PitGoddess: There’s a lot of niche fests popping up all over the country. How is Southern Darkness unique?
Pete Olen, festival organizer: Southern Darkness is unique for a couple of reasons: the festival actually presents a coherent narrative and it’s exceedingly cheap show for so many bands. As to the former, I think there is something important about putting together a festival where anyone coming will be stoked on most of the bands playing. $35 is pretty cheap for an all day festival, but I hate the idea of people having to sit through a ton of bands that are irrelevant to their interests. If you’re coming to a festival to see Pentagram, why should you have to sit through Hammer Fall? That being said, another goal has been to expose people to some smaller bands that may not get the attention they deserve. Set and Setting is a perfect example, as is Immortal Bird, A Storm of Light, etc...The hope is that someone coming for Pelican might not be aware of A Storm of Light or Jungbluth, but end up discovering a ton of “new” stuff.
PG: Being a cradle of death metal, why has Florida gone all this time without its own festival?
There have been metal festivals over the years, but they are usually so outrageously priced that they end up bombing ($150 for two days?!). Florida has just an amazing music scene, and I think it deserves something better than overpriced festivals with a mishmash of random bands. We haven’t really focused on death metal this year, but the Florida music scene is way more nuanced than just a bunch of people listening to death metal. History aside, there are currently a ton of interesting bands that surely don’t count as Florida death metal (just off the top of my head: Traitor Crucifix, Set and Setting, Cosm, Recreant, etc...). I mean, it’s inevitable that people focus on death metal when thinking of Florida, but there really was, and is, a ton of interesting metal bands down here.
PG: Once you announced the first SDF, how did people react?
Conservatively speaking, I think people lost their minds! We’ve been really lucky to have a massive reaction for our first year – it’s been pretty amazing. I think we managed to keep the entire idea pretty quiet until we announced, so there was a good degree of surprise built into everything.
PG: What’s the biggest obstacle to overcome when organizing a festival?
Nothing interesting (I think), really just logistics. Dealing with flights, trying to keep everyone happy about their timeslots, backline, etc...
PG: How did you decide on a final line up?
It’s really just a combination of working down our personal lists of bands we wanted and seeing who was interested and/or available. We’ve been lucky to get almost everyone. Jerry (organizer) and I started talking about the idea for the festival last year and came up with bands that fit within that idea.
PG: Are there any bands you are personally excited to see?
I’m excited to see all of the bands, but the Scrog reunion, Coke Bust, Everything Went Black, and Weekend Nachos are pretty high on the list.
PG: What would be your dream headliner for Southern Darkness Fest?
Dream headliner? Probably a ton of bands that would never get back together to play one festival in Florida (Assuck, Discordance Axis, etc...).
PG: I know it’s early, but do you have anything in the works for next year?
There is a ton of stuff in the works for next year, but we’re just focusing on having a successful first year.
Check out the full line up, buy tickets, scope out the venues here!
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