Years active 1998 to today | Dates 26 Aug – 28 Aug 2016 | |
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Genre Industrial music, Electronic body music, Synthpop, Futurepop, Rhythmic noise, Gothic rock, Deathrock, Darkwave and related genres Founded by 1998 "Black Lobster Promotions", 1999 "Slag Industries", from 2000 until today "Terminal Productions" Similar Saltaire Festival, Bingley Music Live, Resistanz, Amphi Festival, Maschinenfest Profiles | ||
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.
Contents
History
Infest was born in early 1998 through the efforts of three students of the University of Bradford and the Students' Union Entertainments Manager, Floyd Peltier – the founding team of students being Gareth 'Gadge' Harvey, Chris 'Crusty' Molyneux and Max 'Maxi Slag'. The concept of the show was a one-day event for local goth bands in West Yorkshire. Even before the first event however, it spiraled into an altogether bigger beast when the Students Union agreed that funds could be found to book some much bigger acts; most notably 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.
By 2000, the University of Bradford's Students' Union felt that they couldn't carry the costs of the festival any longer. In addition, the original students who had promoted the show had all but moved on. Fortunately, an independent goth/industrial promoter and DJ named Mark 'Gus' Guy (former drummer with the Indie band Kerosene), who had been advising Chris during the show's early years, stepped in to fill the void. As a result of the heavy involvement with Gus and his Terminal Productions company, another twist to the show's music style took place, defining Infest in its current form. The show's theme has moved from goth/industrial crossover to alternative electronic, with a greater emphasis on power noise, futurepop, synthpop and electronic body music. Occasionally more darkwave-style goth bands do still appear on the line-up.
Since 2000, Infest has gained an international reputation, with festival-goers travelling from as far as Canada, and acts flying from as far as Australia to play the UK. 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 is supported by a number of electronic record labels, notably Ant-Zen and Hands Productions and has been sponsored by the online music store Music Non Stop, the drink Jägermeister and the software publisher Ableton.
The festival was originally known as "InFest" when it was started in 1998, however in 2003 its name was altered to "Infest" on all material produced by the organisers.
Today
Today, Gus has a small team of people at his side, including Chris (the one remaining founding member of the team) and other long serving crew members Lee and Richard, who still run & maintain the festival to this day.
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
In July 2013, the festival organisers announced that "it is highly unlikely that there will be an Infest in 2014"; 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)." During the run-up to the festival Ambassador21 cancelled their appearance due to visa issues, and were replaced by Architect; and three weeks before the festival Project Pitchfork announced that they could not attend due to illness, and were replaced by VNV Nation; finally, Le Moderniste also cancelled for health reasons and were replaced by ESA.
2015
Only a few days after Infest 2014 finished, dates for the next year were announced: 28–30 August 2015, again at Bradford University Student Union. After the full schedule was announced in June, Melotron had to cancel due to health issues and were replaced on the line-up by Syrian:
2016
Daily schedule to be confirmed. Full line up was announced on Easter weekend of 2016: Atari Teenage Riot, Leaether Strip, Pop Will Eat Itself, 3Teeth, Velvet Acid Christ, Dead When I Found Her, Grausame Töchter, Displacer, Monica Jeffries, RRoyce, Vigilante, Me The Tiger, Hysteresis, Massive Ego, Tapewyrm, Johnny Normal. Plus DJs to be announced.