Following a successful sold-out first edition, Fortress Festival returns over the weekend of 1st – 2nd June 2024 – Taking place across two stages at Scarborough’s iconic Scarborough Spa, and with a capacity of 1,800, a devastating line-up comprising some of the world’s finest and most highly regarded black metal acts will unleash their carnage – And it’s already almost sold out, but with day tickets and day splits now available for those who book in time.
Headline performances from Triptykon and Regarde Les Hommes Tomber will be UK exclusive shows for 2024 whereas Wolves In The Throne Room will present a 2024 UK exclusive Two Hunters set – this will be the first time the album will be performed live in the UK.
Regarding their UK exclusive show, Tom Gabriel Warrior of Triptykon, said: “We feel absolutely delighted and truly honoured to have been invited to return to the UK to perform at Scarborough’s exceptional Fortress Festival in 2024. Anybody familiar with my extended musical path knows how important the UK has always been for me and my work, both in terms of influence and artistic progress. A concert on such personally sacred ground is thus always something I am looking forward to immensely.”
Wolves in the Throne Room said: “We are very pleased to be presenting our classic album Two Hunters in its entirety for the first time on British soil. We have chosen Fortress Fest to host this special event. This album is very dear to us and we are very keen to share it with the metal maniacs who will be in attendance.”
The latest acts confirmed are US atmospheric death metal band Mortiferum and UK black metal bands Ante-Inferno and Andracca.
Andracca commented on their upcoming Fortress Festival appearance: “We greatly anticipate returning to Fortress Festival, alongside the strongest black metal line-up we’ve seen so far in the UK, armed with a brand new album. It will be a pleasure to play our part in the aural assault!”
Ante-Inferno added: “We ready ourselves to return once more to the Fortress – one year since we unleashed our frenzied battle cry into the fervent horde that we found there within its walls of mouldering stone. We celebrate our arrival with more than mere words. It will mark a year spent crafting and recording what will soon become our third full-length release. A year of leaning over the bubbling cauldron of life and death, invoking new, diabolic compositions into existence.”
Other confirmed bands also include a host of other exclusive shows: a UK exclusive show from Brazilian “depressive black metal” band Thy Light, a return to the UK with an exclusive show from German black metallers Ultha, a UK exclusive set from Bavarian-based Waldgeflüster and a UK exclusive set from Sweden’s Dödsrit.
Also newly announced are UK black metal act Blood Countess, the music project of Norwegian metal multi-instrumentalist Kathrine Shepard: Sylvaine, and Portuguese act Gaerea.
German black metal experimentalists Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Icelanders’ Misþyrming and Holland’s Fluisteraars are also attending – It will be atmospheric Dutch duo’s first-ever UK show in the band’s nearly fifteen-year career, and only their third-ever show in their brief concerting history, and the band commented: “After Iceland, we are looking forward to playing on another island. Again, an island full of mythical history that we hope to get a taste of. We will play a set with various songs from our entire oeuvre. We’ll see you there.”
Gary Stephenson, Fortress Festival organiser and Reaper Agency UK founder, said: “Drenched in raw atmospherics and folkloric mysticism, and with three incredible full-length albums and many other EP & split releases in their pocket, it is finally happening; After 15 long years, Fluisteraars are coming to perform live in the UK at Fortress Festival ’24. The band have only performed live once in their career, and besides their forthcoming 2024 performance at Roadburn, Fortress Festival is currently their only planned live show. We are honoured to welcome the band to this prestigious and exclusive line-up of black metal acts from around the world.”
The first wave of bands confirmed back in August, included a host of UK exclusive shows, not least Blackbraid with a debut and exclusive UK show following the recent release of their Blackbraid II album, Panopticon with a Roads To The North anniversary full album set, Furia with an exclusive UK show promoting the yet-unreleased new album Huta Luna, Obsidian Kingdom with a Mantiis full album set, Fellwarden with its worldwide live debut, Lamp Of Murmuur with a UK exclusive performance and Falls of Rauros with their first ever UK show. Joining this line-up of exclusive shows, atmospheric Danish black metal band Sunken and UK black-death-doom act Abyssal were also announced.
Jon Krieger of Blackbraid said, “It’s official! Blackbraid will be coming to the UK next year, for the mighty Fortress Fest. I can’t express how excited I am to not only bring Blackbraid to the UK for the first time, but to be doing it at such a unique festival, surrounded by some of the best black metal artists in the world. This will be our only UK appearance next year so we wanted to do our best to make sure it was truly one to remember. A big thank you to Fortress Fest for making this one possible, see you next summer!”
Austin Lunn, the sole member of Panopticon, said, “Roads To The North was the sound of a young man, only 31 years old at the time reflecting on changes and growth in life, as the symphony of life plays on regardless of mistakes and broken strings. 2024 will be ten years since its release, and it feels like the right time to bring this album in its entirety to the stage for yet another time of reflection on the simultaneous, incredible beauty and horror of this time we have on earth.”
Frank Allain of Fellwarden said, “Whilst Fellwarden was always conceived as a studio project first and foremost, I’ve always stated from the get-go that I wouldn’t rule out the prospect of performing live should the right opportunity arise. Fortress Festival 2024 is that opportunity. Nevertheless, Fellwarden will not be an entity that performs for the sake of it, that plays shows regularly as a gigging band. As a musical outlet steeped in narrative and atmosphere, it is imperative for us that anything we engage with aligns with this philosophy. So, as it currently stands, Fortress Festival 2024 is all that is in the calendar – and it may very well stay this way in perpetuity, who knows. It therefore promises to be a special performance and quite possibly the only opportunity to witness this material in the live environment.”
Obsidian Kingdom said, “We’re going to bring Mantiis to the stage this one time. And Fortress Festival seems the perfect place to do it, since the members of its organisation are so very keen on the album, and the UK being one of the first countries which would ask us to perform it back in the day.
“Next 1st June we’ll be in North Yorkshire, going through those fourteen bites one after the other, and celebrating that there is some beauty – or at least some sense of humour – to be found in the most vile things on Earth. And we sure hope to see you there.”
Fortress organiser Stephenson, said, “The festival follows the immeasurable success of 2023’s Fortress, a sold-out event which has rightly taken its place within the glorious pantheon of UK black metal history. Fortress 2023 joins Reaper Agency’s impressive track record so far, which consists of nine sold-out UK festival shows in just three years of activity. “Fortress 2024 is set to snatch that mantle and wield it a ruinous blow with bigger crowds, more merch stands, more ferocious bands and even greater infamy in its wake… all taking place upon the sun-scorched coastline of this historic North Yorkshire town.”
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