What’s for dinner?

The strange tide of the last days of Aug, what is left of this summer 2018, the people gathers for one brutal festival. Pure metal in the more grizzly end, pure disemboweling lyrics from the many grotesque bands to the hungry bloodthirsty audience. Grindcore is back on the menu boys! The Feast is about to begin!

 

Death Feast

In this little town called Andernach, people gathered to join the annual festival. A relative small festival with a brutal line-up just outside the town next to it’s “water fun park”. Small camping area, which is made smaller by those who bring their cars in. Camping  costs additional 20€, where 5€ goes to a trash deposit. I like that at least. Furthermore, the camping area doesn’t open before the first concert day, so no early arrival is possible. In a sense yes, since I noticed a lot of people had come during the night, slept in cars or just quickly put up the tent were it was possible.

But it also means, that one has to, arrive, find friends, find spot, put tent up, unpack (as much as it’s possible or needed) find beer, drink beer, find another and hope the weather is holding and to be ready for the first band or one of the first bands. Luckily nothing special played and I was fine.

 

During my time there it was fun to see the difference of the audience of this brutal line-up and other festival I have been on. This was definitely much more cute. Yes, I wrote cute.

First of all, the people at the festival love to run in a circle. Normally I would call this, a circle pit. But it’s just a bit different. Not just because the first ones are small. No, it’s because they are nice. Cute. Sweet. Unharmly.

Let’s put this aside, I love happy metal people and that it’s all about fun and the sharing of metal. But that said, I had excepcted a more brutal crowd of people. Some more crazy, some more moshing, just a bit more of everything. Honestly it threw me a bit off and I had to walk a bit around, take it all in and to see what this was all about.

Meeting friends from other festivals and their friends quickly made me realize that it truly was a very nice festival. Good talks, drinks were flowing and the smiles larger than even the face of Mick Jagger could stretch it.

 

But it was something missing. A propper mosh pit. Suddenly I was thinking; maybe I am not such a nice person. I want more brutality and I want it now.

 

The Bands and the Feast

For me, the bands were great. A few swing and a miss, especially the German band, Kadaverficker (roughly translated to Corpsefuckers) was awful when the singer was trying to “sing” properly. It made me laugh for a second, then I ran away.

One can’t get around that the sound coming from the stage wasn’t always good, but it wasn’t anything that bothers me too much. Fair enough, again some few bands had really terrible sound and it was a shame. Most of the time it was quite okay.

 

The thing that is difficult on a smaller festival is to stand with your beer/drink in the hand and listen to music you don’t like, just because, once out you can’t get in again. At least, not with the beer bought at the place. Also second day the security really started to check a bit to much. It’s not that much is possible to get inside anyway. Why all the fuss for nothing?

Well, it’s been like this since I came and trying to get use to it. I most likely won’t.

 

It’s Germany, so it’s impossible to pay with other than cash. Even at the nearby pizzaria they didn’t have the possibility to put it on the credit card. So second day I had to wonder all the way to town!

I had to anyway since my dear air-madras had seemed to find it was the perfect time to commit suicide and die hard and brutal on the very cold ground on the field of Andernach. By Odin!!!

But there where food stands, two beer stands and a cocktail bar that I visit more often than the others.

 

A few stands with t-shirts, cd’s and other merch. Small but really nice. Okay, it was really small. After 15 minutes I had seen it all, twice and that meant I had more time for beer, cocktails and bands.

 

Second day it really hit me in which place I've come, when the second band promoted a “wall of death” but instead insisted on a “wall of love” and so be it. People made room, waited and ran. And hugged eachother in a giant bloop of hippie love. I must admit. I started to think of Primal Scream; kill all hippies.

But with most things, everything can be solved. It’s just a matter of drinking enough! So be it, where was the cocktail stand!

 

It did take a while, since I had some brutal hangovers and sleeping on an air-madras without air, wasn’t really helping on my situation nor my state of hangover!

 

From Brutal Sphincter, World End Man to funny Party Cannon and Gutalax, over to Origin, A Night in Texas, Disavowed and Dying Fetus and many more, it’s was a joy to see the bands give it all they had.

I don’t remember which one, but one band lost half their members in the airport or for some reason whatever, they were only 2 person on the stage, having the rest on playback. I admired that they wanted to play, they seemed to have fun and put it all out there. But I just had to laugh a bit and went for a shit at the good toilets instead. Shit happens and when it’s good to have decent toilets with toilet paper. Like it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the last day, slowly creeping up on me, I took a bit of a status of this festival.

Fair enough, it’s small, some things irritates me, some are good, the people seems rather great and it’s a okay vibe here.

04 ó clock in the morning, I went home from.. a tentparty, or something because the festival closes around midnight. Which is a bit weird, but it’s due to some problems from the people of the town. They don’t like noise at night, even if it’s fairly outside the town. Okay? But, I was dragging myself to my tent, when I came past this “huge” tent with so many people and loud music and loud singing. Seal; Kiss from a rose.

I shit you not!

Which made me think a bit about it 3rd day at the festival. For instant, at MetalDays our or my neighbours insisted to play German pop, Schlager and hip hop. Here again people played a lot of pop, rock pop, electronic and poop music. Why? To be different for the sake of being different? It’s probably me.

 

A group of people singing Wonderwall from Oasis, Deichkind, kids music (German version of The Smurfs, Adele, Madonna and of course Schlager wasn’t a rare thing to see or hear coming from the tents and groups of people in the camping area.

Was cute, was truly metalheads, no doubt, but I had thought that it would be a bit different at a festival that calls itself, the most brutal festival in Europe and it turned out to be the most cute, pussy metalpeople festival in all of Europe.

Be fair, I liked it, I just wasn’t in the mood all the time nor did I accept it to be like this. The feast was more like a lunch but, if you can’t beat them, join’em!

“Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey

Ooh, the more I get of you, the stranger it feels, yeah

Now that your rose is in bloom

A light hits the gloom on the grey...”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music; fine to great, sound; could at times be better but good all in all, audience; good but sweet, food; meh, beer; meh but it’s cold so just drink, cocktails; wow killers!, people in general; cute, nice, great and more, people helping out/working there; fairly nice, good to very cool, eating possibilities close by; meh, toilet facilities; rather good, camping area; small and a bit meh especially since there was nada light (nada means no or nothing) and that I had to go all the way downtown for even the smallest things was a bit of a irritation but that’s what one get with a small festival in Germany where the credit card machine is yet to be invented.

 

Now I know what this is all about, I do think of returning, glad I was there. But I will probably mostly return for the music, friends and the cocktail rather than the stage crowd, lack of mosh-pits haha and weird people from Belgium I called Pierre/Frence to piss them off because they seemed quite racists hahaha.

 

This time I need to rate the festival and I will give it 3 out of 5 horns! There is always room for improvement!

 

Festcamper; over and out!