Organizing a music festival from scratch is always a bold move, but launching a progressive metal festival that blends heavy riffs with yoga, art, and rune workshops is something entirely unique. Enter Demetra Metal Fest, a new open-air initiative aiming to break down the old-school metal stereotypes and offer a green, sustainable retreat for the community. Born out of a weekend camping trip and a shared desire to give smaller, starting bands a proper stage, the festival is the brainchild of co-founders Ale (rhythm guitarist of Inner Cabala) and Pim (the band's former vocalist).
Set against the agricultural backdrop of Camping Onmoeten in Reeken, this first edition is shaping up to be less of a standard gig and more of a summer camp for metal adults. We sat down with Ale and Pim to talk about the inspiration behind Demetra, the challenges of scaling up from local DIY shows in Groningen, their philosophy on sustainability, and why they believe the modern metal scene is ready for a healthy dose of philosophy, art, and a corpse paint workshop.
Thank you for having the time to talk to us about the upcoming Demetra Metal Fest. Can you please introduce yourselves?
Yeah, I'm Ale, on the other side of the screen there's also Pim. So we are respectively also part of the organizers of the Demetra Metal Fest. I am the rhythm guitarist of Inner Cabala and Pim is the now former singer of Inner Cabala since last week. Yeah, he retired because he's old, jokes apart. We are the two main figures trying to put this festival together. There's a lot of other people helping us out, but we can say that we are the two people who started with the idea. We are the co-founders, so to speak.
Can you explain what the Demetra Metal Fest is?
The whole idea revolves around this campsite, which is called Camping Ontmoeten in Reeken. We went camping there actually, just because we wanted to chill a bit over the weekend. We met the owner of this campsite, and while we were there, we thought, "Hey, this place could quite well host a tiny festival." It's fully equipped with all the facilities the camping has, so there are showers, toilets, and everything else, but there's also enough space to put the stage up. It looks quite nice and green, and it's far enough from people that you wouldn't bother them with our music. We started with this idea of trying to give space to local and semi-local bands between the Netherlands and Germany. Ideally, we wanted to include Belgian bands as well, though they didn't go through for this edition, but we managed to get a band from Germany. We wanted to give a sort of different space for the local scene, given that it would be an open air, but also a retreat for a few days in a very nice campsite.
Why did you feel the need to create something like Demetra?
We played within Inner Cabala for quite a while, so we are pretty engaged in the local scene. The thing we noticed most is that there weren't really that many places for smaller, starting bands of all types of genres to show themselves—including our genre, which is progressive modern metal and post-metal. We wanted to offer a space like this. Financially, it's not going to be easy, but the campsite helps us with a lot of stuff. Because of things like the existing showers, we don't need to arrange everything from scratch; it's not just an open field where we have to bring every single thing, which makes it quite manageable. The motivation really came from wanting to do something new for artists who would like a nice opportunity on a nice festival to show themselves. It's a bit different than what you normally expect in typical metal scenes. We know the scene is not exactly the easiest in terms of the financial situation, and it doesn't always bring many people around, making it tough to organize metal events these days. So, the spin we wanted to give to this festival is to provide a side program. It wouldn't just be about the music, which could attract people who may not be super interested in the music itself in the first place, but they might come for the activities and then get lured into the metal music scene by the other stuff on site.
Why the workshops and the art? It feels like a very intellectual, almost hippie feel. I quite like it, and I think it's quite unique to have something like that.
We had a feeling that it would be unique, but it kind of derives from our own personal interests. Besides the fact that I'm into metal, I'm also into all this other spiritual stuff, and I work at the Art Academy. It felt natural to just see how that mingles. Also, I have a feeling that especially in this genre of more modern, progressive metal, most people who enjoy the music would also enjoy this kind of stuff. We want to break loose from the outdated image that metalheads only shout "Slayer!" and drink beer. That's not forbidden, of course, but people are interested in way more things like philosophy, art, and yoga. How funny is it that people going to a metal festival have the option to follow a corpse paint workshop? When you ask people who are not into metal, they think it's only people with long hair shouting all the time; some do, but not all. Maybe the progressive and post-metal scenes are a little bit more open to mixing different things, philosophy, and introspection, without being pretentious about it. There's a bit of a tendency for sure, perhaps because there are more introverted people in the scene, which might be the trigger.
You named your festival Demetra. Is it based on Demeter, the Greek goddess?
Yeah, it is just the Italian translation of it. Because "Demeter" in Dutch could lead to some puns, we went for Demetra to avoid that. It makes sense as a connection to philosophy through a deeper layer, but also because the festival location is enclosed by rich agricultural landscapes. It's a bit of a nod to all those kinds of things.
I saw you had a tagline: "From soil rise, to soil return." Is that also incorporated into the story of the festival?
Sure thing. There is an intention to give this festival the feeling of a return to nature—an escape from city life, so to speak. The camping used to have their own honey production, though they don't have the bees anymore, but they still brew their own beers. We are trying our best to make the festival as sustainable as possible in terms of the impact we will have on the campsite and the fields nearby. We are being very careful with the waste and consumption on site, making use as much as possible of local products, reusable stuff, and circular concepts. That is very important to us.
I read somewhere that back in the day, there were rituals around Demeter, like around the harvest season. Are you going to make the festival itself into some kind of ritual as well?
