MONTAGUE — Since August 2014, heavy music fans have come to Montague for a weekend of music and community at the RPM Fest. This Labor Day weekend, the festival celebrated 10 years of being “the heaviest party of the summer.”

“It’s a good community of music lovers — that’s why I love it,” John Bryan of the band Luxury Funeral from the Hudson Valley said about the festival. “The crowds are always so supportive, so energetic, so into it and you can’t ask for anything more than that when you’re a band.”

Bryan has played RPM Fest in different bands in prior years. His current band plays a genre called “space metal,” which he described as being influenced by spacey and strange sounds. The band played a set to around 30 on Friday that Luxury Funeral bassist DJ Scully said is a unique experience from other, larger metal festivals.

“It’s cool to see a million big bands, but it’s unique here that everybody’s chilling and having a good time,” Scully said.

Bryan agreed, recalling how last year the karaoke activity at the festival allowed for both musicians and attendees alike to share a mic, and enjoy the tight community the festival cultivates.

“It was festival attendees and people from bands just all doing karaoke together, and that is the most perfect metaphor for this whole thing. I can’t imagine a more magical, truly down-to-earth connection,” Bryan said.

Even for a first-time RPM Fest band like Voices in Vein of Burlington, Vermont, the experience was marked by a passionate community of metal fans and committed organizers.

“We’ve played a lot of festivals, but as soon as we showed up, we thought, ‘This is the most organized festival [with the] best hospitality and vendors, and it just feels like a real festival,” vocalist Jeremy Scott said.

Scott said the band was supposed to play in 2020, but the festival was shuttered because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The band was invited back this year, and they were one of the opening bands of the entire weekend.

Since 2018, the Millers Falls Rod and Gun Club has hosted the festival with multiple local sponsors with Four Phantoms Brewing Company as the presenting sponsor this year. A wide range of bands and musicians from across heavy music genres gathered in the woods of Montague to play to hundreds of dedicated music fans in the western Massachusetts scene.

The festival started after festival co-founder and organizer Brian Westbrook of PDP Productions teamed up with John Thurlow of Promotorhead Entertainment to offer a space for music and culture in western Massachusetts — in Westbrook’s backyard. Since 2014, the festival has become a central location for heavy music, culture and community across the region and New England.

Outside of the headlining musical acts, the festival brought in campers and vendors from across New England to fill the weekend with things to do from dawn until dusk. Metal yoga would open the day Saturday and Sunday with wrestling, trivia, burlesque, drag performance, karaoke and Kaiju battles closing the evening. Vendors sold an eclectic mix of items spread out on the grounds, and bands sold their merchandise and music inside the main pavillion.

Alastor Labrecque of Holyoke has attended RPM Fest since its inaugural show. She remembers when the festival was held in Greenfield, which she describes as its “humble beginnings.” Since then, her appreciation for the festival has grown as it returns each year.

“Over time it has really built up,” Labrecque said. “I really appreciate the spot, and I love that [organizers] are actually willing to say, ‘Let’s do it. Sign up for next year, and let’s go again.’”

Labrecque said that the festival offers a way to support local bands and musicians that she is willing to pay to see each time. She feels that the passion for music keeps bands coming back to create a space for heavy music appreciation.

“I appreciate amazingly the artists here, because this is not their income, this is their passion. They come here, they show what they got and it’s not a show off. It’s more ‘Join us and appreciate [the music],’” Labreque said.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.