Hackfest #5

Back to our regular home of (a somewhat unexpectedly refurbished) The Belvoir, and our traditional post-Christmas slot, all was going well without disaster or pull outs until the night before the gig itself. First up we got a shout out from Dead Sheeran telling us that his missus had gone down with Covid - ordinarily this would have been too much of an issue, but as they were in France at the time it meant that they couldn't hop on a plane and get home as expected. Shame! But almost immediately after poor Fluff dropped us a note explaining that he'd had a family emergency and would have to go on first and do a runner immediately after his set. We worked out the logistics and it would have been impossible for him to catch his plane, so let him have the night off.

This left us with two slots to fill with less than a day to go, so thank heavens for regular Hackfest punters Simon Larcombe from Space Tourettes and Count Beardo from somewhere behind the bins who stepped in at almost no notice at all to start the day off with a bit of an unexpected jangle. Beardo especially got everyone's feet tapping with his endless song about a cookie jar, while Simon's delicate musical poetry wasn't your usual Hackfest fodder, but it was pretty lovely all the same!

Here's Count Beardo doing his business…

And here's Simon Larcombe giving it some loveliness.

The rest of the bill was thankfully still intact, and Polish punkers L.U.M.P. proceeded to ramp up the noisy with their bouncy stylings.

Buttplug Babies from Plymouth kept things rolling along at a hefty pace too. Sadly we've not got a lot of video from Hackfest #5, so if any of you have any clips, please do let us know. But here's what these little beauts looked like on the night!

Next up, from the deepest Welsh Valleys were the rampaging metallic hardcore of System Of Slaves, who tore practically everybody a new one with their enormous sounds!

Then it was time for your favourite funny uncles Hacksaw to make their traditional third-from-last racket. And good heavens, here's a new one!

The part was in full flow by the time Pop Junk came on, with their raucous punk covers of well known Disney songs and TV themes. The first five minutes saw the punters not entirely sure what they were watching, but when they twigged it was actually like a massive pop quiz with silly dancing involved they piled right down the front and began to sing along wildly. Nice one Merv and the boys!

And it all finished off with a very rare sighting out of Kernow of a band we've been trying to get on Hackfest for bloody years, those rustic party boys from Die Spangle. And what a get down of joy and nonsense they dragged up from the peninsula with them. A perfect end to what turned into a cracking night out after Christmas.

A big shout out must also go to the Young, Loud and Snotty DJ crew, who stood in when our regular tune blender DJ Panter was unable to attend. Be sure to book them for all your Bath area punk rock disco needs!

So we're back in the post-Covid swing of things again - so who do you reckon we're going to book for next year? Stay tuned for even more nonsense!

 

Hackfest #4.2

So we got there in the end! A full two years after we booked the first act for it, Hackfest #4 finally got on stage to entertain the troops - although strictly speaking it was Hackfest #4.2 after the previous two Christmas cancelations.

We figured that we'd paid for the venue, and everyone needed a nice get together after restrictions were lifted, so why the heck don't we hold it in March - just this once! Initially we only lost Foxy Acetylene from the #4.1 bill as they were double booked. But in the days approaching the show, Dead Sheeran fell ill and was unable to play. Then at around noon on the day of the show, both Chinese Burn and Kill Mirror Image had to duck out with the 'rona. After much scrabbling about we were only able to get the on replacement act, the rather fabulous Gob Dylan - although a weird number of cabaret covers acts also asked us if they could play - which might have been funny, but our audience may have terrified them!

Anyway, here's who we finally ended up with on stage. Just the seven this year, but even that was a battle!

We've not found videos for everyone yet, but here's how it all went…

Gob Dylan got us off to a terrifically wonky start, with his Ramones songs in the style of Bob Dylan, and his Bob Dylan songs in the style of the Ramones. Plus a few fabulously sketchy freeform items roughly hewn in between.

Sadly the only evidence we have of his set is this static pic - but trust us, he was fab!

Next up were the gloriously crusty Traktor Sniffen Punks from the Forest of Dean. Proper gnarly!

We got a bit worried for a bit when the next lot got stranded on a train, but when they got there they absolutely ripped the place apart. All hail the fabulous AlterModerns and their punk-fuelled rock'n'roll sounds - all the way from Brazil (via Bedminster)!

Third on were our beautiful old pals from down county Po-Lice with their barnstorming metallic crust ska. Don't like the genre they're playing? Don't worry, there'll be another one along in 20 seconds!

