Hellfest 2022 / Hellfest 2023

With the dust and mud of GMM still on our clothes, we set off from Belgium on Monday, June 24th. We were going to reach Nantes via Paris. Paris Montparnasse Station welcomed us in such a way that all our tiredness washed away and left its place to a crazy excitement.

That skin tho!

On Tuesday night, June 25th, as I fell asleep in our hotel in Nantes, I still couldn’t believe that we were about to embark on a new marathon in such a short time. On Wednesday morning, June 26th, we woke up and set off around 11am, ignoring the Hellfest announcements, as was the custom.

Again, it was announced that the doors would open at 4:00 p.m. and I knew for sure that the doors would open at 2:00 p.m. So at exactly 2:15 p.m. the tape on road Rue Des Sabotiers was lifted and the rush to the gates began chanting Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!!! As soon as we entered, we ran to the shaded corner where we always pitch our tents. This time we were going to pitch a tent and try to secure a spot for Ersay’s coming. As those who read the Graspop article know, he was not with us for the time being because he had food poisoning. He was lying in his hotel, sweating cold sweats and negotiating with his immune system to get him ready to this weekend.

We set up our nest under a partly cloudy sky with agreeble weather. When the rush was over, I remembered to look around; how relaxed was the camping area here this year, it could even be called sparse. We were set up so detached from our next door neighbors that not one but two Ersays could fit. 

                Let’s see what was going on at the market. We walked 2 kilometers excitedly. As usual, two stages were set up in front of the E. Leclerc Market and amateur live music had started. This market is huge and it is possible to find everything in every option, both cheap and expensive. It is also in cooperation with Hellfest. There are many themed products inside, from Hellfest branded wine to clothing to special Hellfest printed market bags. (A stand with temporary Hellfest tattoos at the entrance had all the cashiers covered in skulls and dragons during the weekend.) But like many big supermarkets, this place limits the contents of its cold cabinets to perishable foods as part of its “environmental awareness” and “ecological approach”. It sells the beer warm, and says you can cool it at home… We liked Lidl better, a cheap market two hundred meters away. It was much cheaper, and because it was less environmentally conscious, it put the beer in the cold fridge, may Satan bless their souls. We ran to Lidl with longing and joy, but a bitter surprise was waiting for us: Lidl had burned down! It would be under renovation until July 10th. After cursing the one responsible, the fire brigade and the general manager, we returned to the lukewarm beers. A nice surprise was waiting for us at the market; Nilüfer, Burak and Emre. We bought our stuff one by one left the market and we met up in the parking lot. The chitchat that began in front of the market continued in the guys’ tent area until the first hours of Thursday.

Thursday, June 27

                The festival, which used to be 3 days long, was first extended to 4 days in 2022. Since then, the festival area, including the main stages, opens its doors on Thursday instead of Friday. This Thursday the concerts were to start at 16:30, we were in no hurry. While we were having breakfast at the grocery store, Ersay entered the festival and managed to set up right next to us. Finally the team was complete.

                The most important event of the day was the press conference at 5pm. Three days ago, while we were still on our way to Nantes, we received an alert on the app that Megadeth would be holding a press conference. My heart jumped at this news. I said I would raise my hand and ask the question on the minds of 80 million people: Why did the guitar technician post a story saying “Fuck you Turkey”? When it was time for the meeting, I went to register with a slight stomach cramp. I was wondering if I was ready to be scolded by the angriest man in metal when I realized that the king had canceled the meeting again. Ugh, just as I was about to make history.

I had no intention of watching Slaughter To Prevail again since watching it at GMM was quite enough. For 3-4 days they had been hyping up on social media that they “will build the biggest wall of death the world has ever seen at Hellfest”. They ate a lot of concert time to realize this claim. Even though I was listening from afar, even I got sick of it for a while. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t, there’s no need to get worked up Alex. In the end, he got it done, here are those moments through the eyes of Mr Terrible himself:

In addition to the irritability that is an integral part of my character, I was starting to feel nauseous and weak. I tried to suppress the panic that was rising inside me, “I’m sure I’m poisoned as well.” I sat down for a while, washed my hands and face, but the stone sitting in my stomach started to grow bigger and bigger. It was not the time, I ignored it and walked towards the Altar Stage.

