24th and 25th March 2018
at The Musician
Saturday: Last Dusk, Auger, The Glass House Museum, The Faces of Sarah, Red Sun Revival, Last Cry and Star-Industry
Sunday: Orpheum, Sertraline, Evyltyde, The River Chickens, Kroh and Serpentyne
Darker Days festival was organised by Lilith Promotions.
Overview by Kevin Gaughan
Reviewed by Martin Baker, David Tuckwell and Kevin Gaughan
Last year (2017) saw the birth of a new festival, unusually for Leicester, a goth festival, it was a one-dayer, but what a one-dayer it was! (read our review here – you’ll have to scroll about half way down).
This year saw the return of Darker Days festival, building on the success of last year, it is now a two-day event. Each day having a two-hour break at 17:00 and 18:00 respectively, so the audience, who had mostly come from around the country, could experience the vast wealth of Leicester’s town-centre eateries. Initially, I thought I’d prefer it if each day started two hours later, but with the benefit of hindsight, I actually really enjoyed the break, it took me no time at all to re-acclimatise for the second half of each day.
Saturday was busy, very busy, even when the doors opened at 13:00, I was thinking this thing needs to be in a bigger venue. Sunday, on the other hand, as you would expect, was quieter, although the crowd grew in size through the day and ended up being plentiful.
Chatting to members of the audience, most of them seemed to have come from around the country to support their favourite bands and they all told me what a wonderful and friendly place Leicester is and with such a thriving music scene. Some of them came on the Saturday and stayed over in hotels to go back late Sunday or Monday. It occurred to me that Darker Days is not only a great little festival, but is also doing it’s bit for the Leicester economy and helping to put it on the goth music map.
See our multimedia review of Saturday’s and Sunday’s shows.