Forge Festival will launch in Melbourne on Halloween with a multi-band bill at The Leadbeater Hotel in Richmond, featuring the return of Scar The Surface for their first performance in 12 years.
by Paul Cashmere
Melbourne’s heavy music community will gather at The Leadbeater Hotel in Richmond on Saturday, October 31 for the inaugural Forge Festival, a new Halloween event that will feature the long-awaited return of Scar The Surface alongside a lineup of emerging and established local acts.
The one-day event has been conceived as a community-focused festival built around live music and Halloween festivities. Alongside performances, organisers have planned themed decorations, immersive production elements and prizes for attendees who arrive in costume.
The headline appearance by Scar The Surface marks the band’s first live performance since 2014. Formed in 2007, the group became a recognised name within Australia’s heavy music scene through a series of EP releases and their debut album, From The Shadows To The Fire. Their return places one of Melbourne’s notable underground heavy acts back on stage after a lengthy absence.
Joining Scar The Surface on the bill are Transience, Bear The Mammoth, Adelaide band EKOSA, Binary Pulse, Rat Tomb and Matahari. The lineup reflects a broad cross-section of heavy and alternative music, with organisers describing the event as a celebration of diversity within the local scene.
Forge Festival also arrives amid renewed interest in community-driven independent events in Melbourne. Through the 2000s and early 2010s, grassroots festivals and multi-band bills played a significant role in developing audiences for local artists and fostering connections between bands and fans. Organisers say Forge Festival draws inspiration from that era and seeks to recreate the sense of community that characterised those events.
Independent venues continue to play an important role in sustaining Australia’s live music ecosystem, particularly as artists and promoters face rising touring and production costs. Events such as Forge Festival offer local acts opportunities to perform in front of new audiences while providing fans with access to a diverse range of emerging and returning artists in a single setting.
Whether Forge Festival develops into an annual fixture remains to be seen, but its debut edition places community and local music culture at the centre of the event. The return of Scar The Surface and the multi-genre lineup provide an early indication of the festival’s ambition to become a new gathering point for Melbourne’s heavy music audience.
Saturday, October 31, 2026, Richmond, The Leadbeater Hotel
Tickets: Early Bird $20, Presale $30, Door $40, available through Oztix.
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