Dead Of Winter Festival has re-emerged after hibernating last year and this time around it's a bigger, better and meaner beast than ever before.
With a massive line-up featuring local, national and for the first time overseas bands, co-organiser Christian Tryhorn says this year will see a triumphant return of Dead Of Winter. “We're dropping over 50 acts in total,” Christian says.
“We're adding a few headliners: we've got Brisbane ska band The Porkers coming back to play a show and Dallas Frasca has confirmed to come and headline.
“We've also got the Night Gaunts, a New Zealand band doing some pretty big things in the punk world. They're coming over for their first Australian tour. We've got Brisbane band Giants Of Science getting back together for the gig and a whole bunch of other stuff.”
Started as an alternative festival for heavy rock and metal acts on the local circuit, Dead Of Winter Festival embraces the darker side of music and culture with a classic horror movie theme and aesthetic. “The horror element has been with Dead Of Winter Festival from day one,” Christian says.
“It was started as a heavier endeavour with a horror theme and there's always been an alternate crowd who comes along and that's mixed in with alternate stalls and make-up artists. There will be people on the day who will be painting faces and doing movie-quality effects.
“We encourage everyone who comes to Dead Of Winter to dress-up and get their monster costumes on. It's just a bit of fun that ties into the heavier, alternate aspect of the festival and we're aiming to be the biggest Brisbane alternate heavy event each year.”
Dead Of Winter in 2017 will also play host to the penultimate shows for The Meanies as they wrap up their final tour before their lead singer relocates overseas. A booking coup for organisers, Christian says the addition of The Meanies opens up the festival to a wide age demographic.
“It’s potentially the last Australian shows for The Meanies,” he says. “They've plugged it as their last tour before their singer leaves overseas.
“We've tried to bring a few of the older-guard bands back to really bring together a cross-section of people. So bands like The Bennies who bring in the 18 year-old crowd, but there's also bands like The Porkers and [The] Meanies who have been around the scene for years and are bringing the 50-plusses. We're just hoping to bring everyone together for a big day of music.”
In the modern day of dwindling ticket sales and the falling over of touring festival juggernaughts such as Soundwave and Big Day Out, Christian believes Dead Of Winter Festival is primed to become a leader in the new generation of locally produced niche and boutique festivals.
“The ethos of Dead Of Winter has always been to bring people together and the horror theme is something different where people might not normally go to that sort of thing, but with the range of bands on-board and the underlying ethos of celebrating alternative culture and celebrating different styles and bringing different cliques of people together, it usually ends up a great day.”
Dead Of Winter Festival takes place at Jubilee Hotel 29 July.