One of the bands I was very excited to see for the first time was Brujeria. The songs, lyrics, the lore and even the sound of the band are exactly for me. While listening to them in Istanbul, even trying to visualize the concert was enough to entertain me. Now, the cold sweat and shivering I felt as I walked to the Altar stage was definitely not from excitement. I think it was the canned ravioli. I gritted my teeth and leaned against the front bars, eager to make eye contact with the members of the Mexican cartel. It was spacious inside, but as the fans filled the space, I started to feel a rumbling in my gut. The band finally piled on stage with masks cut at the mouth area and the thunderous sound slapped me in the face. The concert started with Juan Brujo, followed by Pinche Peach. You would never have guessed that Pinche Peach would pass away only 20 days later due to heart disease. Like the whole band, he was terribly energetic, always in eye contact with the audience. The band even managed to revive me. Nevertheless, I had to leave the concert before I vomited all over the poor photographers in the pit because I started gagging while I was trying to sing along to the songs.

I laid on the benches in the press area. I went to the toilet and threw up, it felt really good. I decided to recover before things got serious, but I was not going to be able to eat canned food in the coming days. The food in the festival area is very good and relatively healthy, but a bit expensive. Starting at 7 Euros, the cheap alternatives are not enough for a meal. While I was trying to figure out what to use as a base and at what time I could start drinking, a team entered in the corner of my line of sight: Whoa Fear Factory! They were at the press area the day before their concert and they were drinking together! I jumped out of my seat, I even forgot that I was upset with Dino Cazares, I ran towards the group with the instinct to take a photo with them. But Övünç or Ersay was not with me. Would he take a picture if I asked the lead singer? The band was wandering around so much that they left before I could catch them. I shouted after them, “You’re not FF without Burton anyway”.

I managed to make it to the second half of Babymetal while I was on my feet. The weather was hot enough to melt the sunscreen, so I was watching with an umbrella open. The girls’ costumes with long sleeves and stockings burned me as I watched them. I guess because they had been on stage for close to an hour, they had an exasperated look on their faces, but they never missed a beat in their choreography. Singing while dancing is work in itself. The fact that they did it in burning heat was proof that Babymetal had the status of maroon berets. If we disregard the discomfort of the costume, they shone like magnificent tropical insects in the sun. There is no world where I can listen to Babymetal voluntarily, but their concerts are another story. Fun, positive, hypnotizing. Assuming I was at a j-pop concert with metal sauce, I enjoyed it a lot, not to mention watching die-hard fans losing their minds while singing along to the songs.

“Is it okay to listen to Babymetal?” discussion accompanied by Övünç Dan’s photographs:

Megadeth began right after the Babies on the main stage. After the GMM performance, I had learned not to expect a spectacular show like the one in Istanbul, but Dave was looking more tired today than last week. Even the bpms of the songs felt slowed down. The concert came to an end in a flash. I guess the boss was getting tired as the Crush The World Tour was coming to an end. One thing I noticed was that Dave was extra emotional in this concert. He said his “I love you”s so deeply and from the heart, almost making eye contact one by one. If I didn’t know better, I would call it a farewell tour.

Even though Sodom is a prestigious, veteran Teutonic Thrash giant that deserves the main stage, we were going to see them on the small Altar stage. They prefer to put on a no-frills, no-bullshit performance and maybe this simplicity is not enough to fill the main stage. We took our places at the Altar at exactly midnight, and boom! The assault begun. This Sodom concert was metal in its simplest form, as the ore comes out of the mine. If you are a fan of the band great, it was super satisfying. If you were listening because you are an old skool metal fan in general, it was a bit monotonous.

