Hackfest: 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!