iMatter Festival 2022 Reset
“Suicide does not end the chances of life getting worse, Suicide eliminates the possibility of it ever getting better”
iMatter Festival is a giant festival that has impacted variety of people. The festival was founded in 2008, for suicide prevention, self-harm, and self-doubt awareness. The festival fills fans with unearthed value & purpose. iMatter Festival is a free annual festival located in Horseheads, NY. Founder Scott Lowmaster wanted to create something that impacted the people and gave them hope. The meaning of iMatter Festival is a reminder that this generation has a purpose and that you do matter. This year everything changed due to the pandemic. There have been many obstacles on the road to this year’s event. This year the festival is not being held at the festival grounds, due to unforeseen circumstances with the location. They knew that they didn’t want to go another year without iMatter festival.
This year the festival is being held at “The L” in Horseheads, N.Y. It had been 2 years since the last time we were able to enjoy iMatter due to the pandemic. This year the festival was moved indoors, there was limited options for tickets. There was 1,000 free tickets available and they have all sold out, there was a limited quantity of general admission available for purchase at the gate for $75. There were some VIP packages still available for purchase at the gate along a couple with meet and greet packages for your favorite bands.
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The drive to horseheads was great. If you are looking for something great to do or just looking for a beautiful route, this way is the way to go. There are a ton of different Winery’s available for tastings. During the drive there we got to experience the Troop ride (Motorcycle Benefit Ride). There were so many people out on their motorcycles riding in support for this event. The Troop ride is an annual parade style motorcycle ride through the Finger Lakes region of New York. This Benefit is to help continue to support our troops, The USO provides a home away from home for the troop and families. They also provide comfort and convenience of all military personal. All proceeds from this benefit are given to the USO. “They fight for us, We ride for them.”
Upon arrival to the event there was 2 different options for parking. There was an elementary school you can park at for $10 and get shuttled to the event or you could have opted for parking at the venue and paid $50 for the convince of being on the property. The “L” is a great venue to hold shows at. There are 2 different rooms available for music to be watched in. The main room was huge for larger performances and the smaller room was more intimate sets plus, it would be great for some acoustic sets. The venue also had seating available around the building, there were plenty of couches and seats to hangout on in between sets.
The beginning of the day started off a little bit slow. There weren’t very many people attending the show yet. As the day went on the venue became even more packed with fans waiting for their favorite bands to perform. The only unfortunate part of this day was that since this is a newer venue, so there were some technical difficulties going on with audio during multiple sets. The show still must go on, even with audio troubles. Each band was able to overcome this set back and still shine during each of their sets.
There was a variety of food and beer options available, the only unfortunate part about the drink options were that most of the stations were cash only. In the Café they had an option to pay either cash or card which helped. The venue also had a small seating area in the Café if you wanted to sit and eat rather than walking around with your lunch or dinner.
There are a few bands that really grabbed my attention while at iMatter Festival. There's a lot of energy coming from each set, all the bands played their hearts out. Someday You’ll Know Us caught my attention purely because a couple of the band members were wearing kilts. Fury In few is a 2-man shirtless band. The guitarist was interacting with the fans during the whole set. While they were playing, the band got a circle pit going and the guitarist jumped off stage and jammed out with a bunch of fans after the circle pit. As the day went on the fans were getting more involved with the bands, from crowd surfing to moshing, and even stage diving, the youngest fan that got the guts to jump off the stage was only 3 years old.
Prison is another band that always catches my attention when I see them play live, this band in particular is so passionate about their music and what they play for fans. The band creates music about life’s most taboo topics such as mental illness, abuse, and suicide. Johnny Crowder made their performance one to remember, after playing a couple songs, they called one of their youngest fans up to the stage and wanted to make this day the most memorable moment of this child’s life.
The little girl is only 3 years old and was attending the show with her parents. She got the guts to go on stage (with her dad of course) and jumped into the crowd to stage dive. This exact moment in Prisons’ set made everything more intense. The band had everyone jumping on and off the stage into the crowd. One last band that really caught my attention was Wristmeetrazor due to the band’s aesthetic, their style reminds me a lot of Motionless in White. This band started out as a project and in 2018 they released an album called Misery Never Forgets.
Loudwire named Wristmeetrazor one of the 50 best metal albums of 2019. Anberlin and The Devil Wears Prada closed out this year’s festival. For their set, Anberlin played a mix of older and newer songs. The lead singer Stephen jumped off the stage and onto the barricades so he can sing with his fans and give the opportunity for his fans to scream their hearts out to their favorite songs. The Devil Wears Prada ended the evening with a mix of new and older songs from their extensive catalog. They also did a live debut of their song “Salt” and “Time” off their latest album Time. Now that this year is over, I want to know who are you interested in seeing perform next year at the iMatter Festival?
