We're very excited to announce the Third Communion Dark Arts Festival which will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 2-3, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The festival will include a number of national and local bands, plus an art and photography show, a fashion show, poetry readings and performances, an up-close magician, a goth-swap and bazaar, and more!

Voltaire from New York will perform on Sunday night. Voltaire is best known for his club hit, "When You're Evil." He will be playing a solo acoustic set of songs from his two Projekt released CDs, The Devil's Bris and Almost Human, as well as a bunch of new material sure to amuse and horrify (all at once!). In addition to his musical talents, Voltaire is also the creator of the comic books series Oh My Goth! and Humans Suck and scifi.com's animated series Chi-Chian.

Apocalypse Theatre is a nomadic musical collective whose members travel and change constantly as the band adds new members and sheds old ones, with past and present members totaling more than 70. They have played an impressive 300+ shows in the last 6-7 years, including performances at The Burning Man Festival in Nevada and have shared billing with the Electric Hellfire Club, Spahn Ranch, Rozz Williams, and Gitane Demone. their performances are unlike most shows, and can include clowns, pyrotechnics, fire performances and more. They will perform on Sunday. Their side-project, the Messangers, will also perform on Saturday.

Spoken Word performer Clint Catalyst, whose writing credits include two chapbooks and a collection of short fiction, poetry, and essays entitled Cottonmouth Kisses, and who has published in numerous periodicals including Danse Macabre and the Mid-South Poetry Journal, will perform readings from his publications. He will read on Sunday.

Local musical acts, including Domiana, Redemption, Tragic Black, Panic Button, and Awaiting Treatment will perform.

The fashion show will feature not only clothing by Seattle's Catastrophe Clothing and Salt Lake's Accentuate Your Look, but also jewelry, hair pieces, and leather and bondage gear, all hand-crafted by local designers. It is scheduled for Saturday evening.

The art and photography show will feature dark images, and will run concurrently with the bazaar and swap meet, throughout both Saturday and Sunday from 2 - 5pm.

The Festival will be held at Club @, 740 South 300 West, in Salt Lake City. More details, including a schedule (still tentative) is available at http://darkarts.utahgoth.net, or you can email darkarts@utahgoth.net.

The Dark Arts Committee is still accepting entries for all areas of the festival. In particular, we are looking for poets, designers for the fashion show, artists and photographers interested in displaying work in at art show, and individual and businesses to bring swap and sale items for the goth swap and bazaar. Entry forms are on the website.

Tickets are $13 for a 2-day laminate. As an additional incentive, ohGr and cevin key are performing on Friday, June 1, at Area 51. This show will probably be a lot more intimate than the show in most other big cities, so the trip to Salt Lake might be even more worthwhile! Tickets for the ohGr performance are not included in the $13 Dark Arts ticket price, but information about the ohGr show will be posted on the Dark Arts site.

The Dark Arts Festival is the work of local grassroots promoters, Nightmares Productions.