Cradle of Filth defines “show”. I’ve been a fan of their visuals since I was a little kid. Of course there are many more like them now, but CoF will always have a special place in my heart since they were the first for me. CoF proved in this concert that they are not a band that would lose music behind make-up and decorations. It was obvious from every note and every attack that experienced coach Dani Filth was keeping a very tight camp. As the closing band of the Temple stage, they spoke little and played a whole bunch. Dani had lost a lot of weight and was back to his 90’s look. He was super friendly and positive. I couldn’t believe it was the 30th anniversary of their debut album! I couldn’t take my eyes off Marek “Ashok” Šmerda in his pinhead makeup. It’s not every day you see a Cenobite soloing. I waited to see if he brought The Lament Configuration but I didn’t see it this time.

CoF as seen through the lens of Övünç Dan:

Hellfest day 1 rundown – by Övünç Dan

Hellfest day 1 potos – by Övünç Dan

Friday, June 28

                On my way to the main festival area in the morning, a shop with a Love Shellter sign in Hellcity Square caught my attention. “La Société Protectrice des Animaux” (SPA for short) is an animal association. Every year, it takes in thousands of animals that are abandoned on the streets and takes care of them and re-homes them. In other words, they do what should be done, what is normal, what is humane. Our minds were already on the massacring amendment to the Animal Protection Law that was taking place in Turkey. I went in and said hello. I bought some things for me and my sister Gözde. Of course, the proceeds from the sales go to the association. They were also having a raffle, you could buy lottery tickets for 5 Euros each and participate in the raffle. You win prizes like hanging out backstage with Mass Hysteria and a guitar. While I was getting this information from the guy in charge, someone came running in with a giraffe-costumed friend on his shoulder. He laid his friend on the ground, who was suffering from a giraffe-specific disease. A state-of-the-art medical intervention was applied by pinching the giraffe’s ass and head, and thank God, he was saved in no time.

Friends’ orders (patches and t-shirts) were bought, some food was consumed, and then it was time for Klone. Every year there is a moment like this at Hellfest. We’re in a high mood at noon under the bright sun, we wondered if progressive metal would be a good idea now… BAM! From the first note we find ourselves in a dark forest. It was the first time I heard this band and my favorite thing in the world was happening: discovering new bands live! As I listened to it, I lost my mind, I fell in love with it. I can hear some friends pulling their hairs saying “I’ve recommended this to you 40 times”. Sorry, I’m a stubborn pig. I don’t listen to recommended bands. Klone can be compared to Leprosus or Riverside, but I enjoyed their music more because I found their traffic simpler, songwriting more melodic and up-tempo. (Between you and me, Leprous bores me a bit)

Tim Henson, who we used to watch on Youtube and say “holy shit, boy can play the guitar”, grew up, formed a band and came to the main stage of Hellfest with Polyphia and appeared in an ambitious slot at 18:30. I thought Polyphia catered to a niche taste, and judging by the thousands of people gathered in front of the main stage, that niche was quite crowded. Both Tim’s guitar playing and his smiling baby face were like a humanoid robot. A remarkable human in deed. Ten minutes passed, I had seen everything I needed to see and I was getting bored. Timmy must have taken a vow of silence, we didn’t hear a peep from him. Naturally, the band’s hype man job fell to bassist Clay Gober. By the way, there was a custom that no band missed during both festivals: yelling “push it back”, “open up this pit”, “spin this shit around” to get the crowd pumped up for circle pit or wall of death. Of course we are at a metal festival, this is normal. But the last band I expected to hear this was Polyphia. Although there is nothing wild in the band’s music, Clay didn’t break the tradition either. The strange thing was that the audience didn’t hesitate and immediately started to break each other’s faces to the tune of virtuoso guitar riffs.

