Credit: Alexandria Crahan-Conway
Slipknot has been running its Knotfest on land since 2012, but this year marks the first time it’ll be held at sea. The inaugural Knotfest at Sea five-day cruise sets sail from Barcelona, Spain on August 10, and according to percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, pulling it off will be “surreal and challenging.”
Describing the event to NME as “a bunch of crazy people on a boat for an extended period of time,” Clown says, “It’s kind of like the making of a horror movie. One doesn’t know unless one tries. Initially I didn’t like the idea, but…people understand, so I have a feeling that we’re actually going to make it what it needs to be.”
“You hear ‘cruise’ and you think that there’s just no way that could be, but I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that it’s a truthful experience – that I can walk away and go ‘I loved that,'” he adds.
As for how he’ll be making it a “truthful” experience, Clown explains, “First of all, we’re all pirates anyway – so we’re taking it really literally and going to war. I think it’s a once in a lifetime kind of thing. It’s going to be different, surreal and challenging. If things feel easy then you get complacent.”
In addition to taking their festival to sea, Clown tells NME that he has a bunch of things on his bucket list.
“I want to play Hong Kong just so I can eat food. I’d like to eventually play Hawaii on the band’s dollar,” he gushes. “It’s the same dream: get up there for 90 minutes. That’s the closest to God that I’m going to get. That’s the focus of everything still.”
Slipknot’s European tour wraps up at the end of February.
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