Carving an identity: Heavy NFLD Fest expanding 'organized chaos' across the island

Sean Ridgeley · for CBC News

· Posted: Jul 12, 2025 3:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 12

An improbable brace of musicians is trying to turn Newfoundland's dense euphony country — by taking the shows connected the road.

In St. John's, Greg Ravengrave — a Newfoundland expat who present lives successful Montreal — and Ben Chapman-Smith, a Toronto-born instrumentalist and lawsuit organizer who present lives connected the island, person taken an ambitious attack to their goal: 30 bands, immoderate section and immoderate not, implicit 3 days and six shows.

"Being from retired of province, I was truly trying to make connections betwixt this country and different Atlantic cities truthful we could get artists coming retired present and going retired there," said Chapman-Smith of Heavy NFLD Fest — a solemnisation of Newfoundland's alternate euphony country that brings together section and Canadian bands successful genres similar metal, punk, and hardcore.

The festival is present successful its 3rd year.

Ravengrave handles the touring bands and societal media. Chapman-Smith does the bulk of the organizational work. Together they believe it's the cross-pollination of their engagement successful euphony scenes extracurricular of Newfoundland and Labrador that is helping them along.

"We had immoderate traction from our ain touring, and we met a clump of bands that wanted to travel out," said Chapman-Smith.

This year, though, they're hoping to turn the country by mounting up a touring way crossed the province, hoping to marque it much worthwhile for extracurricular bands to marque the costly travel up to Newfoundland, and perchance drafting successful much involvement from the manufacture with imaginable backing opportunities.

But the program isn't without roadblocks.

It tin beryllium pugnacious uncovering a mainstay venue oregon 2 successful cardinal Newfoundland, and it's not ever casual to pull bands who hold anti-establishment views and are contented to play mostly for their friends.

Over the years, the alternate country has taken hits from the COVID-19, seen the removal of a downtown abstraction known arsenic The Deck arsenic a communal hub, and an evolving assemblage who've shifted distant from genres similar emo, doom metal, and stoner stone toward hardcore.

Thrash metallic trio Paranoia of Lark Harbour — a favourite of some organizers, and 1 of the bands connected this year's festival lineup — isn't 1 of them.

"We program to effort and get immoderate shows successful places similar Montreal, Toronto and Halifax, arsenic good arsenic enactment a afloat magnitude medium out," said bassist Ryder Walters. "We truly conscionable privation to effort and instrumentality this happening arsenic acold arsenic we tin go."

Meanwhile, contempt the improvement successful genres and tastes, Chapman-Smith said one happening hasn't changed — what attracts radical to the dense euphony country successful the archetypal place.

He works by time arsenic a euphony pedagogue and has seen radical marque the conversion, partly, helium says, due to the fact that of the powerfulness of unrecorded music, but besides the community.

"There is simply a benignant of organized chaos origin to the unrecorded shows that is truly exciting," helium said. "It's an accidental wherever you tin beryllium loud, bounce disconnected the walls, and spell crazy, and it's really accepted.… It gives you an identity. For a batch of young people, it's a accidental to carve retired who they are."

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