Hellfest (American music festival)
Hellfest started as a hardcore punk rock music festival during the summer of 1996 in Syracuse, New York. It continued as an annual event until it was recently cancelled in 2005.
In its ninth season in 2005 (which was cancelled), Hellfest was to feature the best in independent hardcore, metal and punk rock bands on three different stages. Hellfest promoters Paper Street Music posted a detailed description of what exactly happened regarding the demise of the fest in a PDF file that can be found here.
Hellfest encourages crowd participation, not unlike the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Bands that have played at Hellfest
July 2004
In July of 2004, at the Rexplex, Elizabeth, NJ, USA:
July 23
- Dinosaur Stage
- 100 Demons, Calico System, Ed Gein, Full Blown Chaos, Nag Hamadi, Oval Portrait, Saving Throw, Starting to Wonder, The Dead Season, Through the Discipline, Time in Maltia, Walk the Line, With Honor
- Hopeless Stage
- All Else Failed, As I Lay Dying, Every Time I Die, Found Dead Hanging, Halifax, Misfits, Norma Jean, Sick of It All, Terror, The AKAs, The Juliana Theory, The Red Chord, Unearth
- Hot Topic Stage
- Adelphi, All That Remains, Anterrabae, Broke Neck, Burnt By The Sun, Day Of Contempt, Engineer, Ensign, Glass Eater, Hawthorne Heights, Pig Destroyer, Premonitions of War, Sycamore Dreams, Today Is The Day, Your Enemy's Friends
- Trustkill Stage
- Champion, Draw Blood, Folly, Himsa, The Killing, Mastodon, Remembering Never, Shadows Fall, Spitalfield, Strike Anywhere, Suffocation, The Ataris
July 24
- Dinosaur Stage
- Dead To Fall, Donnybrook, Figure Four, I Killed The Prom Queen, Malice Aforethought, Misery Index, Only Crime, Reflux, The Judas Cradle, The Minor Times, Undying, xdeathstarx
- Hopeless Stage
- Agnostic Front, Avail, Bane, Bury Your Dead, Caliban, Killswitch Engage, Martyr Ad, Mest, No Hollywood Ending, Odd Project, Stretch Arm Strong, The Hope Conspiracy, Until The End
- Hot Topic Stage
- Beloved, Between The Buried And Me, Blacklisted, Comeback Kid, DRI, Drive Without, Drowningman, Embrace Today, For Love Of, Horse the band, Let It Die, Nothing Left to Mourn, No Redeeming Social Value, Prayer For Cleansing, The World/Inferno Friendship Society
- Trustkill Stage
- Andrew W.K., Evergreen Terrace, E town concrete, Love is Red, Nora, Roses Are Red, Scars of Tomorrow, Shattered Realm, The Banner, The Killing, Underoath, Zao
July 25
- Dinosaur Stage
- Dry Kill Logic, Flat Earth Society, Forever is Forgotten, Last Perfection, Psyopus, Stabbed by Words, The Acacia Strain, The Autumn Offering, Wings of Scarlet, With Dead Hands Rising
- Hopeless Stage
- Alexisonfire, A Thousand Falling Skies, Bleeding Through, The Dillinger Escape Plan, fordirelifesake, Most Precious Blood, Shai Hulud, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Walls Of Jericho
- Hot Topic Stage
- A Life Once Lost, A Perfect Murder, Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravaganza, Breath of Silence, Endwell, Fear Before The March Of Flames, From a Second Story Window, Misery Signals, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Stars Turn Cold, The Bronx, The Promise, Zombie Apocalypse
- Trustkill Stage
- Bear vs. Shark, Converge, Death By Stereo, Death Threat, If Hope Dies, It Dies Today, Sworn Enemy, Throwdown
Other bands
- Planes Mistaken For Stars
- Coheed and Cambria
- The Dillinger Escape Plan
- Atreyu
- Converge
- Andrew W.K.
- The Red Chord
- The Banner
- Bane
- Earth Crisis
- Terror
- With Honor
- Champion
- Between the Buried and Me
- Prayer For Cleansing
- Stretch Arm Strong
- xDEATHSTARx
External links
- Home page
- One ‘Hell’ of a concert, Report by Scott Frost, The Trentonian
- Cold day in hell, by Scott Frost, The Trentonian
- Article in the New York Times about the demise of the festival in 2005. Registration required.
- Videos of performances from shows that sprung up from the Hellfest 2005 cancellation. Videos include Lifetime, Good Clean Fun and more.