16/08/2023
THANK YOU ONE AND ALL!
We’ve just about recovered from last weekend and wanted to pass on our thanks to everyone who made it so amazing. A small team that you can count on one hand (and not need every finger!) spend all year putting Rebellion together but the eventual success of the weekend is down to all the people involved at the festival coming together with one goal. To do our very best and put on the ultimate punk / alternative music festival.
So, a big shout out to all our staff and crew. Those out front and those behind the scenes. Whether you’re stage managing or lugging boxes of programmes around, we appreciate each and every one of you and couldn’t do it without you.
We’re a unique festival. With 6 stages all under one roof the Winter Gardens is a truly special venue to host Rebellion. Thanks to the entire Winter Gardens team, from the management who always do their best to accommodate us and our needs, to the bar staff, the cleaners, technicians etc. We appreciate all their employees who work tirelessly over the weekend to keep things running smoothly.
Thanks to this year’s security team. It’s great to see so many positive comments about peoples experience this year. Queues were minimal, having the Vic St doors open again really helped and being met by friendly, smiling staff set the tone for a great experience for us all.
We’re really proud of the line up we had this year. So, thanks to all the bands and their crews for coming and playing. Ultimately that’s what it’s all about. It can be frustrating sometimes reading social media and all the negative comments that invariably come when someone doesn’t view the line up as what THEY want. But having seen each room full and people singing their hearts out, we’re not convinced that the internet moaners actually come to Rebellion! You lot seemed to have a ball!!! There’s always a really good balance of bands. If you liked UK82 there was EXPLOITED, if you like anarcho you had CONFLICT and Igs doing CRASS, if you like Ska you’ve got BAD MANNERS and NEVILLE from THE SPECIALS, if you like psychobilly you’ve got METEORS, all the usual punk suspects like UK SUBS, ANWL, SUBHUMANS etc etc are there. We’ve seen people say “XYZ gig is better I’m going there this year instead” and then we look at the flyer and there’s 12 bands on ALL of which are playing Rebellion!! It’s just that there’s so much more choice that sometimes it’s hard to see that the very best of the old school punk is always still there. BUT (and here’s what sets us apart), we don’t ONLY have the old school. We have loads of new bands who are absolutely smashing it at the moment. Bands like Barstool Preachers, The Meffs, Millie Manders & The ShutUp, The Chisel, Pet Needs, The Drowns, Kid Kapichi, Bob Vylan and many many more absolutely deserve their slots and are the future.
The Rebellion Introducing Stage is one of the most important stages for us. So, cheers to all the bands who came and played. Not only is it great to experience new acts and possibly find your new favourite band. It’s also crucial to the future of Rebellion. As we saw this year, we lost the Damned, Descendents, The Pack & HR Bad Brains, all due to health issues (and we’d like to wish each and every one of them our very best). But it’s also a massive wakeup call that none of us are getting any younger and having one eye on the future and encouraging and bringing the next generation of punk through is essential if we don’t want to see this genre just disappear.
Finally, thanks to YOU! Without you all coming each year there’s no point in any of this! It’s been wonderful reading all your posts and seeing all your pictures. It makes it all worthwhile. We know there will always be niggles and things to tweak as we try to make each year a better experience than the year before. But we’re also extremely grateful after 2 years of Covid and no live events that we are even in a position to be able to do what we love. We certainly remember what it was like to NOT be able to do this and it sucked.
So thank you one and all for making Rebellion such a special gathering....... And if it was your first time, welcome to the Rebellion Family!
Love from
TEAM REBELLION x
