The place where the rainforest meets the sea will be the place where the sound of metal fills the air this August.
The first-ever Mosh the Rock Island MetalFest is set to take over Sooke’s Fred Milne Park for a one-day all-ages event celebrating the loudest and heaviest music Western Canada has to offer.
The event comes courtesy of Royal Savoie, a man of many hats in the Island's metal community, who has spent years booking events, promoting shows and managing bands, much of it through his own company, Royalty Entertainment. Some may be familiar with his work as a radio DJ hosting CFUV 101.9’s Thrash Can – others may have seen him delivering the mail at his day job with Canada Post or in the pit at a local show.
For the past two and a half years, Savoie has been managing bands and booking shows around Victoria, and as his business began to ramp up, so did his promoting ambitions.
“I love putting on the big shows at the bars, at the venues, double weekends, bringing bands over (for) a little mini-island tour, and people started asking me, 'Why don’t you do a festival?'” said Savoie, who had considered a festival in the past.
“It never got passed the thought bubble stage,” said Savoie.
One day he got a call from Peter Jonassen, the organizer of the Sooke Arts and Music Festival, who asked if he would be interested in using the infrastructure of the Sooke Arts and Music Festival on Sunday, Aug. 10 for a nominal fee, as Jonassen would not need it.
“Two-thirds of my logistical nightmare work was done, and the nominal fee, well, it’s a very good fee because I couldn't put it together separately for that fee, and so it was kind of a no-brainer.”
Savoie decided to keep things local with a focus on emerging talent, although he'll offer something different for Island fans with a few groups coming from the mainland.
The festival will feature Victoria’s own Torrefy as a headlining act. “These seasoned blackened thrashers have been a staple of the Island metal scene since 2011,” according to Savoie’s Mosh the Rock news release.
“Torrefy brings frenetic energy to every performance while ripping through lean and mean anthems about mortality, fantasy, and cosmic horror.”
Joining them as headliners will be Vancouver’s Thirteen Goats, masters of technical death metal incorporating elements of thrash and groove for a massive and unpredictable sound. Yegg, “old-school death metal for the modern age," rounds out the list of headliners.
Eight other bands fill out the lineup, bringing a diversity of styles and subgenres of metal to Sooke.
Savoie has had a lifelong love for metal since a friend's older brother turned him on to bands like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Metallica when he was just 11 years old. But his love for the genre is bigger than music.
“With the metal world that I know very well, there is a brother and a sisterhood in it,” said Savoie.
“People see a mosh pit, like civilians, people that don’t know see all these people and are like, ‘Oh my God!’ But it is world peace in there, but you can’t tell.”
Eventually, Savoie found himself out of the scene working as a strip club DJ playing other kinds of music – it was his introduction to the behind-the-scenes world of music promotion and entertainment.
But when Savoie battled with addiction three years ago, it was the metal scene that helped him change his life.
“When I did change my world, I came back here and started working with some bands and slowly putting on shows,” said Savoie.
His connections with Stefano's Artfarm, a local recording studio, offered him some new opportunities and the chance to get back on his feet – a real-life embodiment of one of metal's most important rules.
“There is a thing about the mosh pit, a rule that I wish more people in life could follow. If somebody falls down in the pit, you pick them up,” said Savoie.
“That happens and then within a blink of an eye, somebody goes down, nine people pick them up. And if they're a young kid, they get put on top of the surf, and they're floating and they're smiling and they're having the best time.”
The community has always welcomed Savoie. It was Nik Birkett of the band Wolf Venom – who will play Mosh the Rock – who passed along Savoie’s information to Peter Jonassen, making the festival possible.
Now Savoie has the chance to bring the Island community together for Mosh the Rock, and while high ticket sales would be great, it’s not about the money.
“What would make it a success for me is just all the bands having a great show. And the more people there, that’s a success,” said Savoie.
“Success is big smiles, a lot of fun and a big mosh pit. That’s my success.”
Mosh the Rock will take place on Aug. 10, with gates opening at 11 and the first band taking the stage at noon. Tickets are available now at the Cavity Curiosity Shop and the Phoenix Bar & Grill in Victoria, Pharmasave and Forbes IDA in Sooke. Online tickets can be purchased at orangetickets.ca.
