A brand new festival – Radar Festival – has emerged. A brainchild of two promoters in South of England, this event is focusing on bands not afraid to push boundaries across the musical spectrum.
Radar Festival’s first edition took place on 2-3rd August in Guildford, Surrey, UK. A large part of the Techfest crowd was here also and it was nice to see lots of familiar faces. The venue was a night club with massive chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling providing the feel of grandeur; lights were kept very dark and atmospheric with only some bright beams floating around.
It is great to have another festival focused on the technical aspects of metal featuring bands who are not afraid to experiment with their sound. With no clashes in the rota I was very happy to be able to catch every band (well, apart from Visionist due to delayed transport). My only grumble would be the lack of security in the pit, especially on day one, to catch the crowd surfers, but considering the fact that this was only the first edition there is plenty of room for improvement and I wanted to thank everyone involved in the process for a nicely organized festival.
There was a lot of speculation who would take the slot of the Secret Act on Friday evening. Unexpectedly it turned out to be London industrial noise punks Black Futures and got very mixed reviews. Regardless, loved or hated musically, they undeniably stirred up the crowd and were fun to watch.
Black Futures 
Black Futures 
Black Futures 
Black Futures 
Black Futures
Friday night was headlined by the British progressive metal quintet Monuments. Having recently announced the departure of the band’s long time frontman Chris Barretto Monuments is having Andy Cizek from Makari as a fill in for their tour. Andy’s vocals were spot on and the whole performance was as brilliant as always. The crowd was going wild – people were singing along and moshing and I could feel the floor of the small venue shaking under my feet.
Monuments 
Monuments 
Monuments 
Monuments 
Monuments 
Monuments
On Saturday night the headlining duty did go to American instrumental prog metallers Animals As Leaders. There could have not been a better way of closing the festival. It is wonderful to see that an instrumental band which barely addresses the crowd and does not move around on stage with their talent; their unique take on djent sound and dedication have created a strong following around the globe and creating moshpits wherever they play. The audience was totally geeking out and was hung on every note band delivered.
Animals As Leaders 
Animals As Leaders 
Animals As Leaders 
Animals As Leaders 
Animals As Leaders 
Animals As Leaders
LINE UP:
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Friday Stage 1 Monuments Heart of a Coward Black Futures (secret act) Uneven Structure Polar Loathe Harbinger Visionist
Stage 2 Toska Sümer Eschar Unprocessed Mask of Judas Shattered Skies The Deadlights |
Saturday Stage 1 Animals as Leaders Agent Fresco Rolo Tomassi Car Bomb Vola Sithu Aye Arcaeon Gatvol
Stage 2 Modern Day Babylon No Consequence Kadinja Valis Ablaze Flüx Kaguu Cryptodira Boe |
First wave of bands for next year’s Radar Festival have been announced: Plini Toska, Hymanity’s Last Breath, Hacktivist, The Physics House Band, Time, the Valuator and it also will be the very first UK performance for Dirty Loops. So, prog fans, mark the dates in your calendar: the second edition of Radar Festival will be taking place on 31.07.-01.08.2020. at Casino Guildford, Surrey, UK.
Early bird tickets for this event have already sold out with standard weekend tickets available now for £68.88:
https://www.seetickets.com/event/radar-festival/casino-nightclub-guildford/1419414
