the back burner for a while, it would have been our EP Launch party title last year but we did a joint show with Mr Ted and it wouldn’t have been fair to name it CrapFest. After we both attended Smithdown Road Festival in Liverpool earlier this year, we wanted to put on an all-dayer to celebrate our local scene and have a party with bands we have played alongside over the last 18 months since starting Crapsons.
“I’ve always admired curated festivals done by artists and bands such as Wonk Unit, NoFX, Frank Turner, and Jamie Lenman. Our friends from Mouses put on their own festival entitled Mousetival and it inspired us to do the same. Thus, the CrapFest idea was born. We put together a line up of friends, family, fellow idiots, and, in our (and hopefully everyone else’s) opinion, some of the best bands from around the Liverpool/North Wales punk/alternative scene. All being well this will be an annual thing, maybe even have a CrapFest stage at other festivals around the area/country to give bands the chance to showcase what our amazing music scene has to offer.”
It’s hard to put a definitive label on bands like those performing and that seems to be the point. It stinks of an early Factory Records gig, albeit in the wrong city. There’s some punk, some hardcore, some garage rock, some grungey rock ‘n’ roll, and plenty more to boot.
The biggest compliment we can give a festival like CrapFest is that no band sounds the same and that’s not always common on an independent DIY event. Efforts like this to merge eclectic fan bases and scenes are more-than-worthy beneficiaries of your time and support.
(Story featuring words and input from Ian "Mighty Oak" Robinson... ... part of the Manchester Punk Festival team.)