Swollen feet, aching neck and mosquito bites? Yep, it’s festival season! 
 
This summer I decided to go to Gefle Metal Festival in Gävle, Sweden; a festival I’d never heard of in a town I’d never heard of until just two months before I attended the festival, and I drove approximately 2500 km just to attend it, and it was definitely worth it. 
Before Gefle Metal Festival it was called Getaway and lasted three whole days instead of two, and with a much more grandiose and accessible line-up than these days. From the information I gathered from the locals, there was a large change with the organizers with several of them leaving and cutting their budget drastically, which then led to the festival going for only two days and with a more niche line-up. 

 

Day 0.5 - Pre-party 
Even though GMF is advertised as only a two-day event, it has always had a pre-party the day before. This time around there were four bands that performed instead of just one like the years prior. The larger pre-party was an experiment to carefully test how GMF would function as a three-day festival, which is also why all the bands played on the main stage; the Goat Stage. 
 
I had arrived at the small town of Gävle early in the afternoon on the day of the pre-party. It was a lovely drive and a lovely, little town. It was quite easy to spot where the event was purely from the amount of dark clothed and long haired men walking around. The outside of the venue was decorated with banners with the festival’s logo as well as flags up high on top of the buildings inside the area. After getting my wristband fastened I asked where the parking area was, as I got quickly kicked out from where I thought the parking area was. The lady in the information kindly told me where to drive to get to it, and I thought all was set and ready to go, but I was very wrong. I think I spent over 30 minutes looking for the sign, because I was too proud and stubborn to ask twice. I eventually found the tiny sign by the main road and then found the parking area with a short drive, then it was just smooth sailing ahead. The parking area was right next to the campsite, but the campsite was a ten-minute walk from the venue, which was a bit of a bummer as I hoped it was right next to it, but it wasn’t too big of a deal.

 

Before I had even set up my tent in a free corner, I had already been incorporated into a Swedish camp group called Camp Fisk/Fäsk (can’t remember the spelling, but the logo was the skeleton of a fish) that had gathered at the festival every year since Rock Getaway was a thing. They were all really cool, and friendly as well as inclusive as they made/had friends all over the campsite, but as soon as they figured out I was a western Norwegian in eastern Sweden, the temptation to screw with me was too great for some of them. The eternal sibling rivalry between Norwegians and Swedes, but it’s all in good fun as it happens the other way around in Norway as well. 
 
After getting settled down at the campsite and just hanging out with the group, the couple of us that had pre-party headed up before the first band started playing. This gave me the chance to explore the festival area, that was entirely inside an old industrial gasworks area. There was a whole variety of booths with food, merchandise and other knick-knacks for such a small festival. Another thing that really impressed me was the amount of crew, security guards, helpers and nurses from Red Cross. There were always crew strolling around, cleaning up garbage, so the festival grounds never looked littered, at least not compared to the campsite. They also had several people walking around and asking if you had ear plugs and would try to sell them to you if you didn’t have any.

 

Most of the beverages that were served in the bar came in plastic bottles that could be recycled for cash, which reduced plastic waste substantially and gave more of an incentive to pick them up and throw them in the correct bins. Unfortunately the standard beer wasn’t as cheap as I had hoped, but it was a little stronger than the normal beer you get at other festivals, so you get your money’s worth. 

 

The first band out was the female fronted speed metal Mystik. This is one of those local bands that you’ve never heard of going in, and get blown away during their show. These girls (and guy) played as if they had mastered their craft back in the 80s and really carried the spirit of 80s speed metal. The vocalist really has some pipes on her carrying power and intensity. Their finishing song “Mystik” was definitely the highlight. During the show a bee flew right past me, but I didn’t think much of it. Just a few seconds later the guy from my camp who was right next to me tapped me on the shoulder to ask if I could see if anything was stuck in his cheek, and there the bee’s stinger was deep in his pink and swollen cheek. The poor guy was forced over to the Red Cross tent that was right by the stage, but everything turned out fine after just a few minutes. 

 

Wolf was the following band. Another Swedish heavy metal band, more on the traditional 80s side. I had seen them before earlier this year at Karmøygeddon in Norway and they put on an alright show, but nothing spectacular. This time around was very different and they really owned it on stage, having the immersed crowd under their fingertips. Their singalong songs “Shark Attack”, “Speed On” and “Hail Caesar” were the biggest hits and really got the crowd going. 
 
The Swedish band, Bullet followed suit, with some more classic sounding heavy metal and hard rock. This time around I sat down by the tables near the stage and enjoyed a cold beer in the heat while watching the band.