The Metallion Festival is partly about the love of thunderous music, but it is also melted into the love of the Omineca-Cariboo region. The show is an altar to the natural forces of heavy riffs, and it is held in the great outdoor cathedral of the north.
The festival's chief promoter Brad Foster is doing a little missionary work. He has announced that the show and its region are getting a Vancouver showcase to raise money and awareness for the annual event.
"We did one in Edmonton a couple years ago with help from Tides of Kharon," Foster said. "It opened up the fest to a new audience and we saw a spike in submissions from Edmonton bands."
Outreach is a concept many festivals never embrace, relying solely on passive marketing and word of mouth to sell their event. Metallion organizers have become abundantly aware that theirs is a unique entertainment incident each summer. They draw people to the region who would never normally come here, plus they provide a can't-refuse offer of music that retains local metal fans instead of conceding them to faraway concerts and festivals elsewhere. Taking that evangelism deep into other markets is, as is their musical genre, pleasing and aggressive.
"The idea was born from Dean (Eckert) from Hellchamber and Brian (Langley) from Aggression," Foster said. "Both bands have played the fest twice and both of those guys i consider among my closest friends. They had a discussion and then brought it to me. Dean found us a venue, Brian made the poster and it was that easy. The icing on the cake for me is I get to play with both of my bands at this show - the first show in Vancouver for Flagon, and a return for Deveined who last played there with Act of Defiance who feature former members of Megadeth."
The Metallion Vancity Fundraiser will feature those two P.G. bands (Deveined and Flagon) with Hellchamber and Aggression headlining. It happens at Pub 340 on Cambie Street in the heart of the Gastown district.
"The benefit for us is exposure to a market who may have not even heard of the fest," Foster said "Also allowing the two P.G. bands to play for a different audience. And if you know the people involved the main thing is we have a great party with our friends. We all just happen to play in metal bands who can kick ass."
The show date is March 16 for the Vancouver appetizer event. Tickets are $10 at the door.
The sixth annual Metallion Festival - lovingly called the 666 Edition - happens in August.
