About the Thrash Fests

Thrash Fest
 
The idea of having an annual fest is not an original one. Some of the more memorable shows of the 80’s for me were the annual Rock Against Reagan festivals. As Havoc records grew I was always involved with setting up shows for the bands when they came through on tour. In the late 90’s Eric, Tasha and Mandy were doing the Wisconsin Old Barn Punk Fests and lots of bands on havoc would come up for those. Spazm 151, Brother Inferior, Civil Disobedience, Aus Rotten, Code 13, From Ashes Rise all played the barn fests. After the 98 barn fest the Old Barn built a race track and stopped doing live music and Eric, Mandy and Tasha all moved away. I had always been a little envious of Prank Records having Prank fest and the Fiesta Grande. When 99 went by without a major summer festival in Minneapolis I decided to try or organize an annual fest of my own. Now, I have attended a lot of fests and I had my own Ideas of how I wanted to do things. For one, I didn’t much care for multi day fests. I wanted to keep things short and sweet and keep the energy level high for all the bands, rather than spread things out with so many bands that people lose interest and the energy level lags. I also wanted to do things indoors with a bad ass sound system. Outdoor fests can be cool, but a lot of times the music gets overshadowed by the partying and camping. Also, I’ve been to a lost of festivals where the sound system was not up the task and great bands were unable to sound their best. With a few exceptions I limit the festival line ups to bands on the label. I put a lot of time and planning into the fests so that they go off as planned and everyone feels like they got their money’s worth and has a good time. At the first three fests none of the bands cancelled and they shows ended early and all the bands got to play. (that wouldn’t be remarkable, until you think about how many fests have suffered from cancellations and delays). Thrash Fest 1 and 2 were at the Third Lair Skate Park. I thought having the show at an indoor skate park was just the right high energy atmosphere and the room was huge and there were plenty of ramps to stand on so you could see the stage from everywhere. Unfortunately, the skate park cost a fortune to rent for the day, and later moved to the suburbs. So the hunt was on for new venues. I have always timed Thrash Fest around when one or more of the foreign bands was on tour in the US and try to overlap the tours so that more than one of the foreign bands can play at once, then bring in all the US bands possible to round out the bill. Here is a breif history of each of the fests. There are photos slowly being added to the photos section and some day there will be a video compilation from the fests.
 
Thrash Fest 1, Aus Rotten, Code 13, DS 13, Nine Shocks Terror, USV, Holding On, Real Enemy, Spazm 151.  Third Lair Skate Park
The first and until now the biggest of the thrash fests. There were between 600 and 700 people at this one and Aus Rotten really tore the house down, playing for over an hour.
This was Code 13’s last show as a performing band, although we got back together twice since. The skate park was a great location for this show, people were skating all through the show.