For one weekend every July, the Terminus Festival and Calgary Folk Music Festival simultaneously light up the city.
At first glance, the festivals couldn’t be more different; one takes place on a sunny island, the other inside a dark basement club. One is attended by flannel-clad hipsters, while goths in bondage gear frequent the other (try and figure out which is which). But in many ways, they align and even complement each other.
Together, Terminus and Folk Fest are Calgary in a nutshell. And both are bringing some kick-ass music to town.
A Global Underground
Terminus Festival, this year sporting the subtitle “Modulation,” takes place every year at the end of July. A collection of dark electronic, synth, industrial, and post-punk acts gather at Dickens for a four-night witches’ sabbath of shows. It was born of festival runner and Dickens owner Chris Hewitt’s desire to bring a harder and noisier echelon of acts to the city, ones that seldom get booked here.
“It was something that I already always kind of wanted to do,” says Hewitt. “It’s a sort of dubious honour that I sometimes bestow on myself when I say that I am the only person stupid enough to bring some of these bands.”
While there are a million different genre ascriptions for Terminus’s milieu, a constant across the acts is intensity. It’s loud, confrontational, and entrancing. While many of the acts come from across North America, Terminus also books musicians from a diverse collection of European countries, where much of the dark music movement is centred. As someone with an ear to the ground, Hewitt is quick to draw in acts before they outgrow Calgary venues.
“People now realize, ‘We missed HEALTH, we missed Boy Harsher. We missed Trust. We missed Cold Cave. We missed Drab Majesty.’ We’ve had all these bands at Terminus … If you’re paying attention, you realize that a lot of tomorrow’s superstars are playing Terminus today,” says Hewitt. “You’re going to see some things you won’t see otherwise, most of these bands will never be back in Calgary … I can tell you from 12 years of experience, 97 per cent of these bands, you will never see them again.”
Being a festival emphasizing darkness, the vibe of Terminus and its crowd is described as both gothic and futuristic. Think Blade or The Matrix and you’ll be heading in the right direction. While the festival has not quite reached the size of longer-running examples, being localized in one space proves to be its strength. The concentrated crowd lends itself to an intensely communal experience, wherein one becomes part of the mass, and that’s a feeling that has a far-reaching draw.
“We really started to see people coming from further away with greater regularity … Whenever you start to see that happening, you realize that the promo that’s out there and the list of bands you’ve got on the bill is exceeding local and area interest,” says Hewitt. “They call it ‘industrial summer camp.’”
This feeling of togetherness bleeds from the crowd to the talent, who often find themselves in the pit during each other’s shows. It’s an opportunity for these musicians to meet each other, a chance not often afforded to them. It is also a meeting of different generations. The net of genres pulled in by Terminus frequently gets picked up and remoulded by artists of all ages. It’s music that’s always new and remixing itself.
“We’ve seen a lot of collaborations come out of things at Terminus… They’ll meet there for the first time, and they’ll be chatting about stuff, and then the next thing you know, a collaboration track will come out,” says Hewitt. “I think with any festival, you really do have to evolve with the scene and the music as it moves along. Terminus is no exception to that.”
Terminus takes place from July 24 to 27 at Dickens. Grab a wristband at dickensyyc.com.
Scene Picks at Terminus
One of Terminus’ more established picks of the festival, Front Line Assembly is a well-known Canadian band in the electronic-industrial genre. They are bringing a set of music from their late 80s/early 90s Wax Trax! Records era.
“That’s when a lot of people believe a lot of their most classic, memorable tracks were made. They’ve never done this before. It’s very exciting they’re doing it for Terminus,” says Hewitt.
Newer on the scene, Sacred Skin is a Los Angeles-based band that’s beginning to make waves as they grow their catalogue. Leaning into an edgy synth-pop vibe, their 2024 album Born in Fire shows promise.
“We’ve had them before; That’s how you know that I like them, because usually I turn over the entire lineup almost every year. I don’t do a lot of rebookings, but I love Sacred Skin,” says Hewitt.
An occult-ish dark wave duo, Twin Tribes delivers a fast-paced and moody synth-laden sound. Their 2024 album Pendulum was a driving force in solidifying them as the new gothic hot commodity.
“You’ve got to watch what we’re doing … This year, Twin Tribes will be that band. Twin Tribes is huge in the scene right now,” says Hewitt.
