Foreign Dissent Celebrates 10 Years of International Punk Rock

What started in 2014 as a half-baked idea rages on more than ten years later. Foreign Dissent’s 10-year anniversary celebration will take place on October 20 at Will’s Pub in Orlando — and it’s going to be bigger than ever before.

To celebrate a decade of performances, 10 bands are hitting the stage for this extra special edition of Orlando’s International Punk Rock Party. Six different countries are represented, including two never before featured at Foreign Dissent (Mexico and Japan), and one band coming back for an encore performance (Sunliner).

FULL LINEUP for FD10:

Sunliner (England)

Modern Shakes (England)

LEXT (Japan)

Harker (England)

Back Teeth (England)

Descartes a Kant (Mexico)

Toodles & the Hectic Pity (England)

Small State (Germany)

Germinar (Chile)

Swear (Italy)

Foreign Dissent by the Numbers, so far:

• 9 years of events
• 60 bands in total
• 19 countries represented

Some Foreign Dissent highlights over the years include:

FD1 (2014) I was asked to book a show for Laura Palmer and learned it was a three-piece punk band from Australia and not a solo singer-songwriter. This realization and my instant love of the band truly set the concept of Foreign Dissent into motion.

FD2 (2015) The organizer of The FEST in Gainesville, Florida (the reason these foreign bands are in Florida in the first place) started to give the international bands a heads up about Foreign Dissent. Now, instead of having to chase down bands, many of them started hitting FD up. This year also featured vegan food truck Leguminati for one of their very first events. They’ve gone on to be a mainstay brick-and-mortar for the Orlando food scene.

FD3 (2016) Panama’s Lemmiwinks had to give a last-minute crash-course in learning their songs to a 16-year-old friend who joined on bass so they could pull off their tour to FEST. It was so cool getting to see this young musician thrown into the fire of FEST week.

FD4 (2017) Austrian quartet ASTPAI performed as a three-piece with lead singer/guitarist Zock doing vocals and drumming when their drummer couldn’t make the trip due to health reasons. This is the only time the band ever performed with such a configuration, as they found an extra musician to help out on guitar the day after FD4.

FD5 (2018) This first notable milestone felt like a huge accomplishment to reach. FD had t-shirts for the first and only time (until now, as there will be new shirts for FD10!), and this was the first Foreign Dissent that was recorded in full by FD legend and video mastermind Blaine Helmick.

FD6 (2019) We were blessed by the vegan eats of Orlando vegan entrepreneur Mackenzie Singleton’s Vs Diner, at the time a food trailer. Today, you can find Mackenzie continuing to spread vegan food joy around Orlando with Scratch Vegan Kitchen.

The COVID Years (2020-2021) Little did I know how things would fall apart as I started to plan and confirm bands for FD7 in early 2020. As 2021 rolled around, a vaccine offered promise and it seemed like FD7 could finally happen. Bands were hitting me up, and FEST was moving forward, but the US travel ban remained until early November 2021, preventing any foreign bands from making the trip in time.

FD7 (2022) Foreign Dissent returns! In addition to the joy of finally being able to do the event again, Blaine created an iconic FD moment as he mounted a camera to a bike helmet to allow himself to capture an additional view of the bands.

FD8 (2023) This year, there was much lineup fluctuation — three bands dropped from the original lineup, and two got added. We also partnered with Orlando’s best record store, Park Ave CDs, for a sponsorship, providing extra cash for the far-traveling bands.

FD9 (2024) Also known as the year of Italian Dissent, four of the eight bands that played were from Italy. Bellissimo!

So here we are, ready to hit the stage again for the celebration of 10 years of Foreign Dissent. Memories will be created. Come be a part of it at Will’s Pub in Orlando on October 20.