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Hellfest name dispute sparks ahead of event relaunch
Josh Grabelle, the founder of Trustkill Records, has been charged with “hijacking” the name of the Hellfest festival for his own “Hellphyra” festival, which is scheduled for this weekend in New Jersey. Keith Allen, a musician and organizer who founded the festival in the late 1990s and later became a sponsor of Trustkill Records, seems to be the source of the charges of misconduct. Since 2005, when its planned edition was controversially canceled only days before it was scheduled to begin, that version of the festival has virtually been dormant. The festival ended in the midst of legal procedures when there was outcry about alleged financial wrongdoing and a lack of reimbursements. After he and Grabelle started talking about reviving the event last summer, Allen claims in a recent statement posted on Reddit that Grabelle took management of the event from him for this fresh relaunch.
Official Statement Regarding HELLFEST V 1.0 6/25
To those who care,
I began speaking with Josh Trustkill in June of 2024 about bringing back Hellfest for 2025. I explained that it was something that I had already been thinking about doing in Syracuse as it was coming up on the 20 years of it coming to its abrupt end in 2005. I very explicitly explained to him my concerns for what it would look like to bring the fest back from the dead after 2 decades. With today’s music fest environment it would need to be done with tact and planning and most importantly it had to remain true to what the festival was always about. It could NOT just be a dumbed down cheap cash grab. The Hellfest brand has a lot of heft, it’s pretty notorious and pretty quickly it could get that nostalgia and notoriety monetized and served up. I was very adamant that if Hellfest did make a return of sorts that some sort of a nod must be made in Syracuse. Its a smaller market than where we had it in 04(and would of in 05) in NJ, but there needed to be a sizable show or fest in Syracuse to honor where it all began. In our talks we thought there might be multiple events over the summer around the northeast, it was all speculation and possibility.
Trustkill Records was one of the bigger and well known sponsors of Hellfest over the years. Due to mutual branding, friendships, band relationships and a myriad of other things it made good sense to team up. I expressly told Josh that almost everyone else that had ever worked with or for Hellfest in the past had ripped it off, stolen from it, taken advantage of it, used it to their own ends and helped cause it to have a ton of problems. So I had serious trust issues, but since I had over the years never had anything but a good relationship with him I was pretty confident that we could work something out. Haha! Whoops.
There were some issues trying to get the Hellfest domain back. Some guy had it and wanted a lot of money for it, Josh tried negotiating with the guy for it, he eventually settled for several thousand dollars. I offered at one point to just split the cost with Josh just to get it but he refused. In fact when he procured the domain etc, i was unaware and that was very obviously intentional.
With the Hellfest namesake up in the air , the very obvious Hellphyra fest was started in its stead. The branding, logo, and hybrid name are/were a placeholder until Hellfest was procured. I guess if Hellfest.com was never made available then it would have just stayed Hellphyra, But as soon as Hellfest.com was available, the two brands started to be used interchangeably. So much so that now somehow the first day of the 3 day Hellphyra fest is in fact, Hellfest.
I tried to get involved with Hellphyra show and when I asked for my band to play, I was denied. I was, however, asked for one of my old bands, Found Dead Hanging to do a reunion show. We could not make it work that weekend. (Though maybe we should have, because I didnt even get offered a fucking ticket to a show called Hellfest, though I think the HF tattoo might get me in) At some point a few months ago communication with Trustkill became erratic and pointless. After countless refusals to answer questions and explain what the hell he was doing it became apparent that he had gone completely rogue.
I outright asked him if his intentions were to try and straight up steal the hardcore festival that i created and just act like because he bought a domain name that it was going to fly and he just ignored me. But I guess that’s what’s going on, so here we are, because money ruins everything. This isn’t the first time Hellfest has been hijacked. When the France HF guys asked to use the name in the early 2000s and I declined, they just did it anyway. I guess it worked out pretty good for them, but they straight up stole the name. There was no deal, no sale, no rights, just good ole intellectual property theft and a fuck you. Those dudes are killing it, but I mean, they are French, so I guess it’s a wash.
Whatever the hell is happening on July 4th 2025 in NJ is NOT Hellfest, it looks like a really cool show, but it’s just not Hellfest. That’s not how it works. You don’t hijack someone else’s idea by setting them up, cutting them out, buying a domain name and just ignoring the actual fact that you didn’t create the event. And the guy who created the event did not sign off on you just taking his idea and cashing in on it with a Wish version of a fest. The fact that Trustkill and whoever else involved had to go behind my back and lie and deceive people already sucks all the integrity and trust out of the entire thing and just proves that it’s 100% just using the name and the brand to cash in, make money and get out.
There are/were talks of a big Hellfest in NJ in 2026, I’m pretty sure I won’t be involved. And it will not be Hellfest. It will be a giant cash grab money scam to make you think you are going to capture a piece of the magic from the early 2000s. It’ll be dead inside, because the heart of Hellfest will be sitting in NY.
Hellfest was never about the money, it was always about doing something fucking rad. It was about riding on the edge of chaos and hanging out with all your friends. Hellfest is infamous because it adapted and overcame insurmountable odds and mountains of bullshit. Never for money or for scene cred or to sell records. It was a reason to meet up with all your friends and do something insane.
I still actually love hardcore, I play in a couple bands. I’m still Straight Edge and I call shit for what it is. I lost everything in 2005 and here I was 20 years later ready to go again, but no one else seems to actually wanna do something rad. They just want to fuck people over and get paid.
To be clear, Trustkill did not start or create Hellfest. Trustkill was an advocate and a sponsor of Hellfest for years. There was certainly mutual benefit and very obvious cross promotions that tied the two entities together. However they were both completely separate companies. Due to the high level of branding etc, it’s very reasonable to think that Trustkill in fact owned or controlled Hellfest, this is simply not true. This couldn’t be evidenced any further than when it got thrashed in 2005 and I alone was the one to spend 2 years ultimately losing a lawsuit against the venue and its parent companies.
I should have addressed this sooner but I was hoping to work out an amicable solution. I refuse to watch Hellfest come back from the dead and get exploited. I refuse to watch Syracuse get left behind. You can imitate all you want but it’s just a cheap carbon copy. You can’t buy authenticity. You cant go on a podcast and just tell everyone that bringing back hellfest was your idea, as if it was yours to bring back in the first place. I mean what the fuck are we doing here? Is that hardcore? Or is that just business? Its not the way I do shit. No one else has the true spirit of this stupid festival ingrained into them. It is too big a part of my life to let someone else just steal it, fuck it up and pretend everything is cool. Fuck you, its not cool.
There will be more to come, KEITH IN HELL