Skeletal Lightning Fest, an alternative music festival in its first year, will be held April 5 and 6 at the Channing-Murray Foundation. 

In celebration of the Midwestern underground music scene, the two-day festival will feature more than 32 bands from 11 different states. 

Sean Hermann, senior in Media and the creator of the festival, said his main goal in putting on the festival was to help give some attention to a scene that is not very well-known.

“(I’m) just trying to bring it to light and show people how great this scene is and how talented these musicians are. There’s another side of music than headlining the Canopy Club Friday night or nationally touring acts that you hear on the radio,” Hermann said. “These bands work really hard too, they’re just not as well-known.”

Hermann’s band, Enta, will play at the event, and his bandmate Daniel Lee, senior in LAS, compared the fest to Pygmalion, a music festival that took place in September.

“Pygmalion caters more toward bands in the pop, indie and alternative genres,” he said. “Skeletal Lightning Fest is really the first to make its primary focus bands in the Midwest underground scene.”

Lee added that the kind of music that the festival will feature isn’t as accessible as most music that comes to campus. 

“Bands in the underground scene tend to incorporate technical instrumentals with more abrasive vocals — yelling, screaming or singing hoarsely — both elements that are less accessible to the average listener,” he said. “This has a lot to do with why bands in this genre are less commonly found in large-scale musical events here in town.”

Hermann put together the festival himself, along with some help from local sponsors such as WPCD FM — Parkland College’s radio station — and Smile Politely. He also runs an independent record label that started out as a blog meant to promote the local underground music scene. The festival features numerous acts that he has worked with.

“Most of them are bands I covered on the blog or bands I’ve seen before,” he said. “In the past year, since I started doing the blog, I’ve been a lot more aware of the up-and-coming bands that are making a splash on the scene, so I kind of had an idea of who I wanted to showcase.”

One of the bands that will be showcased at the event is Champaign local Hank. Drummer Nelson Cowan said his band will be playing the second day and will bring a largely unknown music scene to the University.

“I think it’s good because with a lot of the music that comes through the University, you don’t have that much experimental music,” said Cowan, senior in Engineering. “Really the only way that you can make it work is by putting it together yourself, like Sean has. If you want to see a certain type of music, you gotta make it happen on your own.”

The Midwestern underground music scene is sometimes called the DIY scene, meaning that the bands do most of the work themselves. 

They book their own tours, make their own merchandise and release their own music with the help of their friends. Hermann said the scene is a very tight-knit and supportive community.

“Everyone’s always willing to help out,” he said. “If a band’s going on tour, they’ll take you in, they’ll let you play in their basement, they’ll cook you breakfast the next morning. It’s a big family.”

Hermann said he hopes the bands will bring an atmosphere to campus that will inspire students.

“I think it’s just a different culture, but a really positive culture. I hope to introduce some people into that and get some people inspired even if they don’t particularly like that style of music,” Hermann said. “Maybe they’ll start their own bands or get involved in whatever music scene they might be interested in — or not even music, just arts or whatever they do — and know that they have people behind them that support it.”

Eleanor can be reached at [email protected]