This year Steel Panther was performing right after Polyphia and right before Tom Morello. We were going to have fun in the brothel after La Biennale and right before going into political history class, perfect. Since we had seen the Panthers at the GMM just a week before, we knew the show’s direction and the jokes by heart. But there was one very important problem that would put a damper on this: The French don’t speak a word of English. They couldn’t understand the exchanges between Michael and Satchel. They looked at Stixx’s Tim Allen impression with one arm tucked into his tank top as “what is this?”. Even when Satchel invited a woman on stage for the song Weenie Ride, the stage crew, again not speaking English, mistook it for 17 Girls in a Row and started to fill the stage with women. The band didn’t chase the fans away, of course, they said “let ‘s just do this” and performed 3 songs disappearing and reappearing in a giant crowd of women. One of the ladies, who Michael took by the hand and danced, embraced her role too much and tried to stick her tongue into Michael’s mouth at a moment when they were getting close, saying “guess we will have some foreplay”. For the first time in my life, I witnessed Michael Starr in the throes of death. If he would have parted his tightly clenched teeth even a little bit, it would have been Eyes Wide Shut. What they lack in English, they make up for with their libido, hot fucking French people.

Steel Panther through the lens of Övünç Dan – Satchel, wearing his “Penelope Pussycat” t-shirt. She is the girlfriend of Pepe le Pew, the flirty French skunk.

It was either the best or the worst time to rally this crowd for revolution, while they were a sea of hormones. Tom Morello and co rushed the stage “Revolt! Resist! Never retreat!”. I guess it was not the right call for me at thah moment, I think I was going to skip the class. I felt a slight regret while listening to Killing in the Name from a distance, but I got over it quickly. I guess our over-politicized life in Turkey, in which we are up to our necks, makes me avoid this kind of music on vacation.

As the closing band of GMM, Machine Head made our blood boil with their grandiose show. Today was not the last day of the festival and MH was not the closing band. But they put the same bells and whistles on the stage without missing anything, with fireworks and everything. We didn’t know it at the time, but after what happened on the final day of the festival, one thing would always be commented on social media: “The real Hellfest closer was Machine Head on Saturday night.”

The fuse was lit by Rob, we easily geared up for Prodigy. However I was a bit confused about the live performance of electronic music. Who am I supposed to headbang towards, the DJ? We had seen Prodigy twice before, at Rock ‘n Coke Festival and I remembered having a lot of fun each time, but Keith Flint was the biggest element responsible for this fun in addition to the music. I would really like to see him again. Without him I can’t call Prodigy a “concert”, it was a good rave: Perfect sound, impressive stage decor, laser shows and of course the most important thing: A very strong nostalgia element. Maxim also deserves a lot of credit, he carried the “live” element of the performance. All in all, a Prodigy gig in 2024 is still good value for your money.

Hellfest day 2 photos – by Övünç Dan

Saturday, June 29

                Today was going to be the busiest day of the festival for me. A band I’ve been dreaming of seeing live since 2021 is at Hellfest this morning! Even though I was dog tired, I opened my eyes 45 minutes before the clock chimed. Övünç woke up even before me, it was time to run to the main stage. I couldn’t believe that we were going to see Sumerlands, Eternal Champion and Alien Weaponry back to back!

We had a coffee and a croissant, and caught Darken still on stage. Darken was not only a French band but also a band from this region “Pays de la Loire” where we were, local times local. During research I realized that the band was described as heavy/power metal, but when I listened to it, it felt butt rock to me. Never in a bad way: simple traffic, catchy riffs, English lyrics, sympathetic band. Just the music to put on and do some house work.

Sumerlands, who came into our lives in 2016 and grabbed us by the earlobes with their nostalgic elements, took the stage. There is nothing better than old skool heavy metal with melodic riffs and solos. The retro sound and fantastic themes accompanying the songwriting on the albums made me dream about such a stage decor. Yet today, there were four guys in jeans and t-shirts on stage, yet the music was enough. The back drop had a photo of Bradley Raub, the bassist of both Sumerlands and Eternal Champion, who passed away on May 30th. The band didn’t replace Brad with a bassist and only two guitars were on stage. Lead singer Brendan Radigan said a few words after a couple songs, he called out to Brad: “I’m sure he’s up there watching us right now and he’s like, ‘What the fuck, you guys are playing without a bass player?” By the way, I like Brendan’s voice better than the previous singer Phil. The double trouble Arthur Rizk and John Powers made up for the bass deficit, and it was an even more spectacular concert than I expected.

