For one week in July, pulsing electronic synths, atmospheric guitars and abrasive vocals pull people into the depths of the Dickens. Terminus Festival has ruled the subterranean floor of the legendary dive for the last weekend in July almost every year since 2012, creating an environment that magnetizes fans of darker electronic, industrial, emo, or post-punk sounds.
This year’s edition, dubbed “Resonance,” is full of the heavy, moody, and ear-splitting sound Terminus is known for. But the festival is not strictly a screaming match; the lineup lends itself to different tones, with each set and day of the festival morphing from softer acts to ones that bring the intensity.
Unlike its more upbeat, very distant cousin, the contemporary darkwave genre reveals a murkier side of electronic dance music that attracts a more gothic, eyeliner-heavy crowd rather than the typical tie-dye, face-gemmed raver wook. Though Dickens is accustomed to catering to the alternative tastes of collective weirdos, Terminus has remained uniquely special to its repeat fans since the festival’s inception.
The festival exhibits a queue of artists that honours the genre’s past while showcasing the future sounds of industrial synth wave. Dickens owner and Terminus’ director, Chris Hewitt, sees the evolution of the music as vital to his curation process.
“There’s that musical division of the early 2000s to now that has become very pronounced,” he says. “The scene has really changed, and with that, there has been some friction as well. There are people who are still eager for the sounds of the early days, and they find a lot
of frustration now, because they like the music from those days, but those days are gone.”
As the darkwave sound changes, so does its culture. Hewitt intentionally selects and curates for our current times, where women and queer artists are becoming increasingly platformed in a genre that was formerly male-dominated.
“It’s enormously different now. We have a lot of women and queer people making music now, which is making its way to the forefront, and I love to see that,” says Hewitt. “ It’s important to us to make sure that all that representation is shown on the stage.”
Inadvertently, this representation has also created a unique opportunity for older audiences to discover new favourites, while younger ones can forge connections to the giants of the genre. The festival’s fleeting nature simply encourages audiences of different generations and musical preferences to listen with open ears. Acts from around the world and throughout music history are being showcased this year. Newer bands like OWLS, Soft Vein, Edmonton’s Home Front (who just filmed a killer KEXP performance), and Calgary’s WANTS populate the lineup alongside industrial music legends like Test Dept and Portion Control.
“We’re pulling off something we’ll not see otherwise,” says Hewitt. “[Many of] these bands won’t come to Calgary, ever, for sure. There’s no reason for them to come here. It’s not a big enough market for them to be in. These bands are not on tour. They are flown in just for this.”
Hewitt independently plans each Terminus’ lineup a year in advance while actively keeping a growing list of bands queued up for future festivals. The process of booking each band requires Hewitt’s alertness to secure forthcoming acts before many of them outgrow the Dickens basement’s crowd capacity. Artists like Boy Harsher and Kanga have blossomed in popularity beyond the local festival but continue to come back to greet Terminus’ electrifying audiences.
The blend of international and local acts is not just a prevalent theme in its artist lineup but also in its audience. From small towns all over the province to countries across the continents, Terminus feels like a muster point for like-minded moody music enthusiasts. “We’ve estimated that often as many as 70% of the people [that attend] are from outside Calgary. They fly from all over to see this,” says Hewitt. “We’ve had people come from Chile, from China, from Germany, Finland, the UK, all over the states.”
Attendance among Calgarians has also continued to grow over the years, fostering a booming local scene and establishing a dedicated international fanbase that returns year after year.
This festival creates a bridge between worlds, building an ironclad community right here in Calgary. Each year, Terminus sends out a bat signal, calling its diaspora of weirdos to a gnarly celebration of darkwave music.
Imagine a beautiful ensemble of new and old bands, baby punks, old heads, and foreign cybergoths partying in the basement of a city in Alberta. Then, go attend it.
Terminus takes place from July 23 to 26 at Dickens. Grab your ticket at terminus-festival.com.