I suppose we'd better get our genial hosts Hacksaw out of the way - but at least it's a new song. Yep, you read that right… a NEW SONG! Cripes!

It was such a thrill to finally get our old two-piece compadres 2 Sick Monkeys onto a Hackfest, and they were as utterly amazing as they ever were!

And to end it all off the eye-melting fabulousity of Collin and Keiron giving it some showbiz in their lockdown side-project, Music In Our Underpants. The perfect way to end the long hard gap between Hackfests! Cheers for coming everyone - now who do you think we've got booked for next year?!

And if you want to see how it all started off back back in 2020, read below!

***STOP PRESS***

Unsurprisingly, the Christmas wave of Covid has put paid to this season's Hackfest. Boo to germs! But we're going to make sure that we hold it as soon as we are legally able, with as much of the same line up as we have here - they've all said that they're still up for it if they're physically free and able. We're gutted, and I'm sure you're gutted, but we've all got to look after ourselves, and indeed each other, in these complicated times. And you just imagine how good the party's going to be when we do eventually get this gig played!


***ORIGINAL ARTICLE***


Nobody could have imagined how the massive great pandemic of Covid-19 was going to touch all of our lives and put all of our plans for the following months into a complete tail spin. But you know us – we like to give you something to look forward to!

So with the best predictions suggesting that we might just about be alright for getting social events going before Christmas (we're ignoring the worst case scenarios for now...), we thought we'd plough on regardless and start putting together a bill for Hackfest #4 in the vain hope that we'd all be able to gather again after Christmas with a whole bundle of stories to tell.

Obviously, there's still a very big chance that this horrible virus could drag its heels and it could all be postponed. But we'll endeavour to put on as much of the bill that we've gathered together as soon as the big nasty is all finished and done with – which is obviously reliant on each individual band's own gig calendars and personal situations, of course.

But heck, we've got to have a little bit of hope to get us all through this thing. So with that in mind we've announced the Hackfest #4 bill, and will be leaving their videos up here so that you can see what acts you could very well be seeing come the end of 2020, the start of 2021, or some other year in the hopefully not to distant future!

The Line-Up

Polluted Mind Decay

Devonians PMD are one of those rare bands who've pretty much invented their own genre – in this instance crusty stoner grindcore – and their songs either have a massive slow groove, or are so fast that you can't actually see them move. Featuring Noah from 51st State on drums, plus Ella and Joe, they'll absolutely melt your face off! The second we heard them we knew we had to have them on the bill!

BrotherZ GriM

We're pleased to announce that we've finally got our Crypt Hop brethren from deepest, darkest Somerset to play for us. Their bleak and grimy horror rap is so damn dirty and infectious that you'll be involuntarily nodding your head and frantically washing your hands as a result of their sleazy beats. You might recognise a familiar Bridgwater frontman beneath one of the masks, but the BrotherZ are a completely different dish of hot bacon to any other sick pigs from down that way. This party's going to start early, so they're bringing the swing to set you up just lovely for the rest of the day!

Chinese Burn

Hailing from Stroud and featuring gloriously chuggy '77 punk guitars and infectious sixties mod pop choruses, the Burn are led by one of the most enigmatic and watchable frontmen in the West. Good heavens, it's almost impossible to watch these chaps without a massive beaming smile cracking out across your face!

La Mise En Tropique

Hailing from Lille in France, when we first played with this fella in Brixton a couple of summers back we just knew that we had to drag him down for the fest, as he dropped the jaws of even the most hardened punk rock gig goer that afternoon. Cramming more ideas into a single minute than most bands can muster in a whole career, LMET is a one man whirlwind of costume changes, grinding noise and utterly infectious dance nonsense, and is, in essence, the very embodiment of Hackfest! You genuinely won't have seen anything like it!

Obviously we don't know if they'll even be letting foreign types into the country by December yet, but we'll do everything we can to sneak him over – and with the Brexit deadline looming only a few short days later, this could be the last European act you see at an underground show in the UK in a very long time! And you really won't regret it!

Hacksaw

This mob should come as no surprise, as it's your genial hosts giving you your annual chance for a half hour drink and a chat down the corridor – yep, it's Hacksaw. But hang about, you ask, why are you lot earlier on the bill than usual? Well you just wait until you see who our three headliner acts are!

Burning Flag
All the way from Halifax in Yorkshire, it's the blistering UKHC sounds of – Burning Flag.