A blessed moment! I finally caught Alien Weaponry. A three-piece New Zealand band so young in their 20s and so fresh with only two albums under their belts that their sets were usually wasted cuz they opened the stages at the crack of dawn. Until today.  The three of them literally obliterated the Snake Pit stage prepared for Metallica. The songs and break downs, written in the Maoi Te Reo language, reminded me of Sepultura from the 90s, only more minimal. Lead singer Lewis de Jong is such an intense guy. He made us believe that themes such as land plunder, human greed and not learning from the past are not just a source of inspiration for AW, but the band really cares about the stories they tell. I have to hand it to them though, all three of the boys have the same intensity. It was also impressive to see bassist Tūranga Morgan-Edmonds’ 2021 ta-moko tattoo in real life.

In the last couple of years, no band has stirred me up like Eternal Champion. Rregardless of the medium, I am extra fond of the sword-war fantasy genre. (must be because of all the Conan movies I watched as a kid.) However, simply the theme ain’t gonna cut it, you need to make the music sing, which they do. Actually, what I have to say about EC is very parallel to what I said about Sumerlands. Retro sound, classic heavy metal compositions, epic vocals. This is inevitable since they share guitarists Arthur Rizk and John Powers and the late bassist Bradley Raub with Sumerlands. But I like EC more, the music and its universe appeals to me more.  EC doesn’t do it “ironically”. In fact, frontman Jason Tarpey written stories in fantasy style. Plus he is a blacksmith. I mean… Despite being so immersed in the theme, they manage not to be kitsch like Manowar. Their sound and stage presence is very cool. Everybody else counts down the minutes, and they balance the set list to the seconds. Jason on the other hand kept asking Brendan Radigan, who was watching him, “how many minutes have we got left?” after every song. He is spontaneous.  The concert was as technically nerve-wracking as it was emotionally spectacular. Especially experienced drummer Connor Donegan did sweat a lot while struggling with the walking drum set. (It’s a shame that the technical staff does not take the earlier bands seriously.) Guitarists Arthur and John put on a proper show again, just like in Sumerlands. Since Bradley Raub is also the bassist of Eternal Champion, they played without a bass guitar as well. Brad was remembered with an emotional speech and was applauded a lot. It was a bit obvious that frontman Jason was not used to this size of a crowd yet, you better get used to big crowds soon Jason. At the end of the concert, he sang the last song with his t-shirt off and a chain mail on his head. Man, you should have done that from the beginning, we could’ve gotten in the mood a little bit more. 

We’ve all seen the famous 2008 documentary, right? I took my seat to watch Anvil just to see the characters IRL. (If you ask Övünç, we’ve seen Anvil before, but I can never remember.) Anvil was playing at the Snake Pit stage where Metallica was going to play that night. Lip, with a big smile on his face, jumped on stage like a firecracker, greeted us using his guitar’s pickup as a microphone (an ear-splitting choice) and immediately started running around the Snake Pit with his guitar. But his guitar’s transmitter signal couldn’t cover the distance. At the second step, the guitar went silent. Lip couldn’t turn back because he had picked up the pace, so he cheerfully completed the pit lap playing his silent guitar and arrived back safely in range of the signal. I couldn’t believe the feast of music that started afterwards. A band with songs as bad as Anvil and playing them as badly as Anvil had made it to the main stage of Hellfest with their naive persistence. Kudos to you man.

