This isn’t a review, that’ll come later from various sources, but a brief overview of this year’s Wildfire Festival and a list of people I want to thank.
This was the first year we’ve looked after a stage at the festival, booking and scheduling our own acts and the first thing to say is that everything went ridiculously smoothly. I can only put this down to hard work, professionalism and – in the case of AC Rid in particular – impressive alcohol tolerance!
I didn’t get to catch too many of the main stage acts over Saturday and Sunday, I spent most of the time at our stage, but the bands I saw were superb. Kane’d were even better than last year and the ever-reliable Dead Label sounded incredible for the half of the set I saw.
However, back to the Moshville Times stage… First of all we have to thank the main man himself, Dave Ritchie. For some reason he lost the plot for long enough to actually let us look after a stage all by ourselves, so this is effectively all his fault. A close second on the list is my wife, Gillian (a.k.a. Mrs Mosh) for letting me do it and helping out far too much. She was manning our merch/raffle table for Saturday and walking our puppy around on the Sunday!
Next up, the miracle-working sound techs who managed our stage. From an empty tent on Friday night to a fully-functioning noise-making machine by 9:30am on Saturday morning, I swear these two guys are some kind of wizards. Kit-wise, a huge thanks to Dave from A Ritual Spirit who loaned us his drum kit for the two days and seemed remarkably unperturbed by the fact that we broke it by halfway through Saturday. Sir, you’re a legend!
Crew next – we were out in force this year ensuring we covered all the stages as well as managing our own. In addition, we brought down a couple of volunteers. So, in no order: Ellissa, Mya, Findlay, Oscar, Gary, Carly, Pete, Nick, Aidan, Amy, Rich, Henry, Ross and of course Pit Troll who managed to get half of the Crew on stage doing the Macarena at the end. If you missed that… then you missed it. No video exists (this is a lie).
The one crew member who wasn’t there who needs a thanks is James, who kept the website ticking over and stopped the editor’s inbox from overflowing for the duration.
Thanks to Nordoff Robbins for giving us a Kasabian signed drum head and a pair of Metallica tickets to give away in a raffle. We raised a good few hundred quid for this wonderful charity – so thank you to all who bought tickets!
Almost there… obviously we have to thank the bands who played our stage, the people who drove them and their management and PR s. In the order they appeared…
- Empyre
- Second Suns
- AC Rid
- Killatrix
- Standing Like Statues
- Mallen
- Jupiter Falls
- A Ritual Spirit
- Monkey Puzzle
- Rare Breed
- Fueled Hate
- Agent
- Turbyne
- The Dead XIII
Also to Burning the Dream and Valafar, who couldn’t make it at the end of the day. Please fix your drummers (seriously, it was like Spinal Tap this weekend…) and we hope to see you guys again soon!
Every single band was great to work with, professional, courteous and rocked their socks off (Standing Like Statues more than most – when you see the photos you’ll know why!).
And finally… to every one of you who turned up at our stage and gave these bands – some of whom I know you’d never heard of before – your time, , applause and cash in exchange for merchandise.
We had a blast. Given the from the bands it seems like they did as well, and the audience certainly seemed to have a good time. We know Wildfire’s on again next year and – if Dave’ll have us – we’ll be there as well. Start writing those emails and letters now!