Turning heads up North for some time now, their blending of hard, turbocharged, crust-fuelled punk with crisp metallic edges has made them a must-have on any festival bill worth its salt. And now featuring the intense vocals of new singer Holly – ex of Kiss Me, Killer and very much still of Hell Hath No Fury Promotions - they've also got an added new local dimension, too!

This may well be one of their first shows down South with the new line up, and we can't flipping wait to see them!

Bob Vylan

We can't tell you how excited we are to be bringing this mob to Bath for the very first time. Like everyone else, we were absolutely blown away when the video for We Live Here dropped last month, but when we checked out some of their live clips, we just knew that we had to have them on Hackfest.

Wilfully mashing every genre under the sun, they're old time London council estate punk rock dragged screaming into the 21st century, as if Skepta started sampling Youth of Today or Ho99o9 began covering Sleaford Mods – only with considerably gnarlier guitars and much more righteous spleen.

This is the sound of young angry England, and this is exactly what punk rock really ought to be sounding like in 2020! Come and catch them at a reasonably sized venue while you still can!

Lost Cherrees

We've been going to see this lot since the early eighties, and we always loved how they stood out from all the other punk bands at the time, with their not-quite-anarcho yet almost proto-goth sound. However, since their return in 2003 they've developed a more muscular sound on top of all their previous influences, and are going to be a cracking way to finish off the night.

They've been at the top of our Hackfest wishlist for a long time now, so we're so glad that they were up for a nice little post-Christmas trip down to the West Country!

Hackfest #3

Three years in and Hackfest was beginning to become something of a minor institution in the punk rock calendar. Luckily for us the skittle alley out the back of The Belvoir hadn't been demolished yet, as the landlord was in the middle of battle for planning permission. On top of that, we'd only lost a couple of bands along the way, too. The brilliant Ragdolz had sadly split up a few weeks before the show, while those Welsh skate punk wrestlers (no, really) Cruel Prank had to bail from the bill as the wife of their guitarist wouldn't let him go off on manoeuvres so close to Christmas. But they were more than ably replaced by a right pair of crackers. 

The Line-Up

Vicarage

This local gang of teenaged crusty metallers started off the day with an incredibly noisy barrage of blistering sound, and dragged all the smokers and chatters out of the corridors for a look see at who was making all that racket. The early punters got a nice little treat with this lot – a cracking little band who we could be seeing a lot more of.

Space Tourettes

Our fine pals from down South served up a fabulous dish of poetic acid punk and stoner riffs, all held together with singer Simon's dark, etherial folk wisdom and unique singing voice. And any band that gets the whole place dancing this early on in such a big long bill of bands deserves all the credit they can get!

Igam Ogam

When we unfortunately lost Cruel Prank from the bill, we knew that we had to replace them with someone equally as messed up – so thank heavens our pal Luke from last year's openers The Woodsman tipped us off to this little lot. Imagine if someone had buried Primus in a Welsh forest for fifteen years, until they were dug up by space aliens. Yeah, and then double it. Words can't fully express the confused looks on the faces of the entering latecomers when this mob were playing. A classic Hackfest moment, to be sure!

Trigger McPoopshute

I can't believe that we'd gone this long without putting our brethren from Abertillery on the bill. Coming off the back of a brilliant year for them, and with their new drummer just getting up to speed, they gave us a brilliant bundle of party fun – and the busload of Valley dwellers that they brought with them helped add to the atmosphere, too! Always an absolute bloody pleasure to share a stage with! Inexplicably we can't find a video of their Hackfest performance anywhere – so if you see one, let us know! Here's a clip of them playing the same venue at George's 50th shindig instead.

Hell Death Fury

Why stick to one genre when you can play at least eleven? And usually in the same song! We love HDF and their skanky dubby punky metal tunes, because you genuinely don't know what's going to be coming up next! They filled the accidental but now traditional party band slot with utter aplomb!

Hacksaw

Yeah yeah yeah. Two old duffers, playing badly – as usual! But this year neither of us were ill, so we could fully enjoy the noise! Playing at your own show is always a bit weird, because you have to suddenly click out of door running and stage managing mode and get your showbiz head on. But it's never less than glorious at Hackfest, and always makes us remember what we actually do this whole weird larky for! Here's us playing the first new song that we've written in a good fourteen years!