The Swedish legends The Haunted packed the Altar Stage with a crowd less than I expected. Maybe because his fellow countryman Yngwie was on the main stage at the same time. Marco, the lead singer, greeted the crowd waving both hands and started the concert by thundering into the microphone he pulled out of his ass pocket. Although the crowd was small in number, it was a high quality gathering, the crowd surf never stopped. As you know, Ola Englund replaced founding guitarist Anders Björler. As a Youtuber he is warm and talkative in his videos. On stage, he timidly hung out in the background, but besides the guitar, he played a very important function: shooting POV videos from the stage. When I saw that he placed a camera on top of his amp, I thought man, these videos will be cool as fuck. Take a look for yourself:

Sexy grandpas Accept are one of the bands that I am very excited to host in Turkey. Because they are one of the veteran bands in the “what do you feed on” category. Accept, you really have no right to be this fit! I felt ashamed of my aching back watching Wolf Hoffmann’s guitar playing. By the way, there was a beautiful, baby faced surprise on stage: Joel Hoekstra. He is replacing Phil Shouse on Accept’s 2024 tour. This band is so flawless (except Mark Tornllo’s “landing strip” beard) that it will impress anyone. Even if you haven’t listened to Humanoid, even if you don’t know Accept, even if you don’t like metal

There was no one amongst us who was a fan of Bruce Dickinson’s solo work. So the sudden downpour didn’t worry us too much. In fact, we were even happy that we would be able to watch the slightly more famous band that would follow from a very comfortable location, as it increased gradually and scattered people. To make sure of that, we started running to the main stages in the second half of Bruce’s set, braving the storm. Even though most people took shelter under the eaves, there were still some brave souls who were watching the concert barefoot with a garbage bag over their heads. We had a front row seat to Bruce’s “concert French” which only he understands. Just kidding, I’m sure speaks fluently. I just find it absurd that he is so proud of it that he talks too our ears off. He explained the songs while I eyed Tanya O’Callaghan because what an absolute stunner.

The sun went down, the rain fucked off and we managed to settle in a perfect location with the “side approach” method. Metallica started. You know how they share 72 Seasons tour concerts song by song with an amazing recording, as soon as the concert started I felt like I was teleported to those videos. BTW, starting the concert with Creeping Death: power move. The stage, the lights, the sound, there is already a Metallica standard. They could have kept people there until they died of hunger and exhaustion if they wanted to. The exhaustion of three days, or even a week if you count GMM, flew away. As expected, the concert was a mix of the greatest classics and 72 Seasons. Except for one song. Right in the middle James said “we have a surprise for you” and handed the microphone to Rob. Kirk and Rob played and sang a song that I guess was meaningful for the French. But I can’t tell you how bad the performance was. It is a nice thought, it was done for other nations, cool, but guys do you mind practicing a bit? It was the most ridiculous 5 minutes ever. Apart from that, it broke my heart a little bit that they played the weaker songs from ’72 in stead of Lux Aeterna. Metallica gave us all the bells and whistles including the giant beach balls, pyros and fireworks. However, they took control of the giant screens on both sides of the stage. Instead of showing the concert continuously, the screens were sometimes divided into small squares and sometimes projected graphic designs. Most people were annoyed by the fragmented use of the giant screens and they are right. I was close to the stage so I enjoyed the atmosphere created by the graphics, but the people 3 kilometers back would have probably preferred to see the band.

Following a kind of monster like Metallica (haha) is beyond almost everyone’s depth. Saxon must be one of the very few that is up for this job. I have spent my life dissing them and started to love Saxon only after seeing them at festivals and eventually started saying “is this actually good?”, go ahead and play more you mad lads. The giant eagle that had been hanging all day on top of the main stage 2 finally descended down, its laser eyes lit up. You may remember how they played a role in launching Metallica’s career: Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel’s buddy comes out of a Michael Schenker Group gig, sees Lars exiting the same gig and he is actually wearing a Saxon European Tour t-shirt. He goes up to Lars and says “whoa, how do you know Saxon?” – “I’m from Europe, how do you know Saxon?” – the three bonded over their love of NWOBHM and the rest is as they say, history. On the one hand it was an experience with historical importance, but on the other hand we listened to a shiny mega sounding band.

