As previously reported, ENSIFERUM, TURISAS, TYR and ELUVEITIE will join forces for the Pagan Fest North American tour, running through April and May, with SUIDAKRA joining the tour for six west coast dates. According to a press release (found below) the May 9th show scheduled for Fat City in San Francisco, CA have been moved to The Avalon in Santa Clara, CA (777 Lawrence Expressway). The reason for the change is explained below:

"Hey everyone!

Just wanted to let you know that the San Francisco date for the Pagafest USA tour on Friday, May 9th has now been changed. The new venue information is as follows:

The Avalon

777 Lawrence Expressway

Santa Clara, CA

This show is ALL AGES. Tickets are $18 in advance, $22 at the door. You can buy tickets on www.brownpapertickets.com or you can physically go to the venue and buy them starting Tuesday, February 19th (yes, you will get a physical ticket for it). Doors are at 7:00pm and show starts at 730pm PROMPTLY. The club has no ins and outs and you cannot wear open-toe shoes or any wristbands/jackets/etc with spikes on them (safety for the younger crowd, and sometimes the older too, LOL). They do have a smoking section that you can go to on the side of the club, however. This club is really nice and gorgeous and holds about 950 people. It has an extremely cool concert sound system and lights, plus they have a kitchen you can eat very good food in and a HUGE bar for those over 21. It also has a bunch of FREE parking and is not hard to get to on public transportation. For those of you who don't know where Santa Clara is, it's about 40 minutes south of San Francisco, very close to San Jose.

The reason the date was changed is that, even though I love the people at Fat City and never want to make something go away from the original venue, I knew their show was 21 and over. I know a LOT of people under 21 that were complaining because they wanted to go to this show, especially since the Sacramento/Orangevale show is on a Monday and too far away. I also got a bunch of emails/messages asking if I knew why it had to be 21 and over. I know the owners of The Avalon and contacted them about possibly doing this show and begging them to have all ages (they almost always do 21+ shows). That is why I contacted Rock the Nation USA to see if anything could be done, especially if there was a club willing to do it. I'm excited that it all worked out very well and I'm really happy that I could help the kids out by getting the ball rolling the right direction. This club rarely does actual METAL shows (more often than not it's a rock club with groups like MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, George Lynch, Y&T;, etc.), but I hope that they can do some more metal in the future.

If there are any of you (in Sacramento or the Bay Area) that would like to help me hand out flyers at some upcoming shows or want flyers to pass out at your school or whatever, please let me know. Anything to help promote the show!"

METAL!

~Squeak

The final tour itinerary is as follows:

April

25 - Toronto, ON - Opera House
26 - Montreal, QC - Medley
27 - Worcester, MA - Palladium
28 - Springfield, VA - Jaxx
29 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody's
30 - Detroit, MI - Harpo's

May

1 - Chicago, IL - Chicago Powerfest
2 - St. Paul, MN - Station 4
3 - Denver, CO - Cervantes
5 - Seattle, WA - Studio Seven *
6 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater *
7 - Orangevale, CA - The Boardwalk *
8 - Hollywood, CA - House Of Blues *
9 - Santa Clara, CA - The Avalon *
10 - Long Beach, CA - The Vault *
11 - Phoenix, AZ - The Cell Block
12 - El Paso, TX - Chics
14 - Tulsa, OK - Crush Lounge
13 - Alburquerque, NM - The Launchpad
15 - Fort Worth, TX - Ridglea Theater
16 - San Antonio, TX - The White Rabbit
17 - Houston, TX - Java Jazz
19 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
20 - Raleigh, NC - Volume 11
21 - Allentown, PA - Crocodile Rock
22 - New York, NY - B.B. King Blues Club

* with SUIDAKRA