New Friends Fest Brought the International Screamo Community Together
Photo by Alice Hirsch
This past weekend, artists and fans in the underground screamo scene flocked to Toronto from all over the world to take part in New Friends Fest. The festival was organized by local collective New Friends DIY who have put on two festivals in previous years and regularly host punk, emo, and hardcore shows in the city. It took place over three days with music running from around 6pm to midnight each night (nearly 30 artists played!) as well as pre-fest and post-fest events each day including meetups at public pools and skate parks and a karaoke night, making for an absolutely stacked weekend.
This year’s lineup featured friends new and old, with groups like Terry Green and Massa Nera who have featured on New Friends DIY bills in the past, and bands like hardcore heavyweights Dangers and Italian screamo act Øjne who were playing Toronto for the first time ever. A bunch of the bands who had played together via New Friends or otherwise already had strong connections and it was obvious that the community was tight knit, but it was also clear throughout the weekend that more friends were always welcome - after all, look at what the collective is called.
The unique thing about underground DIY music scenes like this is that the new friends you could make are not just limited to your fellow attendees - members of your favourite band at the fest could become your buddies too. After a band’s set you would often find them at their own merch table and get to have a personal interaction with them, and I certainly took that opportunity to thank those who made an impact on me with their music. You could even find most artists hanging out in the crowd and enjoying their fellow performers’ sets along with everyone else, stage diving, crowd surfing, and moshing with the rest of us. Given this dynamic at the fest and the personal nature of all the artists’ work, there was truly no barrier between art, artist, and audience, which was a special thing to witness.
Aside from the whole experience of the festival, the music at the heart of it stood tall on its own. The core sound of the festival was heartfelt screamo and post-hardcore, with bands like Øjne and Milwaukee-based band Snag being two of my favourite acts in that vein. The fest’s lineup also had a lot of great acts that offered something different sonically, including fan-favourite Midwest emo band awakebutstillinbed, lively bratty punks Piper Maru, instrumental post-metal band Shy, Low, and gothic folk act A Paradise.
A personal highlight of mine was Locktender, a group whose dark, droning, and heavy passages of hardcore were incredibly affecting in a live setting, especially as dusk set in while they played in a small room with windows that was previously full of natural light. Two true showstoppers were Friday night’s Massa Nera, a technically impressive screamo act, and Respire, who combine screamo, black metal, and orchestral flourishes to create something truly breathtaking. My absolute favourite performance of the whole weekend was Dangers, whose frontman Al was a maniac on stage, and also a thoughtful, political, and awe-inspiring person to witness. In addition to playing the fest’s greatest hardcore punk music and making some very impactful statements between songs, Al and his peers got a huge reaction from the crowd, inciting a wild circle pit, and finished their set by calling the crowd onto the stage to shout along with them.
In the spirit of making new friends, I also had some lovely interactions with a few of the artists where I asked about their own favourite acts of the fest and about what made New Friends Fest so special to them. Amy, the vocalist/bassist of noisy screamo act Obroa-skai told me, “It’s great to have one fest where everyone comes together. The screamo community is really spread out, and there are not large scenes in any one city, so this festival is a wholesome time where people are excited to see each other.” Amy’s personal most-anticipated set of the weekend was Øjne: “I love Italian screamo and I also got to bond with my partner and bandmate Cory over that band, so it checks all the boxes.” Adam of Terry Green and Piper Maru also had an important personal and musical connection to one of the fellow bands on the bill: “I’m most excited to see Cerce because they are one of the bands that my bandmates in Terry Green and I all love.”
It would be incredible to experience the music at this festival as a fly on the wall, but the true beauty of it was that anybody could become an active member of the community if they wanted to be. With New Friends Fest 2022 being their biggest event yet and the community continuing to expand, fans of screamo and its adjacent genres should definitely keep their eye out for future events and their next festival. Thank you to New Friends Fest for having us this year!
