Woodside Halls is not the typical venue for a heavy music festival. Its interiors are more reminiscent of housing a small political party conference or MP constituency surgery than grinding guitars and pummelling blast beats.

Yet the second year of Core Festival feels right at home here, in an uncompromised space for music, art, and community to flourish from outwith the Ticketmaster-aligned dominion that has taken over the live music experience in Glasgow.

Entering its main hall, an intense wet heat lingers prominently in the air, but a distraction lies in one corner where a merchandise stall is set up, selling records and apparel of the extreme and niche. It’s not often one sees a baseball cap of gory grindcore legends Last Days of Humanity out in the wild, yet Core Festival is more than happy to provide such wares, and its attendees are more than happy to buy them.

Friday’s opening night saw Glitterer, the fuzzy indie rock project of Title Fight’s Ned Russin, bring a keen sense of melodic songwriting to the progressively sweltering humidity of the community centre hall. Headlining was New York City’s eclectic banjo-assisted hardcore outfit Show Me the Body, whose energy and stage presence set the tone of what was to be a weekend of interesting and cathartic sounds.



On Saturday the headliners remained in these islands when we were graced with Welsh legends Mclusky, followed by Woking metalcore act Employed to Serve, who provided the perfect sonic bed for some hypnotising and enthusiastic hardcore dancing, like watching a form of primitive ballet. Dublin noise rockers Gilla Band closed the prolonged, sweaty Saturday, with the skronk-addled guitar and the rambling snarl of their frontman reverberating out of the unassuming community building into the quiet residential street.

It's worth noting the many bands that took the hall’s second stage and the basement room of supporting venue The Hug and Pint. Underground music events remain important for showing a city’s hunger for the subcultural, that Scotland and its scenes have something to build on, that is free from a sanitised commercial influence. Local scenes still bear tremendous influence on the cultural make-up of a place, and most importantly, people’s lives. These avenues are increasingly pushed out, and events led with passion and care such as Core Festival are the antidote.

A particular local highlight was old school death metal act Coffin Mulch, whose large Entombed-inspired style had no place to escape in the tiny basement space they found themselves riffing in, yet it made their loud performance all the better for its intimacy.

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Sunday saw Washington’s The Fall of Troy run through some technically dynamic long-loved post-hardcore tunes, the audience exploding with excitement when signature song ‘FCPREMIX’ made its appearance. Author & Punisher was an intriguing and welcome addition to the headliners, with the San Diego-based experimental machinist creating an atmospheric sense of dread, anger, and misery through a fascinating HR Giger-esque equipment set-up. The closing headline slot gave us the extreme Empire State Bastard, a project from Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro fame, which saw Neil lumbering and thrashing around while maniacally bearing his sweaty, tattooed torso. It was to be the band’s last performance before a multi-year hiatus.

Core Festival has hit the ground running for a second year in a row, and it has already announced that it will be returning for a third time next year. If it stays the course in its passion, heart, and ethos, there’s no reason why Glasgow’s newest heavy music festival can’t fulfill the long-term potential that awaits it.