That's a nice addition. There are going to be a few moments of yoga and meditation, for instance. I don't know if you would call it a ritual per se, but it will have a ritual approach. We also have someone who will do workshops with runes and Reiki. So there will be some spiritual things at the festival which people can sign up for and enjoy. A futuristic opening could be cool too, and we can also talk about the farm where I sometimes work to see how they can be integrated into the company, so who knows?
Do you actually plan on the people that join the festival to be active participators in the whole thing, like co-creating the festival together?
We hope so in a way. Mostly, the workshops we provide will be held by people we contacted who are somewhat professional in whatever they offer. But if people show up and say, "Oh, I have a cool idea, I want to do this and that with the group," it's not like we're going to prevent them from expressing themselves. That would be fantastic and very cool to see. We cannot predict if people will show up with more activities to do, but the more the merrier. I have a feeling that most people who come for this first edition will probably be friends or related to us somehow, so we will be easily approachable for them. If they have an idea, sure! For now, we already have a pretty rich program to offer besides the music, and I hope people just take those opportunities to join in. Where there's room, why not? The campsite is perfect for that and gives off a vibe where you can let your inner child roam free.
You are also programming bands for the current lineup, mainly Dutch progressive bands. Will the focus always be on progressive metal, or is that just how the first edition happens to be?
That was the easiest way out for the first edition. This is our scene, consisting of people who are close to us, plus some additions that fit rather well with the program. Riding a rollercoaster of vastly different subgenres of metal over a single day can be quite challenging to hold together. It's not a fixed thing for future editions necessarily, assuming there will be future editions, which all depends on how this first one goes. We need to see if we can make it financially feasible, which is the big question mark at the moment. But we are quite open to other subgenres of metal; we regularly go to other concerts in our area, so we aren't strictly focusing only on prog strictly speaking. We'll see what the future brings.
Speaking of organizing a festival, because that's a pretty ballsy move, at what point during your initial talks did you think, "Well, this is something that we need to do, this is absolutely worth it"?
It's a long story. We found ourselves in Groningen in the beginning, and the metal scene in Groningen—especially for prog—is rather tiny, or at least we perceived it as such. We started organizing our own little events, and a couple of times back-to-back, these events went very well. We started thinking, "Hey, maybe this works." In the meantime, I had been unemployed for one and a half years, and นั่น's the moment when you get all the wildest ideas because you get creative. Having quite some time on my hands helped a lot, because doing this purely as a side quest is not really an option; it's way too much work. It requires a lot of teamwork, and at the moment our team is rather small—maybe 10 people total working on this. It was a combination of things. The opportunity with the campsite was there, we talked with them, and they told us we could do it. We sat together, said, "Come on, let's just go for it and see how it goes." Along the way, it went from the two of us to adding one person, then another, and now we have a nice team of people helping out. It's growing and feels like a bit of a community thing, reaching not only people who are strictly into metal but also people outside of it who just think it's a nice idea and want to support it by offering their services. Let's hope it's going to be a success so there will be future editions.
Do you plan to have German, Belgian, Danish, or other international visitors joining the festival as well?
We hope so. We actually already sold one ticket to someone in Wilhelmshaven, which is on the coast of northern Germany. So there is at least one German person coming so far. Reeken is right near the border with Germany, so we hope that brings in some Germans from over the border as well. It's up to the people to come, and we hope they enjoy the idea and come over. Everyone is welcome, whether you're from England or America, we don't care. Wherever you're from, you can show up and we'll be happy to see you. The prog scene seems to be bigger outside of the Netherlands than inside. When I played two shows in Germany with Inner Cabala, it was amazing how the people responded, so it's quite noticeable. Hopefully, they'll come over this September. Or maybe some Dutch people will find out that they like it too. As we said in the beginning, it can be a gateway to these metal genres where you can just have a nice metal holiday, meet new people, and listen to some awesome music.
Is the lineup with the workshops and the bands fully complete for this first edition, or can people still apply?
The band lineup is full and completely announced, but we haven't announced all of the workshops yet. It's a matter of combining time and budget. We have a night curfew anyway, meaning we cannot be loud outdoors after 11 PM, and it's not easy to accommodate a million acts with a relatively small budget for a first edition. Any new applications would be considered for next year's editions, unless someone calls in sick, which can always happen. Or, of course, if someone wants to offer their services or play for free at midday, that could be done, though I don't know how appealing that is to people. With the workshops and stands we have right now, we have a very nice assortment. You don't want to have too many options, because if there is too much choice, people get overwhelmed and no one will make use of them. For a first-edition festival, we are already doing quite a lot compared to normal organizers who would just go for one venue with three bands. We've done those DIY three-band gigs in Groningen before, and you have to start somewhere, but now we get to see if scaling up works out.
Till when can people buy tickets? Can they still buy tickets up to the day that it starts?
Yes, unless we sell out beforehand, which would be fantastic. Who knows? We will let you know if it sells out. The early bird tickets are available for a few more days, and then the prices will rise a little bit. But we're trying to keep it highly affordable. We want everyone to feel welcome, but we especially want to see young people and students show up. It's important for the scene to have a generational update, so we want to keep it accessible for people who typically don't have many savings. The prices will rise in three days, but not by much. Tickets will be available all the time leading up to the festival, and probably on the spot too for last-minute decisions.
Check out the website to get your tickets and see the full line-up!
