Some go into politics. Some choose charity for a cause. I think I’m pursuing the revival of a seemingly dead scene. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska. The goth scene is pretty much a dried river bed at this point within the state. We absolutely have Cliff & Ivy, a goth band, down in Anchorage. There are still a handful of people who do their goth thing on a daily basis. It’s nothing like it was 15 or 20 years ago.
15-20 years ago in Alaska, you could easily find a goth night or an alternative night at a few bars in both Anchorage and Fairbanks. Both cities had their own alternative shops. Now, you can catch Cliff & Ivy play in Anchorage and you can find some items in mid-town at The Look (570 E Benson Blvd #20). There’s nothing up in Fairbanks. This is as-of early-August 2020.
Earlier today I was chatting with Dan, who once ran the glorious, Anchorage-based shop called Subterranea. Any goth or punk who visited Anchorage in the 90s or early 00s will absolutely know the shop I'm talking about. We were talking a little about where the scene is today and I think we were both a little...clueless. He shut down his store in the early-00s and sold the name to a guy who turned around to sell...magic cards? So weird. I've spent the last decade finishing up a second degree, moving briefly to and from Portland, taking up a job that I kind of fell into, and spending time at the gym. What I told Dan was that I felt "without community", despite seeing people around town who I know would attend a goth night or goth club.
I don’t know how exactly I’m going to revitalize the scene, but I do know that it’s going to start in Fairbanks since this is where I live. I’m working on getting a goth cover band put together, which is a good project. The people I do know in the local goth scene are a highly creative bunch. I think a few voices are going to be sounding like a huge crowd pretty soon. For now, there is a facebook group called Alaska Goths that people can join.
Here’s some other stuff that I’m looking for (in Fairbanks):
A DJ who is familiar with goth music, perhaps with some industrial thrown in
Gothic performance art
Gothic drag
Space for a weekly or bi-monthly “Goth Night”
I think this is currently the perfect time to be getting everything together. It’s NOT ready to go right now, so if things get shut down due to COVID for a bit - no biggie. Just more time to plan. It also gives people time to get some performance art ready - which has been a thing up here in the past. We have a pretty solid little drag community up here and if any of them are interested in doing something, it would give them time to prepare something. I also need to start talking to venues about having a goth night. I need to find a DJ that isn’t focused on hip hop, rap, latin, or pop music.
If I can get this to happen, I will absolutely put a little money into advertising for it. Probably facebook ads and flyers around town.
I am totally looking for suggestions on summoning this dead horse back to life.
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