Canadian Festival Celebrating Women In Metal Returns for Second Year
What do you imagine when you think of a heavy metal band? Black t-shirts, big guitars, and screaming dudes? As often as those stereotypes may be true, there are plenty of metal bands that are anything but. And for the second year in a row, a British Columbian festival celebrating the women in metal wants to show the world exactly that.
Metalocalypstick Fest in Valemount, BC returns for its second year this summer. Taking place over the Canada Day weekend, the festival is dedicated to highlighting heavy bands with female members – a demographic that is usually underrepresented. In fact, women in heavy metal are so overlooked that the festival origin’s came out of that oversight. Kaija Kinney of Vancouver metal group Anarcheon couldn’t find any female-based metal festivals for her band to apply to, and was inspired to found Metalocalypstick to fill the gap.
Here’s what Kinney had to say about founding Metalocalypstick in 2016:
“This festival means the celebration of both sexes coming together and creating something amazing. People like to say women in metal aren’t a big deal anymore and that we are all the same. I feel that is untrue, this is still a male dominated world and woman are still looked as lesser. I want to showcase all these bad ass ladies and celebrate the differences of men and woman rather than pretend we are all equal. Truth is we are different why can’t we celebrate that?”
The all-ages camping festival boasts plenty of Canadian and international heavy acts. Hosted at Canoe River Campground at the base of the mountains of Jasper National Park, this year’s headliners include Mexico’s Cabrakaan, Ontario’s Sovereign Council, and many more (scroll to the end of this article for the full lineup).
Tickets are available now on the festival’s website. One day passes go for just under $65, while full weekend passes including general camping run just under $100. In addition to championing the women of metal, the non-profit festival also donates its proceeds to Girls Rock Camp and the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter. So if you happen to be in BC for July 1, you can catch some heavy metal while supporting women in music and in the greater Vancouver area! There’s even a ride share available – check out the FAQ page on the festival website for more information.
Full Metalocalypstick Fest Lineup:
Sovereign Council (Kingston, ON) – http://www.sovereigncouncil.com
Cabrakaan (Toluca, Mexico) – http://www.facebook.com/CABRAKAAN
Violent Betty (Saskatoon, SK) – http://www.violentbetty.com
Scythia (Calgary, AB) – http://www.scythia.ca
Atmora (Windsor, ON) – http://www.facebook.com/AtmoraOfficial
Anarcheon (Vancouver, BC) – http://www.anarcheon.com
Tessitura (Edmonton, AB) – http://www.tessiturametal.com
Massive Scar Era (Vancouver, BC / Cairo, Egypt) – http://www.massivescarera.com
Remnants (Edmonton, AB) – http://remnants2.bandcamp.com
Juliet Ruin (Edmonton, AB) – http://julietruin.com
Forsaken Rite (Edmonton, AB) – http://forsakenrite.com
Korperlose Stimme (Edmonton, AB) – http://www.youtube.com/korperlosestimme
Meteor Tree (Kelowna, BC) – http://meteortree.net/music
Kymatica (Vancouver, BC) – http://www.kymatica.ca
HEDKS (Vancouver, BC) – http://hedks.bandcamp.com
Breaking The Silent (Edmonton, AB) – http://www.facebook.com/BreakingTheSilent
Life Like Fire (Calgary, AB) – http://www.facebook.com/lifelikefireband
Sins Of Sorrow (Edmonton, AB) – https://www.facebook.com/sinsofsorrowband
