Name: Crt
Herkunft: Slovenien
Veranstalter Tolminator Festival
Link: https://tolminator.com/
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
Hey Crt.
First of all – thanks for taking the time for this short interview. The area of Tomin is very known as a Festival area for festivals like the Metaldays and the Punk Rock Holiday. Last year you announced the Tolminator which will take place at the epical river site area. What was the initial spark for the Tolminator Festival and what motivated you to organize such a festival?
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
Hello, thank you for the interview!
Yes, the new edition of the Tolminator festival will take in the beautiful area that many metalheads already know from previous Metal festivals or from other genre festivals that take place also there. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, this would actually be the 20th edition of a Metal festival in this epic place. You can imagine that in all these years the place itself became some sort of a roaming destination for the Metal community, first for the local metalheads and afterwards internationally. Since Metaldays had to move as the festival capacity got lowered by the Municipality of Tolmin, we decided that this can’t be the end of it all. So Tolminator was born, made by a big portion of the crew that was present before.
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
What ambitions do you have for the future of the Tolminator Festival?
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
The festival has now a capacity of 5000 Metal fans, which means we are turning it into a more boutique festival. Because of this limit, we can’t really get many bigger Metal artists, but we intend to book more up and coming bands that we think fans should see them doing a longer set. We will of course always have some legendary names and a few party bands. Beside the music, we intend to focus also on other activities which should be fun for everyone. Like the floatie rampage competition – imagine the whole river in unicorn and flamingo floaties. In the future I see the festival to be sold out in advance like is the case at Punk Rock Holiday festival. Fans will see that this is truly a must go festival if you want to see a bit different lineup than other Metal festivals around Europe and have a nice relaxing vacation.
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
What will be the differences between the Metaldays and your festival?
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
It will surely be the capacity as stated above. Less crowd and queues, much more relaxed atmosphere with all kinds of activities. Sure, we will not have any similar headliners, but I believe some fans might like the more underground approach we are having. The previous festival also lost most of the fun elements, we will try to reestablish them.
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
One topic is currently on everyone’s lips – sustainability. Since the festival takes place in a very beautiful place, the topic is certainly not completely uninteresting for you. Because it must be guaranteed that the festival can also take place in the future on site. Do you have to fulfill certain requirements or how do you approach the topic? Will different genres from the metal scene be welcomed and played at your event?
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
We are very open genre wise, although it’s hard to cover everything with just two stages and around 55 band slots. Probably on one edition one genre will be more represented (as it’s death metal this year), on the next editions it might be very different. We try to mix it as much as we can, but it depends of course also which bands are available in the festival time frame.
You are right regarding sustainability, it’s an important issue we are very aware of. We try to minimize the impact of the festival on nature as much as we can. There are ideas that all the festivals in this venue will go zero waste in the future, but we will probably need some government funds to achieve that. Being environmentally friendly isn’t cheap, but it’s the right path.
Personally I think that the decision of lowering the capacity by the Municipality of Tolmin was the right decision, mostly because of this. We have seen that a 12.000 capacity festival can be done, but it left its mark on the area. You don’t notice this one other festivals in the area, because they are smaller.
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
What kind of audience are you expecting for the Tolminator Festival 2023?
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
I was cheating and already checked the statistics of our presale. At the moment we have sold tickets in 26 different countries and there are more tickets sold abroad than in Slovenia. This is not really surprising as Slovenia is quite a small country. I expect all sorts of Metal fans coming to the Tolminator festival, new and old faces. I wouldn’t be surprised if many Metal families show up, as the festival now is quite comfortable for them.
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
With Sodom, Dying Fetus, Insomnium and Phil Campbell there will be some big players at the stage in Tolmin. Will you personally be in front of the stage to see one or the other act?
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
I’m always in front of the stage. I could be on stage like a big shot, but I don’t like that. I like to have the feel from the audience itself. Not really a fan of the mosh pits anymore, but that’s mostly connected with getting old. I just hate it otherwise when they call me to the office, when a good band is playing. I will definitely check as many bands as I can.
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
The music industry, like the entire event industry, currently has a problem with the loss of skilled workers and stage hands. What is the situation like in Slovenia? Is it possible to sign up as a helper from abroad?
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
Yes, the pandemic did its damage everywhere. During the pandemic I started a charity organization for the live event industry under the Wemakeevents banner. It was really great to be in touch weekly with all the other countries and compare the issues and government aid with each other. Hopefully we managed to keep some workers in the industry by doing the charity.
For the Tolminator festival this is not really an issue as we are not that big. Also the whole idea of the continuation of the festival came out from the workers of the old festival. So you can expect the same crew faces in Tolmin. I guess at least for the first edition we will be self-sufficient regarding the crew. We will see later on, what will still be needed.
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
As usual I give my guest the chance to ask something you always wanted to know about an online metal magazine. Is there anything you like to know?
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
As Slovenia is quite a small market, there is no real media for Metal. There are a couple of webzines as well, but that really works only on a hobby basis, which is quite admirable. How is it regarding this in Germany?
Kai R. / Time For Metal:
I would say that is no different in Germany. Here, there are only a handful of magazines that can make a living from their work. The rest do it (for the most part) like Time For Metal, in a kind of honorary capacity. But if you’re honest, the industry hasn’t been that willing to pay for media content for a long time. So it’s logical that it’s hard to make a living from the written word about our heart’s theme, metal, without taking money out of the bands‘ pockets. We decided at our foundation in 2010 that we want to give something back to the scene and not the other way around. So the magazine remains a „full time hobby“. The advantage is that we unite such different people. In the team we have teachers, electricians, pensioners, business economists, support staff and many more. Such diversity would certainly not be so easy as a commercial magazine – so there is always a positive side. Personally, I love the exchange and the common interests that bring us – such different people – together! In the end we are all metalheads.
Thank you for taking the time. I hope that I can eventually be on site in 2024.
Crt / Tolminator Festival:
Thank you as well for showing interest in the Tolminator festival! I really hope we meet in person as well!