It has been 10 years GO! fest is happening. I have been to one of the first editions and was lucky to play in #8. What is the driving force behind doing it all these years?
Hi everyone!
Yes, everything started 9 years ago and it seems incredible how we improved from the first editions. I think that our main goal (we’re three behind the festival, Daniele, Andrea and me) was to make a festival focused of fast bands. We had and still have plenty of hardcore festival in Italy but no one was dedicated to extreme bands, especially in Rome. We had September To Dismember in Bologna which was definitively a great example for us, but in the latest years I can say we’re the only extreme diy fest in our country together with Born To Be Grind organized by our friend Riki.
I'm sure it's not money right? How do you pay all the bands with such low entry fees? What was your biggest financial loss in history? How do I get rich doing grindcore?
I’m happy to say that it’s impossible to get rich with grindcore 😊 You don’t need money to do it, just rage and some musical skill. Talking about us yes, the entrance at the festival is always really cheap and I’m proud to say that we do it without any help of sponsors. When a band come to play at Go! Fest they do it more for the fun and the atmosphere, they know from the beginning that they are not getting so much money.
We never lost money so far, but we are careful when we organize the festival and all the other shows in the rest of the year
How many other people are behind the fest and what are the names worth a special shout out? Are doing this from the start?
We’re just three guys behind the festival: Daniele and Andrea and me, but every year a few special friends give us a hand and without their help we’d go crazy. A special thanks goes to people at CSOA Spartaco (our main venue), Daniel (our sound guy), Ulderico and Vincent.
Have you ever had any problems because of the fest? Government? Local nazis? Bands too drunk to play?
We’ve been lucky so far, I think the main problem of the last editions was the rain: it doesn’t rain so much in Rome, but you can be quite sure that on the day of Go! Fest there will be water falling from the sky 😊
Local government doesn’t know us and we don’t want to know them and nazis are not so much in the part of the city were we have the festival.
Oh by the way, once some assholes had something to say because we invited a band from Israel (MooM). They thought we hosted a Zionist band but they clearly didn’t know anything about them and about how carefully we choose the bands we invite.
Regardless of tragic covid19 impact to Italy - you are still doing the 10th edition this year, is that right? What are the current restrictions in your country and is there a chance the fest might not actually happen?
At the moment the situation is getting better, and even with some restrictions we decided to have Go! Fest 10, but only with Italian bands. We’re sure it will be a great edition even without internationally famous bands, we have so many great fast bands here after all.
There is still a chance that if the covid-19 spreads again the festival might be cancelled but we try to be positive about that!
What were the venues the fest took place in? Rome is known for it's sunshine and beautiful weather, - ever considered an Open Air edition?
The first edition happened at CSOA Ricomincio dal Faro, then we moved to Bencivenga squat for 3 editions, then we moved again to our actual venue, CSOA Spartaco.
We’d love to make an open air edition but we would need to involve much more people and it was impossible so far. We might try again in the next editions but it would mean asking permissions to local government and a lot of other burocratic stuff, so I’m not sure it would be a good idea.
What is your warmest memory from the history of GO fest?
There are so many. Actually one of the best was meeting you at the festival, you were the first in the audience coming from a far country! Another great memory was when I was on stage with my old band xKATExMOSHx and people started moshing so hard but we were still having the sound check.
The last one is when the guys of a really known band told me that playing at Go! Fest was much better than playing in a festival that is 10 times bigger than ours (I won’t tell you the band and the festival anyway 😉 )
Let's say I'm a small but talented grindcore band with 150 likes from middle of nowhere. What do I have to do to be considered to play GO! ?
If you send me a link and we like what you do we definitively don’t care if you are “big” or not. We just check what are your idea: there’s no space for fascist, racist or intolerant bands in the festival.
Imagine you now have the government support and endless cash. What is your dream line-up for the fest?
Don’t ask me this, I wouldn’t accept any money from the government, even if this would mean to offer a million of euros to make Spazz and Charles Bronson come back together! Ok, maybe I’d think carefully about it 😊
Besides doing the festival you are in like 666 bands. Could you give our reader a brief introduction on each and what is currently active?
Currently I only play in 2 bands: Verano’s Dogs and Taste The Floor. Verano’s Dogs is a mix of old school death metal and grindcore, Taste The Floor play fast thrashcore mainly influenced by Scholastic Deth and DS13.
I miss playing powerviolence as I used to do with xKATExMOSHx but as soon as I have more free time I’m going to found another band like that for sure. I’m getting used to play songs longer than 1-2 minutes and it’s not good at all.
What are current Italian bands we must invite to play to Lithuania?
There are lots of great bands all around Italy, even if most of them maybe never tour abroad. My favorites now are LULU from Milano, ANF from Palermo, Failure, and Scheletro from Roma.
Does all this grindcore activity clash with your family life / work in any way? Anything else you want to do but have no time?
It’s not easy but I try to spend most of my free time with my 4 years old son. Since he’s born I never left home for long tours with my bands but all the time spent with him is gold for me. Plus, he’s starting to enjoy the music I love and currently his favorite songs are from Repulsion and Municipal Waste!
The only thing I’ve been really missing for years is sleeping, but doing a lot of different things means going late to bed!
Can you share a thought that comforts or motivates you during some tough times?
I say thank you my friend! I’m not the best at motivating people but sometimes I remember that my music teacher used to say that I was her worst student in all her life and after a few years I made quite a few records, I toured around all Europe and there’s someone that enjoy the songs I made with my bands. But probably she didn’t know the word grindcore.
Grazie tante mio caro, I wish we can travel freely very soon and I can come hug you in person and have 48 beers together again xx
See you soon!
MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT POMPEO's BANDS !!!!
VERANO'S DOGS:
https://veranosdogs-map.bandcamp.com/
TASTE THE FLOOR:
https://tastethefloor.bandcamp.com/album/taste-the-floor
xKATExMOSHx:
https://xkatexmoshx.bandcamp.com/
FOLLOW GO FEST ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/gofestgrindcore
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