Bands from across Ireland to play ‘Scream For Me’ festival

The ‘Scream for Me’ festival will take place in Cavan this weekend, November 7-8, with a total of 16 metal bands from all over Ireland set to hit the Blessing’s Bar stage.

The festival will run on Friday and Saturday, with eight acts each night. Among the headliners are Belfast's Acid Age who on their Facebook page describes themselves as “for thrashers with a sophisticated listening palette”, Psykosis from Dublin, who have just finished their UK tour, and Galway's Psychotic Outsider who boast “influences of hard core, metal, and punk rock, creating strong and aggressive sounds, fused with dynamic beats.”

Those attending can expect massively high energy, lots of noise, passionate musicians, and a great sense of community. To take the level of respect for these musicians a notch higher, all are coming of their own accord to help the Scream For Me committee raise funds for SOSAD.

Bands will travel from Bray, Cork, Limerick; “every inch of the island” will be represented according to one of the organisers, Nicola Coyle- a self-confessed “metal head”.

She admits people were quite “dubious” about a metal festival in the Breffni county at the start, however she thinks it's a “nice” central place for bands to come together.

“Cavan is a nice centre-point for everyone,” she believes.

‘Really lovely’

Nicola describes the festival as a “really lovely” community event.

“It genuinely is really inclusive, it's really welcoming, everyone is there for the bands and everyone has good craic. It really showcases how nice the metal community in Ireland is, because it's just really really welcoming.”

The Cornafean native says even those who aren't into this specific music genre would have “good craic”.

“It is about the music primarily but at the same time there's people that make friends at it that have never met before and they stay in contact. Everyone seems to be in good form; it's a nice place to be.”

Nicola believes that metal is “stereotyped a lot” by people who aren't so familiar with it, and perhaps feel “intimidated” by the decibel level more than anything.

“A lot of the time that's not true and you probably would enjoy it more than you think if you just give it a chance.”

She believes the festival is a “nice opportunity” for those who follow metal and for those to try it out for the first time.

“Try something new, it [the festival] is for everyone.”

The festival began in 2018 as ‘Sing For Me’, which was a more “general festival” according to founder Leanne, Nicola's sister- and also one of the organisers of ‘Scream for Me’.

“As the years went on it grew and bands from all over Ireland were getting involved and the word kind of spread.”

In 2023, the organisers realised there was a “gap” in the area of metal music.

“Metal wasn't really being shown the appreciation that it should have been,” Leanne points out.

The committee “haven't looked back” since and are looking forward to another successful ‘Scream For Me’ festival this year.

“People have travelled from Kerry, Cork, Limerick because there is such a gap in the metal scene. There's only two other metal festivals in Ireland.”

“Obviously music is such a big part of people's lives and it does so much for people's mental health that we decided to branch out into a festival. It brought people together which was a huge thing because obviously people getting together, even if it's just for an evening, can do so much [for someone's mental health]. Music was the happy medium and we decided to run the festival.”

Over the years they have given funds to the Kevin Bell Trust, Be Buddies Not Bullies, Cian's Kennels and for the last few years, the funds have gone to SOSAD. The Sing For Me festival during the summer raised over €4000, with the cheque to be handed over when the Scream For me Festival finishes.

The festival will take place in the outdoor area at Blessing’s Bar which is covered.

Friday night's line-up includes Indominus, Oíche Fuar, War of Attrition, Gravity Well, Lazarus Brother, Bloodsoaked, Psychotic Outsider and Acid age.

The festival will begin at 5.30pm on Friday and 4pm on Saturday. Those planning to go on Saturday can expect to see Tallon, Hounds of Dusk, Too Far Fetched, Following The Signs, Unmaker, AeSect, Congenital Abnormalities, and Psykosis.