by Jorge Patacas
Thousands of metal fans gather every summer at the Josefov fortress in Jaromer, Czech Republic to attend Brutal Assault, a festival with a lineup of 150 artists that has grown a lot since the beginning 25 years ago. We had the chance to talk to the booking agent Tomas Fiala from Obscure Promotion who has been in charge of Brutal Assault since 2005 to get to know more about the history and the work behind one of the festivals that has become a must for lots of fans from all over the world.
RISE!: – You have been working as a booking agent for Obscure Promotion for over 20 years. Tell us a bit about your background and the company.
Tomas Fiala: It was very easy. Back in the day, I wasn’t even a local promoter. I just did a few small shows with my band. At that time, there was supposed to be a Macabre show and it was announced on the website, but the venue didn’t know about it, so I just asked the agency what was going on with the show and they asked if I wanted to do it and I said yes. Since then, I’m doing the shows and then we were helping Brutal Assault booking bands there. Then the main guy stepped out and he wanted to leave the festival, but we really liked it and really liked the idea, so we took it over. I’m very happy on how it turned out.
R!: – Brutal Assault started in the 90s as a small festival with mostly local bands, but then you took over as you said, and it became bigger and bigger every year. Nowadays it’s already established as one of the favorite festivals for many metal fans. What vision did you have for the festival when you took over and what changes did you make first?
TF: We knew we wanted to get the best bands we were listening to for the festival, but the budget didn’t allow us. So we just had to go through the budget, get more money to get better bands, and to gradually start doing the production of the festival which is another big topic. Gradually we learned year after year. The vision was just to keep the variety in extreme music and do it better. As fans we wanted to do it for the fans the way we would like to see the festival. That was the thing when it started moving.
R!: – The festival has been held in different locations until you found the best location for it which is the Josefov fortress. Was it easy to get this place to do the festival? Why did you choose it?
TF: Well, back in the day we had a local supplier of a beer who said the original area was not big enough. He came up with a few suggestions, so we went with him and the first one was the fortress and I was like “this is it”. It sounds very easy, but it’s not that easy. The mayor at the time was a great guy who really wanted to support it and not necessarily support our event, but he was really happy that something was going to happen in the fortress. He was like “I will do whatever we can to help you out”, so that was the major point when it was possible to accommodate the festival into the fortress ground.
R!: – Since the festival is held in the fortress, it’s limited to a certain number of attendees, would you consider changing the location if there’s a lot more demand or would that destroy the concept in a way?
TF: It would not destroy the concept, but it would definitely destroy the feeling in a way. In the beginning we just thought it was a brilliant idea to have the festival in the fortress and after a while we started thinking about how to create a better space and how to use the spaces of the fortress and that’s what’s been happening. But we have had this question about moving some years ago, but then we ended up in the fact that we really wanted the fortress and we rather do it our own way. So we would like to stay there as long as possible. There’s such a foundation, it’s just brilliant.
R!: – The festival has grown a lot throughout the years. It has always a good lineup with some big names as well as some underground acts, what’s your criteria when booking bands?
TF: We have to like the music. It needs to fit into the lineup and I guess that everybody can see that I’ve always been a big death metal fan, so skeleton of the festival is weird, normal and interesting death metal plus we want to explore towards the dark art and expression. In music it can be different, but we’re just looking for the approach which is to present great dark art. That’s what we try to do.
R!: – You also organize many other shows in a year. That’s definitely a lot of work, so you obviously must have a team working with you. How many people in total are part of Obscure Promotion?
TF: All in all it’s about twelve people in the office. Maybe six of them has this as the main job and the rest start coming before the festival, so it’s a half job. Before the festival we do have a thousand employees, that’s another story. But we are quite a small team.
R!: – How much time it takes to put a lineup together?
TF: It’s happening permanently. The bands we were not able to book this year, we’ll try to book them the next year. It’s mostly my job, that’s what I do and I have an assistant.
R!: – Why do you think Czech Republic has a stronger grindcore and brutal scene than any other countries in Europe?
TF: I don’t know. People can go a little bit more crazy sometimes in the Czech Republic, so that could be part of the thing, but maybe it’s because we used to have great bands and there was a good underground scene and that strengthened the passion for such music.
R!: – Tell us what the Brutal Assault Sobe project is…
TF: We have a brigade to restore the fortress to help them out. It’s great that we can do physical work and we do see things which afterwards work for the festival and the city.
R!: – Is this voluntary work then?
TF: Yes, exactly, that’s what it is.
R!: – What would you say that Brutal Assault offers than other festivals don’t?
TF: Well, reasonable pricing, very good facilities, the fortress and dramaturgy. I think all these things together are reasons why I guess the festival is definitely worth attending.
