Damnation Festival: A Vital Cog In The UK Festival Machine

November 1, 2021 James Weaver

When you think of festival season, images of vast fields, gargantuan stages and warm overpriced beer in the British sunshine floods your mind. Whilst, typically, the months from May through to August are populated with festivals aplenty, for extreme metal extravaganza Damnation Festival, they sit in a unique position within the UK festival ecosystem. Held annually at Leeds University Union in the frosty month of November, it’s fair to assume that Damnation can feel somewhat of an outsider compared to the likes of Download and Bloodstock. However, given its placement outside of the hustle and bustle of the summer season, the event has grown into one of the UK’s most vital events for heavy music and for organiser Gavin McInally, it has only been through a period of reflection, largely forced by the months of lockdown, where he has realised just how vital the festival is to the UK scene.

“My view of Damnation has changed a lot in the last 18 months. I’m a newspaper editor, I’m a journalist, I have 20 years of a career focusing on journalism. So with the music, I don’t want to say it is a hobby, but it’s been a hobby, something I’ve done in a time where my full time job is not happening. You spend a couple of hours on it a day, and then you are going to one festival, then you’re back on the hamster wheel planning for the next festival. But the pandemic changed that because then you get 18 months to the best part of two years to reflect about what’s important about it, what has worked, what hasn’t worked,” he explains. “I started a podcast [Damnation Versus] and then you’re talking to agents and bands and then they’ll tell you ‘oh, by the way, we see Damnation as a huge part of the UK festival market and the UK scene’. Like these guys know, these are the guys that this is their actual bread and butter, and that made me change my view of Damnation. And that made me feel that I never gave Damnation the respect it deserved!”

For Gav and the wider Damnation Festival team, they, alongside countless others in the global music industry, have been beaten to a pulp from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With zero large-scale events taking place in 2020 to restricted and contained events in the earlier months of this year, the impact of COVID has changed the landscape for live events entirely. Even now, as restrictions are over on UK shores, Damnation is still impacted from the pandemic as international bands aplenty (BLOOD INCANTATION, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, PIG DESTROYER, PALLBEARER and ELDER to name just a few) all withdrew as international travel remained perilous.

“A lot of American bands we booked, we replaced. PIG DESTROYER were only coming into the UK for Damnation and there was a travel corridor opened with no quarantine, so we were really confident about PIG DESTROYER,” Gav reflects. “It’s [the headache of consistently replacing bands on the lineup] been juxtaposed with this March sell-out. So you’ve got this unbelievable year for Damnation. We have sold out months in advance and there’s an almost 600 deep waiting list to get tickets. Everybody’s positive about Damnation. And it feels like we are trying to hold it together with blutak! Because every time we feel like we’re in some sort of ‘right, this is the final plan, we’re ready to go’, another piece falls off! I try to not get too worked up about it, because there’s fuck all I can do about it. I can not change quarantine! The issue with PIG DESTROYER is that those guys have full time jobs, careers that’s not PIG DESTROYER. And if the US or UK change their minds whilst they’re on route or in the UK, they can not afford to say to their bosses that they need two weeks holiday to quarantine! Damnation has no control over these things. So I’m just aiming for the day, hopefully making that happen with the very best lineup we can possibly put on with the UK bands that we can find. And if we can do that, I’m absolutely certain there will be a great event.”

With the turmoil and logistical nightmare of international travel still a thorny issue months after COVID first erupted, for large scale music events, forcibly, bills are comprised almost entirely of homegrown acts. Whilst the loss of internationally recognised names is a blow, it’s fortunate that British metal is enjoying its greatest spell of productivity and innovation and this year’s Damnation very much reflects that. From CONJURER to GREEN LUNG, PARTY CANNON to CRYPTIC SHIFT, MOUNTAIN CALLER to HELLRIPPER; the 2021 lineup for Damnation feels very much the best of British; akin to Bloodstock‘s return back in August. And whilst the quality is there for everyone to see, for the bands themselves, it’s yet another opportunity to really capitalise and establish oneself as a force to be reckoned with.

“Selfishly, it would be a dream come true! Like, do you know how much easier it is to book a British band, even a big British band, than it is to book a band from America, Australia or Japan! The difference between booking a band like LIFE OF AGONY or DEVIN TOWNSEND to booking ELECTRIC WIZARD or CARCASS, it is night and day,” Gav replies as we begin to discuss the opportunity available for homegrown talent, highlighting first the logistical hurdles when booking overseas artists. “So I’m a bit like ‘right, okay well 10,000 people went the Download Pilot and they watched EMPLOYED TO SERVE, they watched CONJURER. We’re gonna go to Bloodstock and watch VENOM PRISON play a huge slot on the Main Stage, we’re going to see SVALBARD play a huge slot on the Main Stage. Then you going to go Damnation and you’re going to see bands like WODE, DVNE and BOSSK playing big slots on big stages, right well, there you go!’ But does it translate? Because when BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE or BRING ME THE HORIZON or ARCHITECTS, when those guys had those slots at Download or Leeds, it did translate and it did build into something. I’m not sure what it is with extreme metal fans, maybe that’s not the way that they go about it. They are not as excitable maybe? They don’t gush about a band to their friends maybe the same way? I don’t have the answer why, but it won’t be for lack of exposure. So these bands don’t take that next step and they can now do club tours and start selling out some of those dates, it’s not going to be because they’ve never had the chance!”

Venom Prison live @ Damnation Festival 2019. Photo Credit: Em Coulter

Since its first explosive eruption in 2005, performances at Damnation have gone down in heavy music folklore. From BOLT THROWER‘s legendary performance in 2014, the spellbinding collaboration between CULT OF LUNA and Julie Christmas in 2016 or the likes of VENOM PRISON, THE INFERNAL SEA or HUNDRED YEAR OLD MAN who can attribute the festival to elevating their status in the scene to new levels, Damnation is a special event for heavy music. And with a return to Manchester on the cards sporting a mightily impressive bill thus far for 2022, this cog in the UK festival machine is about to become that much more vital.