Martyrials

If there's any justice in the world, Martyrials should be playing stadiums before the year's out. There were a few people who suggested that a beautifully high camp band playing techno glam punk songs perhaps wouldn't go down so well amongst some of the more senior punkers in our regular audience. But after a few confused faces early on, the place absolutely exploded for them, and had the whole place screaming for more by the end. This is exactly what Hackfest is about, and why we like to keep the bill so wonky!

Surfin' Turnips

And what better way to follow what our pal Nick called "A psychedelic synthesized glam-punk nightmare" than with some rural folk punk singalongs about pasties and cyder! It made absolute sense in our brains, and somehow we managed to pull it off! The Turnips are the ultimate West Country party band, and were the most fitting end that we could think of to what had pretty much proved to be our most successful, and unhinged, year yet!

So Hackfest #3 managed to pull in our biggest crowd yet, and went by ridiculously smoothly without so many of the unfortunate events on the run into to the show that had plagued our first two goes. Was it just plain luck, or were we getting good at this? Again, massive props to Marick and Josh, our regular trusty sound crew, who all the bands absolutely love working with, and to the peerless DJ Panter on the decks, who just keeps plugging out the goodies, year on year!

So, what would Hackfest #4 offer, we wondered...

Hackfest #2

Our second all-dayer was a much cosier affair. We'd been putting on the occasional night at a pub called The Belvoir Arms on Bath's Lower Bristol Road, and the landlord was offering the place up for free if we'd do an all-dayer there. So Hackfest's new home was born! We had nothing against the football club, but this place had more of a punk rock feel, and the sound was much easier to control, too.

There were rumours, however, that this was likely to be the last show at this venue, as the landlord was planning on redeveloping the space, which let to a few wags thinking it would be OK to kick the ceiling tags out – leading to the chant of the night... "Don't kick the ceiling!". It pretty soon stopped though when we told the miscreants that they were asbestos tiles.

It was also the year that we lost a whole load of bands along the wayside. The original line-up was set to include local youths The Disease – who sadly split up before the big night; our acid punk pals from Illminster, Space Tourettes – who were laid up in their sickbeds; Bristol noisemongers The Migraines – whose singer couldn't get the time off work; Bridgwater's happy time ska band The Splash – who had some personal stuff they had to resolve; and best/worst of all, Devon's witch rock marvels Husbands 'N Knives – whose bassist nearly lost his thumb in a powertool accident the night before the show!

But somehow we just about managed to pull a bill together – some of who agreed to play at very short notice, despite there being a massive bug doing the rounds – and it turned out to be an absolute cracker of a night!

The Line-Up

The Woodsman

Luke and the boys stepped in with a couple of days to spare after we'd put a call out on the local punk rock grapevine – and what a great start to the night they were too. Hailing from the deepest Welsh Valleys, their unusual three-piece line up of drums, guitar and separate lead vocalist powered out a and urgent Killing Jokey kind of noise that we highly approved of! Sadly there's no clips of their set, but click the link below the pic to see what they sound like like in rehearsal!

The Woodsman Live

Hatepenny

This lot were so last minute that Roy only met them for the first time the previous night when his other band GlueHorse played with them in Abertillery. But he was so taken by their quite terrifying bass and drum noise that he knew they had to fill the slot so sadly vacated by that Devon bassist's stricken finger. And man alive did they turn a few heads. Deep, overdriven bassy noise with haunted, screamy vocals. If you'd ever met these fellas in real life you'd have never imagined that they could ever make an evil sounding noise like this!

Grief Ritual

Another band that we knew we had to have on the bill the second we heard them. This was incredibly only the second show for Cheltenham's blackened hardcore aces, who've gone on to great things since. We suspect their singer Jamie's creepy mask unsettled a few of the older guard who were hanging about nervously at the back, but their brutal, metal-tinged filth made them a lot of new friends that night. By heavens were they good!

State Of Decay

Surely one of Britain's most underrated UKHC bands, these Welsh lads hammer out their politicised hardcore at breakneck speed, and had the whole room down the front and bouncing about for the first time at this year's event. If you ever want a great, solid, reliable band for your gig that will absolutely knock your audience's socks off, these are your boys!

Lesser Known Character

Melodies, harmonies, complicated time signatures, knockabout fun and pure bloody showbiz! You really can't go wrong with a big lump of LKC on your bill. And they're beautiful people too, and helped us out with a bass amp for the night, which really was above and beyond the call of duty. We've known most of these lads since they were nippers, and they just keep getting better and better, and were bang on form tonight – even if Mrs Hacksaw did think that all their songs needed a few less notes in them!

