Calgary Metal Fest III
June 4-8, 2014
Calgary, Alberta
Review and Photos by Monika Deviat
Introduction
Calgary Metal Fest (CMF) started out as a two day event in 2012 put on by Nate Renaud to celebrate his birthday and this year it expanded into a five day party. Along with the expansion of the fest Renaud has expanded his repertoire and is now running shows and this event under his company Big Nate Productions. This year’s event started out with a free kickoff party at the Ship and Anchor, three nights of line-ups at Dicken’s Pub and Vern’s Tavern and ended with an impromptu hangover party at Dicken’s pub – the idea for which was drunkenly conceived in a kitchen by organizers and bands partying late into what was supposed to be the final day of the festival. Unlike last year there was no all ages venue, all five nights being 18+ shows.
The MC of this year’s CMF was James Arsenian aka Big James, known for his vocal work in Endast and Exes for Eyes and his YouTube show “The Big James Morning Show”. Big James was an excellent choice as shown by his gregarious and witty personality. He did his research on bands and was able to help promote upcoming tours and albums when he introduced the bands.
On the final night of the festival there were prizes auctioned off between bands Renaud joined Big James on stage to auction off tickets to some western Canadian festivals like Farmegeddon and Armstrong Metal Fest. The big prize was the massive poster with the CMF logo, band logos and signatures of bands and, as requested by the winner, fans. This year $1400 was raised for the Make a Wish Southern Alberta charity. We have to say thank you to Big James for giving us the best photo of the festival (featured above after the title) during the auctions between bands.