Saxon through the lens of Övünç Dan

Sunday, June 30th

                The exhaustion, the lack of vitamins and minerals, the wear and tear on the feet, it was all too much to ignore. The control panel in my head was completely lit up red and an alarm was going off somewhere. I said okay, let’s not get too tired today, let’s take it easy. There are no unmissable bands today. Well, are we too relaxed? Would we be bored? Today was the last day! There was no Hellfest for another whole year… I panicked.

                As much as I wanted to catch up, my feet weren’t carrying me anymore. We barely made it to breakfast. Then we tumbled left and right in the Muscadet Kingdom grove, listening to the music playing on the main stage. I didn’t even feel like drinking. Neither did the boys. Whenever I asked “beer?”, I got the answer “naah”. With Ersay’s advice, we went to the Warzone stage for the first time and watched Show Me The Body (I didn’t like it). From there we crawled on to Valley and watched people dance to Sierra’s synths (I did like it). This loose cannon mode had a joy in itself. I picked myself up a bit for Batushka. I knew it would be the first time we would see the “real” Batushka after the court case, but you can’t see the guys anyway. The tent syage was, of course, crammed. Still, we managed to get close enough to smell the incense.

Queens Of The Stone Age is one of those “I have zero emotional connection but I’ll check them out because they are too famous” kind of bands. I took a long look at Ginger Elvis, and with the effect of him being a beautiful man, I got to listen to the music a little bit. But I was going to jinx it, onlt a few days later Josh Homme would have to undergo emergency surgery and therefore would be forced to cancel the rest of the summer tour. 

Lingering and loitering, we finally made it to the evening thus the the final hours of Hellfest. So it was time for the closing headliner.

Foo Fighters, along with QOTSA, became the most discussed band of this year’s Hellfest. “Should Foo Fighters be the closing headliner?” was discussed on every social media platform open to comments. The short answer is: hard no. I don’t like them, but that’s not the reason. I’ve never seen them live before, so I’m not sure if it was always this uninspiring or if Dave Grohl felt uneasy because he thought he was performing in a place he didn’t belong. But this stage has hosted non-metal artists like Prodigy two nights ago, Ice-t one night ago, Machine Gun Kelly in the past years. In my experience, Foo Fighters was the shittiest concert in Hellfest history. Dave Grohl, that big confident loudmouth, didn’t know what to say or what to do with himself. As a person whose career is songwriting, he said to the audience: “Hellfest! I’m looking around and see that this is a great place. As far as I’m concerned, you’re not in hell, you’re in heaven!” Wow. The master of contradiction. We sat across the stage and watched with the mentality of “since we’re here…” The fading light of the day, the lamps of the stands, the calm atmosphere reminded me of Rock n Coke days, I was covered with a sweet nostalgia. Then I suddenly realized that Dave was saying goodbye to us. But he still had a whole of 15 minutes stage time left. We thought he was going to do an encore, but he didn’t! A cold “Goodbye” and the festival was over! I have seen many bizarre stuff but this was unprecedented in the history of Hellfest. There were even some bands who brazenly exceeded their stage time and were booted from the stage. But ending early? A headliner? And on the last day? It must have been the end of the world. We all looked at each other with shock. Then the giant screens next to the stage lit up: 2025 Hellfest tickets would go on sale in a week. That was it then. So where were the fireworks? Where was the “See you next year headbangers” farewell, the closing video? We stopped for a while to fully understand, but everyone was leaving, we realized it really was over . Later, I read on Instagram and realised that many people were offended by this uninspiring closing. They resented leaving without saying goodbye properly. They found it strange that the announcement of the sale of 2025 tickets was shared so urgently without any group announcement. No lie, one wants to shed a tear or two while hugging and saying goodbye. Hellfest management’s relationship with its participants has always been organic and humane. In fact, Hellfest responded to the reactions after the closing by saying “We heard you loud and clear. We understand the meaning you attribute to the fireworks and the closing ceremony. Next time we will do better for sure.” You are beautiful in every way, Hellfest, we love you. For another 360 days, we will wander the streets of Clisson on Goole Maps. See you next year!

Mini summary by Övünç Dan: