I wanted to thank everyone who made the very first Flight of the Valkyries East in Baltimore on November 6 the success that it was. I know it has taken me awhile to post these (just trying to make sure I don’t miss anyone), but I’d like to personally thank a few fellow metalheads for helping me bring this show together and making such a great day for female fronted metal bands and fans possible! Thanks (in no particular order) to:
All the bands, singers and musicians who came together, supported one another, hung out with the fans and put on such fun and incredibly talented performances.
Irene and Cassandra Syndrome, Cindy and Dying Design, Kane and [geist] and Kat and Tommy and Black Widow for providing such strong local promotion in and around Baltimore.
[geist]’s manager, Jo, who also helped with local promotion and for making sure I remembered to eat lunch the day of the festival.
Trish, Dave and all the guys from Suhgarim for making the trek from South Carolina and proving to be one of the highlights of the festival.
Nina, Josh, Chris and Jesse at A Sound of Thunder for working with the festival in advance and making use of their gear to the festival bands that day.
Zosia and River Runs Scarlet for remembering their roots in the Baltimore metal scene and being a late, but oh so great addition to this year’s festival roster.
Salva and Operatika for the backstage prequel to an even more amazing performance and for traveling from New Jersey to make it happen.
My amazing friends and staff who have worked with me these past few months and came to my aid in every way the day of the festival. Thanks especially to Chris and Jill for running our merch, Cindy for all her help promoting the festival in Baltimore and to her and Greg for being my gophers who navigated Baltimore on the day of the show, Nina who helped with coordinating sponsors and advertising, and to Nick, Justin, and Scooby for managing the stage and making sure the show moved quickly and stayed on schedule. You guys rock!
To Craig, Chuck, Rusty and all the staff at The Ottobar, who made doing this show the first time in Baltimore such a welcoming and professional experience.
To Brian, our soundman, who worked with us even through some of the most difficult or ridiculous of circumstances and kept the showing running on time! I owe you a drink or 4.
To Lorri V. for her hard work and time dedicated to writing our amazing program, complete with photos and interviews with the bands, and to all the bands who took the time to participate in her interviews. If you didn’t check out the program at the festival, interviews will be available online soon and hard copies will be available through our website.
To George and Sako who took video and photos to capture the days exciting events. (Pictures and video to be made available online soon.)
To all of our sponsors for supporting FotV in bringing this great day of female fronted metal together. Special thanks to Dave at Ravenheart Records for sponsoring Suhgarim, Mike (our MC) and Johnnie at Shockwave Magazine, Dave at Woodchuck Hard Cider, Kooper’s Chow Hound Burger Wagon, Jill and Heather at USA Progressive Music webzine, and Deron at Ultimate Metal.
To Nathan Block of SwordLord Production in St. Paul, MN for giving me his blessing and the freedom to branch out of our initial market in the mid-west and test the waters for a thriving FotV festival here on the east coast.
Finally and most importantly, to the fans, who got up off their couches and came out for an amazing full day of metal! Without you, what we or the bands do means nothing. This festival cannot survive without a supportive fan base (the same as any band), so I am grateful for each and every person who can out to The Ottobar that day and supported not just 1 or 2 bands, or just their friend’s bands, but those who enjoyed 8 kick-ass metal bands with exciting and talented female vocalists.
There was certainly a great sense of community at the Ottobar on November 6. While the festival has always been about promoting the talent of women in metal, we have also chosen to promote their diversity as well. There aren’t many shows that you can go to where you can catch a symphonic metal band, a power metal band, a melodic death metal band, an industrial metal band, a traditional metal band, a gothic metal band, and something else completely unexpected, and still have all the fans and bands be so supportive of one another and really enjoy the crossover of the various styles. That’s something you may sometimes see at European festivals, but not so much here in the states. I truly believe this cross-over appeal among such different styles of metal has to do with the quality of bands FotV brings to the stage.
Ask anyone who has attended an FotV festival and I bet they would list multiple bands who impressed them and not just 1 or 2 from an 8 band line-up. This is a testament to our choice to only select high quality bands with talented musicians and engaging vocalists, whether they be established known metal acts or rising stars that we feel are going to win over many new fans. The supportive and growing fanbase we are now seeing enables us to bring more high quality female fronted metal bands to light in the US metal scene. Thank you for supporting women in metal, for spreading the word about the FotV festival and helping this community to continue to grow. It was truly humbling to have so many people thank me on the day of the festival for bring this event together, but I could not have done it without the support of each and every person who bought their ticket and showed up that day.
To all who were not able to attend this year, you missed an incredible set of bands and we hope you will join us next year for another amazing festival experience!
Plans are already underway for a 2011 edition of FotV to take place in Baltimore in the fall of next year! More details will be announced in December.
We are now seeking sponsors for next year’s festival. Those interested in sponsoring should send me a list of bands they would be interested in sponsoring and their sponsorship bid (minimum bid of $500 per person). For more details on our sponsorship package, please e-mail me at:
onceatatteredsoul at yahoo dot com
Those interested in getting involved with helping us promote locally or online should sign-up for our e-mail list here:
www.flightofthevalkyries.com
Flight of the Valkyries has several other very exciting announcements coming soon, which we are currently ironing out the final details. Please stay tuned for more exciting FotV news!
Fly Strong! \m/
~ Bobbie
The beautiful hard-rockin' ladies of FotV East! From left to right: Trish (Suhgarim), Kane ([geist]), Cindy (Dying Design), Zosia (River Runs Scarlet), Irene (Cassandra Syndrome), Nina (A Sound of Thunder), Salva (Operatika), and Cat (Black Widow USA). Photo by USA Progressive Music.
All the bands, singers and musicians who came together, supported one another, hung out with the fans and put on such fun and incredibly talented performances.
Irene and Cassandra Syndrome, Cindy and Dying Design, Kane and [geist] and Kat and Tommy and Black Widow for providing such strong local promotion in and around Baltimore.
[geist]’s manager, Jo, who also helped with local promotion and for making sure I remembered to eat lunch the day of the festival.
Trish, Dave and all the guys from Suhgarim for making the trek from South Carolina and proving to be one of the highlights of the festival.
Nina, Josh, Chris and Jesse at A Sound of Thunder for working with the festival in advance and making use of their gear to the festival bands that day.
Zosia and River Runs Scarlet for remembering their roots in the Baltimore metal scene and being a late, but oh so great addition to this year’s festival roster.
Salva and Operatika for the backstage prequel to an even more amazing performance and for traveling from New Jersey to make it happen.
My amazing friends and staff who have worked with me these past few months and came to my aid in every way the day of the festival. Thanks especially to Chris and Jill for running our merch, Cindy for all her help promoting the festival in Baltimore and to her and Greg for being my gophers who navigated Baltimore on the day of the show, Nina who helped with coordinating sponsors and advertising, and to Nick, Justin, and Scooby for managing the stage and making sure the show moved quickly and stayed on schedule. You guys rock!
To Craig, Chuck, Rusty and all the staff at The Ottobar, who made doing this show the first time in Baltimore such a welcoming and professional experience.
To Brian, our soundman, who worked with us even through some of the most difficult or ridiculous of circumstances and kept the showing running on time! I owe you a drink or 4.
To Lorri V. for her hard work and time dedicated to writing our amazing program, complete with photos and interviews with the bands, and to all the bands who took the time to participate in her interviews. If you didn’t check out the program at the festival, interviews will be available online soon and hard copies will be available through our website.
To George and Sako who took video and photos to capture the days exciting events. (Pictures and video to be made available online soon.)
To all of our sponsors for supporting FotV in bringing this great day of female fronted metal together. Special thanks to Dave at Ravenheart Records for sponsoring Suhgarim, Mike (our MC) and Johnnie at Shockwave Magazine, Dave at Woodchuck Hard Cider, Kooper’s Chow Hound Burger Wagon, Jill and Heather at USA Progressive Music webzine, and Deron at Ultimate Metal.
To Nathan Block of SwordLord Production in St. Paul, MN for giving me his blessing and the freedom to branch out of our initial market in the mid-west and test the waters for a thriving FotV festival here on the east coast.
Finally and most importantly, to the fans, who got up off their couches and came out for an amazing full day of metal! Without you, what we or the bands do means nothing. This festival cannot survive without a supportive fan base (the same as any band), so I am grateful for each and every person who can out to The Ottobar that day and supported not just 1 or 2 bands, or just their friend’s bands, but those who enjoyed 8 kick-ass metal bands with exciting and talented female vocalists.
There was certainly a great sense of community at the Ottobar on November 6. While the festival has always been about promoting the talent of women in metal, we have also chosen to promote their diversity as well. There aren’t many shows that you can go to where you can catch a symphonic metal band, a power metal band, a melodic death metal band, an industrial metal band, a traditional metal band, a gothic metal band, and something else completely unexpected, and still have all the fans and bands be so supportive of one another and really enjoy the crossover of the various styles. That’s something you may sometimes see at European festivals, but not so much here in the states. I truly believe this cross-over appeal among such different styles of metal has to do with the quality of bands FotV brings to the stage.
Ask anyone who has attended an FotV festival and I bet they would list multiple bands who impressed them and not just 1 or 2 from an 8 band line-up. This is a testament to our choice to only select high quality bands with talented musicians and engaging vocalists, whether they be established known metal acts or rising stars that we feel are going to win over many new fans. The supportive and growing fanbase we are now seeing enables us to bring more high quality female fronted metal bands to light in the US metal scene. Thank you for supporting women in metal, for spreading the word about the FotV festival and helping this community to continue to grow. It was truly humbling to have so many people thank me on the day of the festival for bring this event together, but I could not have done it without the support of each and every person who bought their ticket and showed up that day.
To all who were not able to attend this year, you missed an incredible set of bands and we hope you will join us next year for another amazing festival experience!
Plans are already underway for a 2011 edition of FotV to take place in Baltimore in the fall of next year! More details will be announced in December.
We are now seeking sponsors for next year’s festival. Those interested in sponsoring should send me a list of bands they would be interested in sponsoring and their sponsorship bid (minimum bid of $500 per person). For more details on our sponsorship package, please e-mail me at:
onceatatteredsoul at yahoo dot com
Those interested in getting involved with helping us promote locally or online should sign-up for our e-mail list here:
www.flightofthevalkyries.com
Flight of the Valkyries has several other very exciting announcements coming soon, which we are currently ironing out the final details. Please stay tuned for more exciting FotV news!
Fly Strong! \m/
~ Bobbie
The beautiful hard-rockin' ladies of FotV East! From left to right: Trish (Suhgarim), Kane ([geist]), Cindy (Dying Design), Zosia (River Runs Scarlet), Irene (Cassandra Syndrome), Nina (A Sound of Thunder), Salva (Operatika), and Cat (Black Widow USA). Photo by USA Progressive Music.
