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May 30, 2023

Metalheads and pinball fans flip over Mad With Power Fest

Features editor Ty Christian is the organizer of a heavy metal pinball festival, Mad with Power, coming to the Sylvee next weekend. What goes better with a heavy metal ball than actual little metal

Features editor

Ty Christian is the organizer of a heavy metal pinball festival, Mad with Power, coming to the Sylvee next weekend.

What goes better with a heavy metal ball than actual little metal balls?

Specifically, the steel spheres that rocket from flipper to target and back again in a pinball machine. For six years, the Mad With Power Fest has brought top metal bands together with arcade and pinball machines in one space in Madison.

Once a one-day festival at the High Noon Saloon, the 7th annual Mad With Power Fest will take over the much larger Sylvee, 25 S. Livingston St., for two days on Friday, Aug. 18 and Saturday, Aug. 19.

Each day will feature six different metal bands and over 40 arcade games set to endless free play located throughout the concert venue for fans to play between sets.

Founder Ty Christian, who performs in his own Madison metal band under the nom de musique Fang VonWrathStein, started Mad With Power Fest in 2017 intending to set it apart from other metal festivals.

“There’s not a lot of differentiation between this festival versus this festival versus this festival,” Christian said. “Everybody’s in a box watching live music. So I wanted to be able to add some value on top of that experience and bring in pinball. I think the people who like power metal and sort of the nerdier genres of metal are probably more likely to be jazzed about playing arcade games and classic pinball.”

VIP tickets, which include goodies like limited-edition T-shirts, guaranteed seats and pre-show meet and greets with the band, have all sold out. But general admission tickets ($55 for one day or $90 for both days) are still available.

Ty Christian poses in front of The Sylvee, which will host his Mad With Power Fest for the first time this year on Aug. 18 and 19.

Turning a concert venue into a combination music festival and video game arcade is a logistical challenge, Christian said. Not only are there the usual challenges of putting on a festival, such as coordinating load-ins and load-outs of equipment for a dozen bands and handling hundreds of fans. They also have to make sure to have enough power running to all the different arcade machines throughout the building.

The games are brought in on loan from private collectors and local arcades, and run the gamut in genre and style. People usually play them between sets, but they’re free to play while the music is playing as well. There’s no danger of the sounds of the bells and buzzers overwhelming the power metal sounds coming from the stage.

“Statistically, not every band is going to be your favorite band,” Christian said. “We try to broaden out the genres a little bit, so it’s not all just power metal. But if you’re not into dread metal, it’s not really your jam, put a video game on. At the end of the day, I just want people to have a good time.”

While it’s the pinball games that distinguish Mad With Power Fest from other metal festivals, Christian said it’s a priority for him to get a good, diverse lineup of bands as well. Specifically, he wants to avoid booking older “dinosaur” bands that might have large nostalgic followings, but haven’t been creatively active in a long time.

Mad With Power Fest founder Ty Christian of the Madison band Lords of the Trident luxuriates on the gigantic banner for the festival.

“It can be very disheartening when you don’t see really exciting up and coming bands that you want to see at a festival, and instead they have a band that’s kind of a legacy band,” he said. “I sort of felt that if we didn't really do anything about it, the metal scene in general was not going to not going to continue in the same way, not going to be able to support the mid-tier bands that need a bump to get into their next level.”

Christian said he’s gratified that all the VIP tickets have sold out and about 80% of general admission tickets are gone. He feels the festival has grown organically.

“I’ve seen a lot of festivals pop up and they try to get too big too soon,” he said. ‘We kept it at one day for the first three years, and very slowly moved up. That kind of planning over the years has definitely paid off.”

Because this year’s festival is taking place at The Sylvee, which is owned by FPC-Live, Mad With Power Fest is using Ticketmaster for the first time to sell tickets. In an unusual move, customers will see up front exactly what the final price of a ticket will be rather than getting hit by convenience fees or other extra charges.

“We said look, we will do this only if we are allowed to show exactly the final price. We don't want any extra taxes, or fees, any extra service crap. You know, if you see 90 bucks on the website, when you get to checkout, it's gonna be 90 bucks. As far as I know, we are the only we're the first and the only festival that use Ticketmaster to do that.

“I saw on the news that Congress was introducing a bill where you had to show the final price on a website before checkout. I was like, ‘Oh, Joe Biden must be a fan of Mad Power Fest.’”

Christian has already booked 11 of the 12 bands for next year’s fest. Because Metallica is playing in Minneapolis on Aug. 16, 2024, typically the weekend that the festival goes on, the 2024 festival will take place on the first weekend of August.

“Thank you, CrossFitters, for cancelling,” Christian said with a laugh.

Rob Thomas is the features editor of the Cap Times and has been writing about music since 1999.

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