Music Sound

Infest

Infest is an annual three day music festival held at University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, featuring alternative electronic music acts from genres including industrial, EBM, futurepop, synthpop and power noise.

History

Infest was born in early 1998 through the efforts of three students of the University of Bradford and the Student's Union Entertainments Manager. The concept of the show was a one day event for local goth bands in West Yorkshire. Even before the first event however, it spiraled into an altogether bigger beast when the Students Union agreed that funds could be found to book some much bigger acts; most notably gothic/deathrock band Alien Sex Fiend. The student organisers were already fans of the Whitby Gothic Weekend and took the idea for Infest to the Whitby festival-goers and traders to gauge how popular the show might be. The response was positive and the first Infest festival was confirmed as 14th and 15 August 1998.

The following year (1999) the festival paid more attention towards the electronic side of the goth and industrial scene by booking Apoptygma Berzerk for their first UK show.

By 2000, Bradford University's Students' Union felt that they couldn't carry the costs of the festival any longer. In addition, the original students who had promoted the show had all but moved on. Fortunately, an independent goth/industrial promoter and DJ, who had been advising throughout the show's early years, stepped in to fill the void. As a result of the heavy involvement with Terminal Productions, another twist to the show's music style took place, defining Infest in its current form with its theme moving from goth/industrial crossover to alternative electronic, with a greater emphasis on power noise, futurepop, synthpop and electronic body music, with occasional bookings of more darkwave-style goth bands.

Since 2000, Infest has gained an international reputation, with festival-goers travelling from as far as Canada, and acts flying from as far as Australia to play the UK. The show continues to provide a market for traders, which helps to bring the music and the lifestyle of the show's fans together. There is also a full festival program where nightclubs, DJs, bands and businesses can make their voices heard. Infest is supported by a number of electronic record labels, notably Ant-Zen and Hands Productions and has been sponsored by the online music store Music Non Stop, the drink Jaegermeister and the software publisher Ableton.

The festival was originally known as "InFest" when it was started in 1998, however in 2003 it's name was altered to "Infest" on all material produced by the organisers.

External links

• Infest Homepage
• Infest Photo Gallery
• BBC report on Infest 2004
• Infest Chatter The LiveJournal community dedicated to Infest

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Music Sound, v. 2.0, by MultiMedia

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