Qualifast’s Source Dragon fe(a)st season is over
It turned out that many of the Qualifastians are fond of going to
(rock) music festivals. How cool is that - we have a common passion! We
unanimously decided to print a company banner with the Source Dragon and
start taking it with us at the places we go. Now, with the festival
season concluded and four events later, it is time to tell you a bit
about our experience.
Rock am Ring (and its twin festival Rock in Park) is one of the main
highlights of the festival season in Europe for rock, metal and
alternative music. Headliners this year included Muse, Gorillaz and Foo
Fighters, besides which there were also some other renown names, such as
A Perfect Circle, Shinedown, Avenged Sevenfold, Nothing More, Parkway
drive, Kaleo, Black Stone Cherry, Merilyn Mason, Rise Against, Nothing
but Thieves and more. With so many worthy performances, we were left
exhausted, but satisfied attending all of our favourites. The
organisation of the event was decent for a ~100 000 strong crowd,
although there were some big delay with the tickets on the first day.
There were also some notable experiences around the festival camp, such
as being transported with a bus on the actual F1 track Nurburgring
(sometimes even at somewhat high speed), shopping at the "Rock LIDL",
that was set up for the event and the fondness of the German crowd for
mosh pits, which were happening in the dozens, even at peaceful
performances.
Graspop is one of the most popular events in the rock calendar. This
year some of the headliners featured Guns'n'Roses, Judas Priest, Iron
Maiden, Ozzy Osbrourne, Avenged Sevenfold. The festival started with
not-so-nice experience with poor setup at the entrance and more than 4-5
hours of waiting. Overall the organisation of the fest was below the
expected level with insufficient camping space, complicated setup for
payments and limited working time for both baths and shops. As for the
stage performances, however, no complaints are possible. We went there
especially to hear one of the very few performances of Ayreon history
and we were mindblown with a perfect show. Other groups that we enjoyed
really much include Arch Enemy, Powerwolf, Accept, Limp Bizkit, Tyr.
Hills of Rock is happening for just a second year, but the good
organisation and lineup have already made it into one of our most
favorite events. This year a good number of people attended and there
were three days of quality music. We hope that the event will stick and
grow even further. From musical perspective we enjoyed the performances
of the headliners Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Sabaton, but also
Tremonti and Crematory made good shows. One a bit annoying part were the
mosquitoes, but when Sabaton began their pyro-show the problem was
burned away, as if by the flame of a dragon.
The first and, as it turns out, only edition of this brand. Frankly,
the venue was far from best fit for such event with overheated concrete
endangering spectators of heatstroke. It felt like we were in the
stomach of a dragon.