It was 1975 when Supertramp released the album “Crisis? What Crisis?”. We all remember the man sunbathing whilst the world around him looked somber and grim. 34 years later and the world around us is indeed somber and grim but maybe the man in the swimsuit is the personification of progressive rock : trying to bring sunshine in dark times !

However crisis has struck everywhere thus also in our beloved world of prog. The first edition of Symforce got rave reviews, a reasonable amount of visitors but still lost money. Last year’s second edition sadly took the wrong turn emphasizing too much on the progmetal phenomenon as opposed to the true symphonic approach introduced the year before. Most of the audience was different, not so appreciative of what happened outside of the main hall. Again Symforce lost money.

Time to think. Time to think hard and come up with a solution. We think it’s wise to downsize, to gradually build so that in a few year’s time we will once again have the magnitude we long for. Bearing in mind tons of parameters and budgeting we think we have come up with the best possible solution in times of crisis. In exactly half a year from today : Sunday 27^th September 2009; once again the respected and well known 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland will present SYMFORCE III : the ‘light’ version. Instead of three venues we have downsized to two venues. Instead of twelve bands we have opted for six.

Practically this means that only the small venue and BatCave will be used. Only 325 tickets will be sold so needless to say it’ll be sold out very quickly once tickets go on sale (which isn’t for a while yet). Negotiations are still under way but I can guarantee you we will go back towards the atmosphere of the very first edition of the festival. Progmetal is for our friends of Progpower whom we wish tons of success. Symforce will be there for fans of pure progressive, symphonic rock.

Bit by bit more news will be given but I can assure you you’ll be able to buy your tickets with eyes closed as you’ll get treated to six top acts ! For the time being keep visiting http://www.myspace.com/symforce - www.myspace.com/symforce where we’ll be adding news on a regular basis.

At first things didn’t look good but now I’m glad SYMFORCE III is well on it’s way. So long may the Symforce saga continue. May the Symforce be with you !

John ‘BoBo’ Bollenberg

Organizer Symforce