Hacksaw

We both got off our deathbeds again and ended up playing an absolute blinder – even if we do say so ourselves. Our George even managed to fulfil a lifetime's ambition and play his guitar solo in Disorder Forgot To Come while being passed over the heads of the crowd. Roy made sure that he checked the floor for the change that fell out of his pockets afterwards...

Fifty First State

Another totally unique band from down county, the State's two-piece cosmic space punk had the whole audience either skanking or thrashing from start to finish. Two of the nicest humans on the scene, we bloody love this pair, we do, and we love how much everyone loves them even more!

Eastfield

They may have been a year late, but we got them in the end! And what better way to end off a cracking night at the end of a difficult week than the bounciest and happiest band on the whole bloody punk rock underground. It was doubly excellent to have the classic line up, too, with Ben back on the drums. You can't beat a bit of folksy punk pop that's mostly about trains! Old friends that are always an absolute pleasure to see.

There were moments in the last few days before Hackfest #2 where we feared that we'd be struggling for a full line up, but we got there in the end, and it turned out to be an absolute blinder of a night, with eight great bands who all felt the full love of the crowd. We loved the new venue, too – but would it still be standing by the time we got around to Hackfest #3?

Hackfest #1

Back to 2017, where this whole sorry mess began!

You never quite know how it's going to go your first time, but I think we just about got away with it! We booked up Randall's Bar at our beloved Bath City FC on the night before New Years Eve, got our pal Marick in to do the sound, and the brilliant DJ Panter – who we'd met at another all-dayer a couple of months earlier – on the decks to do the disco between the bands. Then we hoped for the best!

Unfortunately we lost our planned headliners Eastfield to a terrible bout of sickness the night before the show – and any of you who know them will know that they rarely ever blow out a gig for any reason at all, so it must have been bad! But the beautiful Kearney's Jig stood in at the last minute, and we pumped Pizza Tramp up into the pimp slot. 

As the gig was at the football club, we offered cheaper admission for  any season ticket holders, and we got a whole bundle of very confused old boys at the back watching the unhinged nonsense that unfolded before them. But what a bill it was, with a fifty year age gap between the youngest and the oldest performers!

Unfortunately, the one thing that we forgot to bring was a light show, so some of the videos might look a bit dark and gloomy – but on the night it all added to to underground atmosphere.

Most of the videos that follow are courtesy of Hackfest's great friend, Nick Foot.

The Line Up

Coitus Futon

These young lads from Bath had pretty much split up in the weeks before the show, but still ploughed on as a two-piece for a fantastic opening to the evening. Pretty much improvised from start to finish, frontman Roman Backwell pedal-twiddled and hair-swished his way through a blinding set that had some wag at the back shouting "Punk Floyd!". Sadly we've got no video or pics of their set, but if you know anyone that does, please do drop us a note! Here's what they looked like when they had a full line up, though...

Valdez

Our regular old gig buddies from days gone by had got back together for a couple of gigs, and we just had to get them on the bill. Another bunch of troopers, frontman Chris played on, despite hardly being able to speak. His lurgy was so bad that his throaty, guttural singing that afternoon has probably damaged his vocal chords for life!

Skinners

More Bath youths, but this time offering some of the most brutal powerviolence you ever did see. Short sharp shocks of high velocity angst, in between bouts of ear-splitting feedback, made jaws drop from the front to the back – none least from the bar staff, who were beginning to wonder why they offered to work that night! A teenaged tornado of noisy filth!

The Waterfront Buskers

We always love to throw a wildcard into the middle of the bill, and our lovely pals The Waterfront Buskers did exactly that. We'd played with them a few times before, and without fail the crowd spend the first few songs wondering what the hell they are watching, then the rest of the set singing along at the top of their lungs to the most unlikely acoustic covers of the punk rock classics. Absolutely love these boys! We've got no clips of them from that night, unfortunately, but here they are hammering it out at Roy's birthday show a couple of years earlier.

Kearney's Jig

So late an addition were they to the bill that they only confirmed they were playing on the morning of the show. So hats off to them for dragging themselves out of their sickbeds and playing a fab set of happy-go-lucky punky pop tunes – with plenty of joyful mucking about inbetween!

Sickpig

You can never go wrong with a bit of Sickpig! Stadium crust of the highest order from down county in Bridgwater, we love these kids like family, and they absolutely dissolved the first ten rows, invoking the most unhinged moshpit of the day – so far!

