Hello again, dark creatures.

Today I’m answering the question „Why is there no event coverage in The Void Journal?“.
The question has been asked for years and I’ve answered  individually so far, but it seems like a good idea to answer it this column  too, even though I don’t burn with desire to broach the subject and don’t like the drama  I’ve been involved in along the way.

To begin with , the focus of The Void Journal from the beginning until now has been on spreading worthwhile music and specific values and ideology, it’s never been in concert coverage and over the years I haven’t given that much thought, I’ve left it entirely in the hands of other webzines.

Despite the lack of activity regarding concerts, for some time now some local event managers have been writing to me and informing me about their events, which allows me to write announcements about them and inform you in time about upcoming concerts. These are Live & Loud and Desolate Management.
You’ll see regular updates on events organised by them in future – it’s a pleasure to partner with them.
Several foreign promoters have also kept me informed regularly for years.

Aside the announcements – this year, after much persuasion from you, I have decided to start a new chapter in the development of The Void Journal after all, and to kick off event reports on the webzine.
To this end, I approached a well-known Bulgarian promoter of black metal (and not only) events in connection with a concert of an established  black metal band that visited us in May.
It would be a good start in my opinion.

I formally introduced myself through the media outlet’s official email, as I believe not everyone is obligated to know who I or my webzine are, and quite professionally made a request for a media partnership.
It happened in March and the gig was nearly two months away – plenty of time to respond.

Fine, but the promoter  was silent, the concert passed and no one dared to scratch any answer, be it negative.

It became interesting to me and later, after talking to various people, my suspicions about the situation were confirmed – it was purе nepotism and protection of the interests of a group of people.

I found out from a reliable source that the person dealing with the communications of the company in question (a person with whom I have never said a word in my life and whom I don’t know at all) is actually very close to people who have been quite negative towards my media since the moment it became a bit more successful… some of them being among the team of another Bulgarian online media, their partner. And it all made sense.

I have a pretty good idea why the media in question is muddying the waters (and not for the first time, by the way) , but I wonder why someone who doesn’t know me is tying himself to someone else’s wits and engaging in various  inadequate performances. And this is a person who is working for  a black metal promoter. Doesn’t tie in with me somehow…and with that mentality, I recommend this person to try working for pop-folk /chalga event promoters.

Anyway. When I found out about it, I asked a friend to ask the promoter on Facebook if the email was active (I just don’t use Facebook anymore), because I question everything and wanted to make sure it was actually intentional sabotage and not some technical glitch. The email could have gone to spam, for example, though it was unlikely due to my work email settings. It could also have been that the email was inactive and they had another contact, but it wasn’t updated publicly. It all happens, eventually.

After receiving a reply that the e-mail was active, my friend immediately handed the info  over to me, and since another event of the organizer in question was coming up, I wrote the same day to the same email that I did not think this treatment of a Bulgarian media was correct and quite politely asked for an adequate response.
The owner of the company (not the person I commented about above) emailed me back the same day that my message had gone to spam and asked me to write to him at his personal work email.

Now… here I wish I could say – great, we’ll figure it out.
However… If my message went to spam, how was it received in an inbox a few months later? No such possibility.
If it had been detected by the system as spam, it would have ended up in the spam folder again.
The only way a message to a work email would show up in the inbox if the previous one was in spam , is if someone manually moved the previous message there.
In other words, someone moved the first message to spam on purpose so it wouldn’t be seen.
I consulted a number of IT colleagues, I did my own experiments – this is the only logical explanation.
The person reviewing the emails had moved my first email to „Junk“ on purpose, and just by some lucky accident  their boss saw my second email  before it was sent there again.

Never mind that I already understood what had happened, I sent a message to the submitted new email – quite normally I presented the idea and stated my desire for accreditation of The Void (without accreditation you can’t take photos on behalf of the media, as well as to write reports) … and apparently either the owner of the company didn’t respond to me intentionally… or they pushed my email to „Junk“ again, haha.

So, to this day, I have no response (which I consider an answer).
And that is definitely the end of my attempts to contact the promoter in question.
I closed the page weeks ago and for me personally everything is  absolutely ok  as of today.
But such kind of treatment of a local webzine is interesting, to say the least.
I take it with a huge dose of humor, of course, especially since I’m aware of the motives.

It just seems like nepotism exists in our country even in black metal too, not only in our politics.
Especially from these few guys who feel weak and want to make me feel insignificant with this action – just because they might feel like that lately and hate the success of The Void and the fact that they have no control over it.

A success that is a fact, thanks to a lot of effort on my part, and not just handed to me… and which I will comment on in other Q&A articles, as some of your questions are related to the topic.

So, this is the reason why black metal events are not covered on the website – I was willing lately, but I was not given accreditation, which in my opinion is quite logical for such a media to have. Not even normal communication took place.

In the future, maybe concerts abroad or those of other promoters in Bulgaria will be covered, but honestly, seeing how some people tremble for this territory, I think I’ll leave it to the tremblers – to enjoy it, if it is so precious to them. Until I decide that it is  valuable enough for me and for you, of course. Then things will get a bit more serious…and maybe they will need to stock up on good sedatives, or something stronger…

As a final note, I’d like to say a few words to anyone who is currently in a similar situation or just doing something different and standing out in some way.
I’m doing this simply because as of today I’m at a point where I’m well over this stuff, I’ve been through a lot and overcome a lot, I can safely comment on the topic and it may be of some benefit to someone.

And these words are:

No one attacks behind their back  (especially in groups) those they consider weaker or more incapable than themselves. This is a sign of weakness – small people attack in a similar way those they consider a threat to their ego and who are not in their power.
If you notice such behavior towards yourself without having intentionally caused any harm to the other person – congratulations, you are doing things right, you shine brightly and you definitely have something about you that sets you apart and others want to possess.

My advice is to not pay much attention to the noise and just focus on the important things, because I know from experience that this behavior is not personal and not worth the energy. Other people’s insecurities and behavior are not your responsibility. Look out for yours and stand up for your values.

Do what you love and feel is right, and just give others the freedom to think whatever they wish. The more valuable and genuine you are, the more you will attract similar reactions, and if you have potential and are developing well in a particular direction, you just need to keep that in mind and be ready, because there is no exception to the rule.
Look at all the distinctive people in history.
They’ve all been pushed down the table at some point, and yet they’ve left behind a tremendous legacy that we remember to this day. It’s just the way the world works.

Focus on the right place. This is the key.
Keep it tight and live your life as you see fit.
No one else has a say.

This is all from me today.

I think this song is very appropriate for the atmosphere of the writing (plus it’s still one of my favorites):

PS: I saw the questions in the previous article and the emails – I’ll answer in the next parts. Anyone who has more things they would like to see covered  in the column is welcome to ask more questions. I hope you’re well and already in a Friday mood (Thursday is our Little Friday, after all). See you soon! (: