It has been, I think, one of the best StrangeForms fests ever. If not the best ever festival, then possibly the best ever single day. . . The wildly varied line-up has been most excellent, curated to near perfection. . . I’m going home tired but happy, and my life is just that little bit better for having been here.

Supersonic is not in the business of making its promoters wealthy, it’s about the life-enriching power of art and music. It gets ever more difficult to make events like these happen but they are not going to lay down, once again delivering an amazing weekend, a victory in the face of adversity.

Sander van den Driesche went to see the excellent mixed bill of loacl(ish) bands at the Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh.

From here on I lose track of song breaks and starts; Aoba has frozen time and barely a breath is drawn from the audience for the rest of the night. . . To continue to describe the performances by Aoba, Umebayashi and 12 Ensemble, I’m in danger of listing all the synonyms for ‘beautiful’ or sounding like I’m reciting that much-memed Lady Gaga quote (“talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular”), but both of these are applicable.

Weekends like this are a beacon of light in darkening times. . . Supersonic is a gem, don’t take it for granted.

Roadburn’s real magic isn’t always the obvious picks — it’s the under-the-radar sets: strange, heavy, danceable, confrontational, and impossible to neatly label. Show up curious, roam freely, and let a random room change your weekend.

Ripcord Fest comes to an end on an undeniable high. As a celebration of the label and of British heavy music as a whole, it’s a triumph; but even beyond that, it’s been a joyful occasion. People have undoubtedly discovered new bands, plenty have made new friends, and it feels like an entire community has chipped in to make the day worth remembering.

EartH’s stage is vast, and The Antlers have just two (sometimes three) musicians, a handful of lamps and monitors to occupy it. When awash with blue spotlights, it could be an ocean. But the set the Antlers deliver needs this space to ring out in, such is its expanse. EartH, The Antlers, these wooden benches we sit on, the slight chill of March, and indeed the artists’ performance: all here is natural as it comes.

…and just like that, the Tour Ship fires up its engines and shoots off into The Beyond. Returning planet-side with their first new material for six years, Shift just keep getting better and always seem to be on top form.  I honestly can’t think of a more exciting metal band in the UK right now.  Go catch them at your nearest planet-side dive bar asap!  

Farao, on stage on this ordinary, beautiful February day, does create a kind of magic. . . it’s music that invites as much reflection as it is reflective, restful as it is danceable, ethereal as it is grounded in earth, skin and silk.

Seven years on from their Glasgow debut, A.A. Williams have returned to the G2 as an artist evolved. Quietly devastating and utterly captivating, they are living proof that there is beauty in darkness.

Tonight, we have been treated to two outstanding sets that, while sonically different, come from the same place in spirit; both 40 Watt Sun and Stygian Bough have shown Sheffield how special their music is, bringing it to life even more in a live setting. 

We all know it’s the last time we’ll see Svalbard play in London; for many, it’ll be the last time ever. So that energy yields plenty of real tears, a whole lot of raw, unashamed love for Svalbard, and of course some of the most wildly enthusiastic moshing I’ve ever seen. 

The music is earthly and unearthly, with moments of both grounded sensitivity and detachment that soars away from that ground to look at an existential, aeroplane-high picture. Salmena’s music, here, is a sonic reflection of this winter’s night –bracing, expansive, and this time, welcomely dark.

What this festival has grown in terms of community and open-to-anything gig-goers is bigger than any line-up, subjective opinions on music and new-year fatigue. It is a music-lovers’ event in the truest sense of the word and needs commending for that – we need more festivals like it.