Hacksaw

Roy was so heavy with the bug that he could hardly see, let alone play. And the pressure is always on when you're playing your own fest – which is why we always prefer a slot nestled somewhere in the middle of the batting order. But good heavens it was a right good riot in the end! Here's the song that you probably know us best for, which also gives you a nice little look at the chaos that was going on in front of us, too!

Pizzatramp

You just know that some bands are a bit special the first time you clap eyes upon them, and so it's been no surprise to any of us how popular Pizzatramp have gone on to become. And so they were totally able to slip into the headliner slot and see the night off in style. They also got the most complaints from the by now pretty ear-battered bar staff, too – mostly for all that swearing! A fab way to end up a monster of a night. It's the incongruous Christmas tree that makes this clip!

Somehow, despite everything, the very first Hackfest was a terrific success. The football club made a record amount in sales over the bar for a one night event, the bands all loved it, and the punters were already asking us when the next one was going to be.

We'd better do another one, then...

The History Of Hackfest

So how did the glorious mess that we know as Hackfest come in to being?

Well George McSaw, squeaky guitar man of this parish, had been toying with the name for a couple of years, as he loved the idea of Wonkfest and the thought of putting a whole load of the weirdest and most wonderful bands that we'd come across in any given year on in one place. His big birthday shows in Bath had become near legendary, attracting bands like Dirtbox Disco, Wonk Unit, Drongos For Europe and loads more to the old Georgian city.

At the same time, Hacksaw's basher and shouter Roy D Hacksaw had always liked the idea of putting a show on in that long, awkward, boring week between Christmas and New Year where there was never anything on, but we were all busting to get out and keep that festive cheer going for just that little bit longer.

After playing a post-Christmas special at Bridgwater's fabulous Cobblestones venue, George and Roy finally had the bright idea of combining those two concepts into one ridiculous big whole – and Hackfest was born.

Starting out at Randall's Bar at the band's spiritual home of Bath City FC, Hackfest moved to The Belvoir Castle pub on the Lower Bristol Road in its second year – mainly because the landlord would let us have it for free, and thought that he'd be demolishing it soon anyway. And there it has stayed... up to now.

Together with our regular crew of Marick and Josh on the sound desk, and DJ Panter on the wheels of steel, it's been a brilliant adventure so far, and we hope that it goes on for many years to come! Or at least, for as long as our old backs hold out!

So who gets to play Hackfest?

We were very conscious when we started Hackfest that we wanted it to be a little bit different to all the other all dayers. So many times we've played weekenders across the country that, while being great fun, all began to look and sound a lot like each other. The best ones for us were always the shows with the utterly batshit mix up bills, where no band sounded like any of the other bands on the bill – so that soon became our mantra.

We also try to put on a mix of bands from out of town that rarely, if ever, get to play in Bath, and up-and-coming young locals who we reckon should be playing to a wider audience with some better known bands. And all of this from as broad a range of genres as we can possibly squeeze in. We demand the noisy, chaotic, weird, funny or just jaw-droppingly incredible, and we reckon our regular punters have come to expect that too!

Ooh, and no act can ever play twice – apart from Hacksaw, obviously. You're stuck with us. We want to keep it as fresh and exciting as we possibly can!

We also want our bills at Hackfest to be as diverse as possible, as positive as possible, and as much fun as is humanly possible – and we bust a gut to try and make that happen!

But then of course, because it's Christmas, everyone gets sick or injures themselves and has to pull out at the last minute, and then we have to do the ring around! But we always have a list of amazing standbys just busting to get on!

So please don't be offended if your band doesn't get asked to play. It might look like we've chucked a whole load of random names into a hat, but we do actually carefully curate these line-ups to build the most broad ranging and utterly unhinged bills that we can, and we're usually planning the next line up well before the previous one has finished!

Big love to our forever Hacksaw crew... 

Our regular decksman DJ Panter, who plays the less obvious songs by all your favourite bands...
Click these words for more about DJ Panter

Our lovely home, the glorious skittle alley round the back of The Belvoir Castle in Bath. (I believe you pronounce it 'beaver', mind)...
Click these words for more about The Belvoir Castle

And our trusty sound crew, Dragonfly Sound Systems – although their website appears to have been eaten by invaders from the East...

So let's have a look at all those Hackfests of the past, then!

Click these words for all the info on Hackfest #1

Click these words for all the info on Hackfest #2

Click these words for all the info on Hackfest #3

Click these words to see what would eventually became Hackfest #4.2

Click these words for all the info on Hackfest #5