Whitby Gothic Festival – Halloween 2022

Happy Spooktober! It’s that time of the year when goths begin rooting around in their cavernous wardrobes for their few remaining matching blacks, and disentagling their boot laces ahead of the journey to Whitby for the premier UK goth festival. Once again I’m looking ahead and giving you a roundup of the array of events on offer.

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Goth City Festival VI: Interview with the Promoter

Forget the Batcave, Highgate or Camden Market, Leeds is going to embrace its dark heritage as the true capital of UK Goth with the welcome return of Goth City Festival in just a few weeks time.

A smorgasbord of live music, DJs and traders catering to a vast influx of black-clad fans, it’s popular with old-school and bleeding-edge goths alike. I dropped GCF Comandante Joel Heyes a line to chat about the event, as well as challenging some old-fashioned thinking in the scene!

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Post-punk and Post-COVID: World Goth Day 2022

Hello, welcome and happy World Goth Day all! I hope everyone is celebrating in whatever manner they can. I had a vague thought of actually putting this on YouTube, but time was against me so I’ve had to commit to ‘merely’ an article. In reality of course the blog is the heart of my online presence, so I’m delighted to publish today…

I really wanted to get an overall look at the UK Goth scene this year – with restrictions lifted, how was this long-lived music subculture rallying back? From the regional nights, through the national festivals to how our flagship bands are faring on the international stage, even a cursory glance shows black shoots pushing up through the lockdown earth!

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Whitby Lowkey Weekend – April 2022

Strange times are these indeed. Despite official government guidelines giving the figurative green light to all and sundry events, the expected roaring return of the Goth Weekend to Whitby has ended up more of a tentative toe in the water.

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Reactions as Ryan Herbert released from prison

Several news outlets have reported the release from prison – on licence – of Ryan Herbert, found guilty in 2008 of the murder of Sophie Lancaster, which was motivated by her goth appearence. He pled guilty and was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 16 years 3 months, later reduced to 15 years 6 months and then further reduced in 2020 – allowing his parole hearing to take place last month.

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