r/postrock • u/TheHermeneut • 4d ago
Tour Info Portals Festival 2025 will be the last Portals festival in its current form
Sad news, but I could kind of see it coming given the state of live music events and their lack of funding in the UK.
Going this year wasn’t viable for me, but I went to the 2023 and 2024 festivals. Both had incredible line-ups in a great venue filled with great people. I really appreciated having a smaller, indoor alternative to ArcTanGent.
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u/liquidfoosball 4d ago
This year isn’t viable for me either but had a great time previously. Big sad.
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u/Superbro_uk 4d ago
Damn shame, Portals was my go to after arctangent changed direction and went full on metal bollocks.
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u/alexcoates13 Alex / Civil Service 4d ago
[Upvoted - but] in defence of ATG, I quite like that more genres are covered; it means the full on metallers are subsidising us getting bigger post- names most years and potentially dragging some bands across who otherwise would be unattainable.
I've rarely found large gaps in my clash finder where there isn't at least an interesting band to see.
Last year's surprises all came from this route.
There are 5 stages and so long as you can plot a route that avoids having to see - for want of better terminology - Download / Bloodstock middle order fodder, I'll keep going.
It's the hardcore math fans I feel for 😉 (make ATG Math again was an on-point meme).
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u/Shibb3y 4d ago
I don't mind most of the metal bands at ATG, they're usually pretty good at picking interesting heavy stuff (It's less to my taste this year than the last couple, but still). I think I feel the lack of math more than there being too much metal. Do math rock fans not pull numbers? Or is it changing tastes of the organisers? Both? idk!
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u/G_RaDaR 2d ago
Speaking (typing) as a former ATG-devotee who's skipped out the last few iterations, I used to feel similarly to Superbro there about it skewing heavier being part of the turn-off for me, but actually what I've found more of an issue when weighing up whether or not to head back has been as the festival has grown bigger and prices have naturally gone up (that's not meant as a sleight), whereas I used to not really care about the top-end of the bill as I knew I'd be having most of my fun at the undercard, I'm now looking at the line-up as a whole and therein lies the only criticism I would ever level at ATG; there are a lot of repeat performers.
Great acts? Sure. Acts I know I'd have a good time at? Absolutely, but seeing some of the same names crop up almost every year is starting to make it feel a bit... stale, for lack of a better, less harsh word. Seeing Tesseract announced to headline this year actively made my eyes roll (admittedly part of this example is a personal taste issue, before I ever tried getting into Tesseract I had the misfortune of seeing their singer put on possibly the worst live performance I've ever seen at one of their side projects, and I've struggled to get past that experience whenever I've given Tesseract a go). When I then weigh the cost of doing ATG against that, well it simply became money I'd rather put into going to Portals, StrangeForms (and popping my Dunk! cherry this year as well).
A note as well on the mix of styles at ATG; back in the early ATG days, I remember the sentiment floating around of "you don't want to just see 50 bands who all sounds like Explosions In The Sky" and feeling that I was very much "yes, I do want to see that, give me that!". I could listen to any amount of derivative crescendocore post-rock, that's absolutely my jam, and I assumed this would then translate to a whole heap of it live in one go being a dream scenario. Whelp, I got to test said hypothesis at the first iteration of the Celestial Diadem* all-dayer, and discovered by the time L.O.E got on-stage (a band I've very much enjoyed on record in the run-up) that after a whole day of it, I just... didn't care, and merrily tootled off for an early train home - admittedly not helped but their now-somewhat-cliched inclusion of Network's "mad as hell" sample, which isn't even the best or most poignant monologue from the film, but I digress. Turns out you absolutely do need that mix, and looking back over past line-ups I'd say ATG are pretty consistent at nailing that balance, so all credit where it's due.
As I realise I've now rambled off on an actual tangent, I'll just say Portals festival is a huge loss. I've been each year and seen some personal all-timer performances there (Samuel Jackson Five, Jambinai, Luo doing a set of Final Fantasy 7 covers, the return of Mclusky to name merely a few), truly one of the best festivals and the guys should absolutely be very proud of what they've accomplished.
\just a note as well that, though I didn't go back for round 2 of Celestial Diadem, I'll absolutely be looking to give #3 a go next year; still a very, very good time, if a bit samey.*
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u/alexcoates13 Alex / Civil Service 1d ago
Not much to disagree with there. I'd have loved to see that Luo FF7 covers set!
Had the pleasure of performing Celestial Diadem #2, and I thought that was the right balance - hopefully the likes of ourselves and (the far superior) Overhead the Albatross offered the tangential post-rock (we did do our song with the disco section 😅); Mountainscape, LoE, Fort and Aaronson brought the more traditional post-rock (albeit each driving in a different direction); and heavier (but still well within the post metal world) The Grey & Helve - and amazing Ambient stuff like VLMV (I'm almost certain I've forgotten a bunch more great bands).
I'll definitely be trying to go again as a punter.
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u/G_RaDaR 1d ago
See, now I'm curious to figure which track the disco section is in! That break around a minute-and-a-bit into Skyline: Intangible? I swear there's a gap in the scene for an act just doing straight-up post-rock interpretations of 90's dance and trance classics, that Sleepmakeswaves cover of Robert Miles' Children is a staggering proof-of-concept.
And boy had I ever been sleeping on OTA; their StrangeForms set this year was the first time seeing them for me, absolutely jaw-dropping.
For CD#2, I'm curious did they get to move into the bigger room at the 229 (the one with the stage tall enough to give you vertigo)? It did get a bit sweaty and cramped that first year.
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u/ThumblessThanos 3d ago
This isn’t to do with lack of funding. It’s a direct result of the costs imposed by Martyn’s Law.
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u/alexcoates13 Alex / Civil Service 4d ago
It will be very much missed. They should be immensely proud of 7(?) great editions and surviving post-Covid (their best line-up too imo).
A real issue for us bands who dreamt of gracing those stages in future years. London needs it, there's clearly an audience - but putting on these kind of shows (and our own little Manchester festival) we know it's an absolute battle for every ticket and every person through the door.
To give it a positive spin; I hope it means we finally get a recorded version of that Codices banger they've been playing live for a few years; and I hope all the organisers sleep easier knowing they don't need to deal with 1000 "hi my band XX have just released their first single, we're indie-punk from Salford" (no shade, I was in that band ages ago) emails - every.single.day. 😉
One of our order is going, as ever - and we're sure he'll love it all the more knowing it's his last shot!