By Andrew Bansal
In our ongoing endeavor to highlight the organizers and brain trust behind some of the best metal festivals from around the world, this time I spoke to Scott Lee, the creator of New England Metal & Hardcore Fest which has been taking place annually since 1999 at the the Palladium in Worcester, MA. This time, from April 19th to 21st, they are celebrating their 15th year with a truly special lineup that combines some of the touring lineups like Metal Alliance, Paganfest and others, along with bands that are playing it as a one-off gig. Scott talks about the history of the fest, the challenges he has faced, the lineups and other things. Read the conversation below, and check out NEMHF using the links at the bottom.
Scott, it’s good to talk to you man! This year you’re doing the 15th edition of NEMHF. It’s come a long way, hasn’t it? You started out way back in 1999, the number of bands has gone up by a lot, and everything has just gone bigger.
It’s great man, it’s awesome! We didn’t know we’d get this far, to be honest. The first few years were like, ‘Oh, this is cool, this is awesome!’ And then it kept going and snowballing. People just kept coming from farther away. People wanted to start getting involved. It has kind of been like an organic type of build-up, you know. And now it’s just very well-played and people look forward to it. A lot of people use it as their holiday or vacation. It’s a good time!
When you started out in ’99, what were some of the things that you wanted to do differently that other festivals were not doing at the time?
We wanted to make sure that the bans and the fans had a great time and it was a good vibe. We went to all these different festivals and it was just like, stuffed together. It’s like, they were giving the people a dungeon instead of a living room. That’s what we tried to do, to make a really nice living room. We wanted to be more professional, that’s the best way to say it, from the bottom to the top of the bands and making sure the fans had a really good experience.
This year, is the lineup extra special because of the 15th year or would you have done it regardless?
Oh yeah, every year I end up saying, ‘This is the best lineup ever!’ But I’m going to say, this is one of the best lineups we’ve ever had. I’m a huge Suicidal Tendencies fan, I’m a huge Anthrax fan, and those are two great bands that I always wanted to have on a festival that I put together. So that is a dream come true. I think it’s a really great lineup. I’m really proud of it!
It sure is, man. I see that a lot of tours are combined together for the lineup, like Metal Alliance Tour and Paganfest to name just two. Does that actually make it easier for you to book the lineup because there are bands already touring around and they just have to kind of route their way to your show?
Yes and no! Believe it or not, it sometimes hinders, because we like all the bands that are on the tours and everything, but it takes up slots. Sometimes we don’t want all the bands from a certain tour. But this time we do want all the bands! Metal Alliance Tour is second to none. It’s rad, and Paganfest is always a good time. It’s definitely great music and a great novelty tour to have engulfed and involved in the NEMHF.
Over the years, do you think you’ve been able to maintain the integrity of the lineup, which is supposed to be a metal and hardcore show and not going into mainstream stuff?
We had one off-year, I’ll admit. We had one year where we decided to do something different on the Thursday, and it pretty much flopped. So that was the only out-of-the-box thing we’ve ever done, and for the most part I’d say for 13 of the 14 shows we’ve done, we’ve kept the integrity of the festival (laughs).
Where do you see it going? Do you think it’ll get bigger than this or are you okay with handling 70-75 bands as you are doing this year?
Oh, we’re cool with that. It can’t go anywhere else. The home for the NEMHF is the Worcester Palladium. I know we’re pigeonholing ourselves, but the fact is that the venue is pretty much made for the festival. We can’t go to any place bigger because that takes the integrity and the vibe out of the whole festival. With this many bands it’s going to be comfortable, and people can get to see the talent of all these bands. So we can’t go any bigger, and we’re definitely not going any smaller (laughs).
But one thing I’m always curious about when it comes to these big festivals is, there are so many bands playing. If one or more bands cancel at the last minute, what do you do? Have you had that kind of experience in the past?
Oh yeah, I’ve had such experiences with bands even on the day of show. I’ve never had a headliner cancel on me, knock on wood. But if bands have to cancel, for example if the singer has pneumonia, okay that sucks, sorry, and we just bump up the other bands with longer sets. That’s what happens. We adapt to the situation.
As you said, this festival will stay at the Worcester Palladium and that’s the essence of it, but are you planning to do any other shows elsewhere?
There’s always talks about things. This festival takes a lot of my time right now (laughs), but we always do smaller festivals at the Palladium and also at the Webster Theatre in Hartford. We also do another big fest called Rock And Shock, which is a horror convention/music festival. That’s in October. But that’s about all we’re doing right now. People always ask us do this and do that, but we don’t get the time. We have to concentrate on the good ones (laughs).
For a show like NEMHF, how long is the whole process? Like for next year, will the process start pretty much as soon as this year’s show is over?
We start it up in the early summer, about a month and a half after that year’s festival is done.
From the time you started out and over the years, have you looked at other festivals to try to learn things from them?
Oh yeah. We’ve always learnt some things from other festivals around the country, definitely. Like the Milwaukee Metal Fest, and even shows like Ozzfest. We’re always keen to watch what everybody’s doing.
Links:
metalandhardcorefestival.com
facebook.com/metalandhardcorefest
twitter.com/moshfest