Feb 15, 2011

PAVI Grads and Instructor Launch Caribbean Heavy Metal Music Festival

Concerts, Festivals and Tradeshows instructor Andy Piller and Film & Music Business graduate Tracey Conn with Audio Engineering & Production graduate Allison Painchaud worked together to present the ‘70000 Tons Of Metal’ music festival.  Andy took a year off from instructing to plan and execute the cruise.

The ‘70000 Tons Of Metal’ took place on the Royal Caribbean luxury cruise liner the Majesty of the Seas as she sailed round-trip from Miami, Florida to Cozumel, Mexico and featured 42 heavy metal bands and fans from 48 countries.

Allison Painchaud "If you told me a year and a half ago when I graduated high school and started at PAVI that I would be production staff in the Caribbean sun with 42 heavy metal bands and some of them my favorite, I would have laughed out loud.  Thanks to the PAVI internship program I was working before I finished my courses.  It’s been a great year for me.  I thank everyone at the school.”

The band line up was: Agent Steel, Amon Amarth, Arsis, Blackguard, Blind Guardian, Circle II Circle, Cripper, Dark Tranquillity, Death Angel, Destruction, DuskMachine, Ensiferum, Epica, Exodus, Fear Factory, Finntroll, Forbidden, Gamma Ray, Iced Earth, Korpiklaani, Malevolent Creation, Marduk, Moonspell, Nevermore, Obituary, Rage, Raven, Sabaton, Sanctuary, Saxon, Sodom, Sonata Arctica, Swashbuckle, Testament, The Absence, Trouble, Twilight Of The Gods (performing Bathory masterpieces), Týr, Uli Jon Roth, Unleashed, Voivod and Witchburner.

Quoting Jay Nanda from the San Antonio Examiner;

“Miami, Gulf Of Mexico, Cozumel — After nine months of hype, the inaugural 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise arrived and not only stayed afloat. It brought down the house."

Billed as “The world’s largest floating heavy metal festival,” it would be an understatement to say the Jan. 24-28 event aboard Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas was a success. Forty-two bands played two shows apiece, an extravaganza witnessed by a sold-out throng of 2,038 guests from 48 countries representing every continent. There were also 100 journalists (including the SAMME as the lone media representative from San Antonio), and approximately 900 crew members, all helping to make the occasion something that no one involved will ever forget.

Though American passengers led the way with 30% representation, that’s a relatively low figure considering Miami was the port of call. It also speaks to the dedication toward heavy metal of those around the globe, which included 17% from Germany, 12% Canadians and 7% Australians.

Guests also came from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.K.

No matter how many concerts one attends in a lifetime, a floating festival of this magnitude is arguably the only place where you could:

• Witness that many bands playing virtually round the clock, including some that played from 3:15-4 a.m.
• Share cocktails with band members
• Watch thrash bands team up for karaoke renditions of Abba’s “Dancing Queen,” K.C. and the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight” and Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration”
• Squeeze in a little workout while Testament singer Chuck Billy rides a stationary bike a few feet away in a fitness center overlooking the Gulf of Mexico
• Walk around Cozumel and hang out on the beach with Death Angel bassist Damien Sisson
• Sit in a jacuzzi or work on your tan while Uli Jon Roth, Testament, Exodus, Forbidden, Fear Factory, Death Angel and many others play the main stage on the top deck of the ship
• Watch a belly-flopping contest judged by members of Nevermore & Sanctuary
• Witness Sanctuary’s first concerts in 20 years “

Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONAOVIIlvzU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ial5q0H65Gs