All images by Becca Cairns Photography.
The latest Abyssal Festival took place in Southampton at the weekend. Organisers David Burke, along with Harley Edwards and Chris Gilgan, chatted to Spring Wise about the event.
“Small metal festivals have run in Southampton for years, on and off. When Harley first imagined running a festival in late 2018, a one-day metal festival hadn’t run in the Firehouse for several years. Incidentally the organiser of the previous festivals, Annihilation, helped us out last year when we ran the first edition of our fast metal festival, Abysmal – thanks Dave Bass!
“We were hanging out and listening to doom bands (as was the style at the time) when Harley mused about running a festival, to which I responded “We should do that then”. Harley had been running gigs at the Hobbit and Firehouse for a while prior, but this was another level. I hadn’t run any gigs myself at this point, but I was able to motivate our friends to pitch in and drum up support alongside bits of writing and press. The name took ages to brainstorm between us and some friends, but we eventually settled on Abyssal in reference to the deep oceanic plains (3000-6000 metres below sea level), and thus to Southampton’s maritime culture and geography.
“The first Abyssal in 2019 will live in our memories forever, one of our all-time favourite days. It was an amazing experience to see bands and fans from far afield coming to our local venue and laying into a day of riffs, drums and song, getting the 150-cap Firehouse proper sweaty in the process. When an older fan pressed a £20 note into my hand and asked that it be used to fund the next festival, it confirmed for me that we’d tapped into a scene that aimed for longevity, which has remained our plan since. Covid put a spanner in our works, forcing us to cancel in both 2020 and 2021. From 2022 onwards our friend and expert spreadsheet-wrangler Chris joined the team, which has been a continual boon as the festival has grown and required more intensive planning.
“Last year the Firehouse, a home for metal scene activities in Southampton (undying thanks to Parki for his generous and supportive management) was closed for redevelopment. We were thrown, but it also presented an opportunity for us to expand the event and have a bigger impact. After scouting the local venue options, Papillon seemed ideal for our goals; local to the city centre, large areas for merchandise and for fans to hang out between sets, and suitably metal vibes provided by the stained-glass windows and church acoustics. It was thrilling to put the deposit down for a building twice the size of our previous festivals, but also daunting. There was much more at stake this time, both financially and organisationally.
Nothing to worry about as it happens! This year we brought in more than 200 people from Southampton, Hampshire, Bristol, London and elsewhere, and our highest-cost lineup ever went down a treat. The sound this year was amazing (and so loud that some mirror squares were dislodged from Papillon’s disco ball!). The bands were delighted and so were the punters. When the three of us took to the stage after headliner Elephant Tree’s hour-long set of huge riffs and beautiful harmonies, the feeling was magnificent. We had overcome a difficult transition for any festival and landed as well as we’d hoped. It was difficult to say much but variations on “thank you”.
So what’s the plan now?
“Picking a lineup can be tricky because the different factors one has to consider are often at odds with each other. Cost is, of course, a limiting factor, which jostles alongside our aim to curate interesting and nationally-recognised groups across a range of metal styles, which has to be balanced against our desire to get local bands on and support our friends. We’ve been very lucky in the past with securing headliners relatively late in the day, but this year we had the lineup tied up in good time. We’re aiming to run the gauntlet of slow(ish) metal and associated genres, from electronic drones to black metal shrieking to big doom metal riffs, and the fans respond really well to our eclecticism.
“We want to keep this event running at as low a cost to the fans as possible, hence the frankly excellent value of £17 (advance) for 10 bands! The aim isn’t to make money, nor is it to force the event to grow each year. We do this to make metal culture happen in a city where the scene is small, to bring bands to a city they’ve not played, to bring (high volume) music to the fans who love it so dearly. Our aim for next year is to stretch ourselves further again, in terms of budget and lineup acclaim, and see where we land. This will give us a guide for the years to come as to what the “ceiling” of attendance can be for a venue and budget of this size. Eventually however we’d love to be selling out Papillon and move to a bigger space again – but there’s no rush.”
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