Terminus was a spectacular success this year. There are a number of reasons for that… let me introduce you to some of them… First and foremost without any doubt is Ambor Sheppard. I spend 11 months making a gigantic tangled ball of yarn that I hand to her one month in advance with the instructions, “Here. Turn this into an organized and efficient festival please.” One tornado of spreadsheets, hair and the colour black later, and a plan has been laid out for airport pickups, hotel stays, venue staffing, merch table layout, wristband and Terminus merchandise ordering and endless on-the-fly problem solving. She is the most amazing, wonderful person I’ve ever known and I’ve decided to let her out of her cell for 60 minutes per day from now on. What would a festival be without bands that sounded brilliant from start to finish? Luckily Terminus will never have to find out because of Gavin Howard, our sound tech, and Chuck Deadman, our stage manager (and occasional airport runner). These two worked together tirelessly throughout the weekend with a mere 15 minutes between sets to produce an endless stream of happy bands sounding ridiculously good both on stage and from the floor. No problem goes unresolved with these two and I wouldn’t do the festival without them. The promotional material looks so overwhelmingly good every year because of one man, Eric Dieterich. I have said many times that his design work is second to none and I can’t thank him enough for making everything look beyond perfect every year from the website to the flyers to the t-shirt designs. He’s the best and I wouldn’t trade him for anybody! I am far from having all the answers. Aware of this, I asked for lots of advice and thoughts throughout the year that led to the final production you witnessed at the end of June. Many of those conversations were had with Jacek Kozlowski (Artoffact and Storming The Base) who tolerated my highs and lows all the while reminding me that he is not Finnish but a Pole living in Finland. We had many great talks over the course of the year as well as at the festival itself where he ran the big Storming The Base merch table with another excellent person… Jeremy Pfohl. Buy as much as you can from these guys! I spent a small fortune on shirts at their table but the sheer amount of tempting stuff is mind NUMBing. Other key conversations and generally helpful talks were had with Scott Fox of iVardensphere who provides a real “boots on the ground” portrayal of what’s going on in the scene and which bands are exciting performers, Troy Hilton who has interesting insights into the business side of things as well as immigration concerns and lots of other specialized artist issues, and the I Die: You Die Bruce and Alex MasterBlaster combo (you decide who is the brawn and who is the brains) who have got their fingers on the pulse to a degree that few others will ever approach and who take such pleasure in discussing new developments in music that one couldn’t help but get excited about things to come. There were no shortage of local heroes that changed the playing field for me this year also. David Luecke is a bit of a computer genius and he’s German so basically he’s Das Genius as far as I’m concerned. He helped out immensely with the video screens as well as making us a cool daily schedule on the site for the bands and even did a couple of key trips to the airport. Arthur Chocholacek and Josanna Justine did an enormous amount of the daily airport runs. They lifted a massive weight from our shoulders this year and did it all with smiles on their faces. In addition, Arthur got a special piece of wood cut just for the Author & Punisher set that turned out to be vital (that’s right… Arthur got wood for Author & Punisher ;). Other helpful drivers this weekend included Sarah Hewitt (scientist AND vehicle operator?!) and Miles Kelley. Jaysin Brunner jumped in during the show on Friday night with an unexpected offer to capture video for the remaining two nights of the festival which is something that simply wouldn’t have happened without his kind offer. Thanks to Troy Kirkland for setting up our projectors and screens early in the week as opposed to the massive panic we went through last year. Also a special shout out to Garry Bennett for running the lights during every set of the weekend and making all the bands look like rock stars! A few people took the time to produce some supportive and exciting previews of the festival this year including Matt Pathogen, Alter Der Ruine, ISN Radio and podcasts from I Die: You Die, DJ Moose and some post-festival stuff from Talking To Ghosts. This kind of help is vital for reaching a wider audience and I can’t express my appreciation enough (but imagine a deeply satisfying high five at least). The festival DJs kept our ears stimulated between sets all night, every night. Thank you to DJ Jinx, Scott Fox, DJ Pandemonium and Bruce and Alex (who are thank you hogs). Also thanks to Peter Ewashko for being our Edmonton ticket outlet this year! A general thanks goes out to all the venue staff at Dickens. It’s a long weekend when you’re working instead of partying but they worked hard to keep you all fed, watered and overall happy for the duration. Monumental thanks to each and every band who made the trip out here to play and who took a chance on a relatively new festival without knowing for certain what situation would be awaiting you. You all put on stunning, professional performances and showed that you truly care about your audience by finishing your sets exhausted while sticking respectfully to your set times. MONUMENTAL + 1 thanks go to all the attendees! There would be no festival without all of your interest and support. We plan these things and do everything we can to produce an event you will remember forever but I think all the bands can also agree it would all be for nothing without your cheers, your gratitude, your enthusiasm and your sweat. You guys and girls rule the world and are the reason Terminus happens every year! For many of us, the hard part comes next. The memories will last forever but we miss the new people we’ve met and the festival friends we only get to see once or twice per year. This is my absolute favourite weekend of the year. I look forward to it in a way that I can’t describe. I already have lots of thoughts towards what might happen next year. I’m sure many of those ideas will change, mutate or be dropped entirely in the meantime. That’s part of the joy of this process. There are new discoveries, rejuvenated inspirations, vital lessons learned and unexpected sources of help. Above all, I promise the next Terminus will remain a showcase festival of new and upcoming acts, veteran legends and bands enjoying their prime. The festival won’t be pigeon-holed as any one thing but rather a source of surprise and anticipation as truly fantastic people all gather together again for one weekend in Calgary. Terminus now has Ignition. In one year, Terminus will have Velocity.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 02:28:27 +0000
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