Feature / One Question Interviews
Damaged City Fest

Words: Loren • April 8, 2016

Damaged City Fest
Damaged City Fest

Damaged City Fest

SPB: Festivals are a continually popular concept, though varying in formulas. What do you think is best about a festival versus a “regular” line-up of 3-5 bands?

Nick and Chris: We don't see festivals as an "alternative" to normal shows and prefer to view the two types of events as separate entities. I think if every single show was a festival, people would get pretty burned out. Both of us (Chris and Nick) have always set up normal shows and we'll always continue. 

I think the advantage to festivals are primarily their scale. The larger turnout of people can help finance bigger headliners and help pay for international bands that probably couldn't afford to come otherwise. Festivals also act as a meeting point for punks to congregate from all over the world. Fests also make it easier for DIY bands to plan tours and help gain some security about traveling in from long distances. 

Again, it has never been our intention to "replace" the traditional 4 band show with a fest. I think, if anything, there are many many many more "normal shows" as a direct result of the fest. 

Loren • April 8, 2016

Damaged City Fest
Damaged City Fest

Related features

Jenn L. Beckwith

One Question Interviews • July 29, 2026

Jenn L. Beckwith (All Good Cretins Go To Heaven: The Enduring Spirit of the Ramones – author) SPB: Do you remember the first time you saw the Ramones live (or, alternately if it’s a better story, the first time you heard them)? Beckwith: My collaborator and researcher Gary Lynn Clevenger … Read more

Fail Harmonic Records

One Question Interviews • July 28, 2026

Fail Harmonic Records SPB: What is your turntable set-up? Our office turntable is vanilla. Audio-Technica, maybe? What we’re spinning is what counts: and that’s Savageheads - Service to your Country (Social Napalm Records), an FHR HQ staple. If you wanna pack records at a fast pace, this is the album … Read more

Andresa One Man Band

One Question Interviews • July 27, 2026

Andresa Nugraha (Andresa One Man Band) SPB: What instrument has been the hardest to add into your set? Nugraha: Kazoo. It's funny because it seems like an easy instrument to play, but when you scream through the entire set and lose your voice, you can't play it right. So, I … Read more

Deniz Tek

Interviews • July 25, 2026

There is a specific kind of velocity associated with the name Deniz Tek. To the aviation world, he was a flight surgeon and a pilot in the cockpit of an F-4 Phantom. To the medical world, he was the calm in the center of the ER trauma ward. But to … Read more

Alexandros Anesiadis

One Question Interviews • July 15, 2026

Alexandros Anesiadis (Tear It Down, Crossover, New Wind – author) Was there a particular record or moment that inspired the genesis of Tear It Down, about crossover? It wasn't the day I first heard the opening track on side two of the Cro-Mags' The Age of Quarrel. It wasn't when … Read more

Related news

Damaged City 2020 info

Posted in Shows on February 29, 2020

Damaged City 2019 full lineup

Posted in Shows on March 3, 2019

Damaged City 2018

Posted in Shows on February 24, 2018

More from this section

Jenn L. Beckwith

One Question Interviews • July 29, 2026

Jenn L. Beckwith (All Good Cretins Go To Heaven: The Enduring Spirit of the Ramones – author) SPB: Do you remember the first time you saw the Ramones live (or, alternately if it’s a better story, the first time you heard them)? Beckwith: My collaborator and researcher Gary Lynn Clevenger … Read more

Fail Harmonic Records

One Question Interviews • July 28, 2026

Fail Harmonic Records SPB: What is your turntable set-up? Our office turntable is vanilla. Audio-Technica, maybe? What we’re spinning is what counts: and that’s Savageheads - Service to your Country (Social Napalm Records), an FHR HQ staple. If you wanna pack records at a fast pace, this is the album … Read more

Andresa One Man Band

One Question Interviews • July 27, 2026

Andresa Nugraha (Andresa One Man Band) SPB: What instrument has been the hardest to add into your set? Nugraha: Kazoo. It's funny because it seems like an easy instrument to play, but when you scream through the entire set and lose your voice, you can't play it right. So, I … Read more