Terminus festival in Calgary

Despite being placed in the middle of nowhere, Calgary is an unexpected gem with a lot to offer. As I walked across the bridge over Bow River, I realized just how compact the city center is. The tall skyscrapers including Calgary Tower on one side of the river is in big contrast to the lush greenery of Prince’s Island on the other side.

We make our way past a horde of geese before arriving at the cosy River Cafe. Got a table near the river and ordered flatbread with cheddar an apricot, rounding off with goat cheese caramel chocolate and Ontario pecans. No wonder that Calgary was ranked alongside Zürich as the third most livable city in the world.

Calgary and Bow River as seen from Prince’s Island.

As wonderful as that may be, we were not really here for the sunshine. We made our way to Dickens in downtown Calgary, where Terminus Impact was taking place. This was the 6th edition of the annual Terminus festival with a very nice lineup.

I enjoyed gigs by Cubanate, 3Teeth, Glass Apple Bonsai (with guest appearance by Hello Moth) and Wulfband. Other bands I saw were Actors, Drab Majesty, The Gothsicles, Ludovico Technique and more.

Wulfband at Terminus festival.

The original plans were that PIG would be last band of the third day, but those plans didn’t work out for various reasons so a temporary band was formed for the night. It consisted of Nicklaus Schandelmaier (En Esch, former singer of KMFDM), Günter Schulz (ex-guitar in KMFDM) and two local talents. It turned out to be surprisingly fun and the ending with classic song Godlike was truly godlike.

En Esch, KMFDM and more.

In addition to their impressive range of craft beers, Dickens also did a collaboration with local brewery Wild Rose Brewery. With some input from the headlining bands, the brewery produced a limited-edition set of beers with only one cask each. These unique brews were 3Teeth’s “3Teeth Triple Bite”, The Birthday Massacre’s “Crimson Birthday Wish” and PIG’s “Bloody Fog”.

Big thanks to Chris Hewitt and everyone else involved in making this festival a great success!