Portals Festival 2024 – Saturday
Welcome welcome, it’s great to have you here, joining me for another ride as I tell you all about Portals Festival 2024, which just happens to be my favourite weekend of the whole year. For some, nothing beats Christmas, a family holiday, or even the occasional solo adventure off somewhere that breaks from the norm.
For me, it’s become an annual pilgrimage, a weekend where I can fully immerse myself in a whole array of incredible music, wonderful company, and a space where I can feel completely at ease and can leave all the stresses of my normal life behind, for a little while anyway.
It’s a festival which champions bands and musicians from the very fringes of society, everything from math and ambient rock to shoegaze and electronica, passing some doom, post-rock and at times some downright aural lunacy along the way. It’s an opportunity to catch some old favourites as well as making new discoveries as Portals is to the world of experimental and alternative, as Desertfest is for stoner rock and Roadburn for the pinnacle of this beautiful alternative world in which we all blissfully exist.
To put it into context, 2024 was the year of uncertainty, as apart from three definite bands I wanted to see, the rest of my weekend I was open to suggestions, and even after studying the line up at length, and armed with my list of who I wanted to see each day, it was mostly made up with wild cards. I didn’t have any fear though, because one thing I have gained over the last four years is that it doesn’t even matter if you only know half the roster, the organisers are just so good at putting this event on, that the line-up will not fail to be anything other than incredible.
From my time attending the festival, even from my first encounter in 2021, the events have gone from strength to strength. Even with a venue change in the last couple of years, it has gotten bigger, the calibre of bands drawn to perform have stepped up and through it all, one of the many things which hasn’t been lost is its heart.
There is a certain magical vibe that surrounds Portals, it’s a feeling of love and being welcome. It truly is a place where people can come together from all walks of life, feel at ease, safe and confident, while being entertained in an environment where there’s no animosity, judgement or pressure to be anything other than yourself. When I turn up, I instantly feel like I’m home and being part of a community, driven by a mutual love of good music.
When the announcement that Midas Fall would be returning after playing in 2021, it was like a like getting a Christmas gift early, and ever since then, I have been counting the days. Following several subsequent announcements along with the additions of Slow Crush and BIG|BRAVE, this was the year of the unknown, but I knew Asher, Sam and Arran wouldn’t let me down, that it would be an incredible event and I wasn’t disappointed at all.
Even from entering the building on day one, it felt more relaxed. Last years ‘first night jitters’ were nowhere to be seen, and the welcoming smiles alone instantly put me at ease. Reconnecting with friends is always nice, but a big smile too, that is worth its weight in gold.
The beauty of having been previously meant that finding my bearings was no problem, so I headed straight in, and to the front, to catch the opening act for the whole event, Hidden Mothers. Kicking it all off with an explosive set, the band put on a blistering display and firmly stamped their mark on the event in the process. Proving that the UK is very much still pumping out killer bands, the set was a full-on assault and by the end, I was feeling like I had never left the place from last year’s event.
Heading up to the Theatre Stage, I was in time to catch New Ghost, a recent addition to my playlists and a band I was keen to see, especially after listening to the wonderful Rectify over the last couple of months and so watching the band run thorough their setlist was sublime. Also, it wasn’t as full on as Hidden Mothers had been, so helped with falling into the groove of the whole Portals experience.
Next up for me, another relatively new addition to my life was Din Of Celestial Birds. Having picked up The Night Is For Dreamers recently, I was pretty pumped to be seeing the band perform and they absolutely blew my mind. Such an awesome performance, the band played up to the audience and to watch their skills on the stage was incredible. I always wonder with some bands how they will fill the performance with such long passages of ambient noise, in the past I’ve been left a little disillusioned, but today I was 100% on for the full experience. Not wanting to tear myself away, I held on as long as I could, but the power of the Årabrot was calling me.
Easily one of the highlights for the entire festival, to downplay just how fantastic Årabrot were wouldn’t be OK at all. Somewhat a band of myth to me, I got myself a sublime position to watch the entire performance and through some savvy manoeuvring, I captured the whole set from the front row. To see the band in action just defies everything you would expect and as they played through tracks from their newest release, Of Darkness And Light, and other favourites, they were absolutely on fire. As was to be expected, We Want Blood set the house on fire and by the time the band had finished, it was clear just what a powerhouse they really are.
Having absolutely no chance at getting in on some Billy Mahonie action, I headed back to the Hall Stage after being destroyed by Årabrot to catch Enemies give an incredible performance. For me, bands like Enemies are the benchmark for Portals, they are what I think of when I think of this festival, and they didn’t disappoint. The Irish post-rock band powered through their set and were superb.
After a brief pit stop to refuel and recharge, next up was one of my top tier acts for the weekend, Slow Crush. Having seen them a couple of times before, I knew what the calibre of the band is and that it was time to become immersed in their fuzzy shoegaze goodness once again. Slow Crush are one of those bands, they are like a mystery and so is their music. If you know them, then to merely like them isn’t an option, you will fall under their spell and become intoxicated to the point of drowning. Redefining the whole shoegaze dynamic and by the time they are through, the whole venue is a lot more ‘otherworldly’….
Not one for giving up until I’m well and truly exhausted, I headed back to the Hall Stage for a next level set by the incredible This Will Destroy You and that’s exactly what happened. Obliterated by the majesty of it all, the band ran through a ‘fan chosen’ set and left the whole room speechless in the wake of their majesty. Painfully joyous, This Will Destroy You did just that and by the time their set ended, I only had MØL left on my list for the day to see.
Quite the leftfield addition to the line-up, the band sent shockwaves through the venue as they threw out a blistering set. At times descending into some black metal vibrancy, the band didn’t hold back, and I can say, hand on heart, that’s what killed me off for the day.
Gathering my thoughts and my sanity, I headed back to the hotel to unwind and catch some zee’s ready for day two…
Hidden Mothers
New Ghost
Din Of Celestial Birds
Årabrot
Slow Crush
This Will Destroy You
Words & Photos by: Lee Beamish