Music
Folk festival’s “Satanic” parody poster scared New Brunswick attendees
by Richard Howard
August 5, 2016
Messtival fans were afraid that this year's festival would involve Satanic rituals.
Apparently, east coast jam band/folk fans do not get parody.
Messtival is a small Moncton-area arts and music festival that has been running for nine years. With an average attendance of about 500, the Anagance, N.B. event showcases funk, dance, bluegrass and folk acts along with yoga classes, video games and live art. Co-organizer Jérémie Boudreau explained they have always made tongue-in-cheek advertising and social media interaction one of their trademarks, but the joke seems to have flown over a number or potential attendees’ heads.
This year, organizers jokingly decided to go with a heavy metal theme, giving this year’s festival the moniker ‘Messtival 6.66’ and designing a spot-on parody of a black metal poster (complete with metal AF one-time band logos). Another poster uses the highly recognizable Metallica font, which jokingly advertised a “Devil Worship Seminar… and music and art festival.”
Hilarious, right? You’d think so – but inexplicably, neither the over-the-top nature of both posters nor the very un-metal moustachioed bunny acting as the focal point of the first clued a large number of fans into the humorous nature of the whole deal.
The festival’s Facebook page was inundated with comments expressing unease at the direction the festival had taken, and proclamations by fans that they would no longer be attending.
Boudreau was, as you’d expect, caught completely surprised by the backlash.
“It was mostly people that have already been to the festival,” he noted. “I was kinda surprised that they thought we were gonna be real serious about this.” His logic for why they should have known better, however, is absolutely priceless.
We have colouring stations, duck races, a bouncy castle and laser tag, you know, none of that is very evil.
I love this guy. And after hearing his team’s immediate reaction to the hubbub, I really, really want them all to be my best friends. Remove the ‘offensive’ images? Screw that. No, metal bunny is still their Facebook page‘s profile picture. Instead, they released this lovely alternative poster:
Please note the promise of “colouring seminars on how to be offended” and “no scary imagery.” So money. And naturally, as Boudreau had to laugh: “Turns out some people didn’t like that one either. We’re just gonna roll with it, it’s all for fun.” In the end, though, Messtival’s organizers realised they would need to point out the painfully obvious and posted the following on the event’s page.
Due to some people’s concerns, I feel it necessary to post this very unsarcastic post. Messtival 6.66 is not a metal festival nor is it truly an attempt to raise a demon or any of that. The theme is just that, the theme, it’s an intentional poke at something people find taboo or offensive but it is not in any way intended to turn anyone off or make people feel unsafe…
Speaking with CBC, Boudreau said there was no way to know how the whole mess (and the later clarification) affected tickets sales since the late boost seen this year is par for course – but regardless they’ve “sold a bunch.” Other than having a great festival, I truly hope they go for legend status and dress somebody up in a Black Metal Bunny costume to go on stage and dance with After Funk.
