Rockharz, a metal festival at the mountains called Harz, started at the 4th of July in Ballenstedt, Germany. The journey was a bit annoying, because of long traffic jams, but after the tent was build and the first beer was open, everything went fine. The first of four whole days of the festival is always a warm-up event with a smaller amount of bands. I visited two of them while preparing our place with my friends at the fine camping site.
The first band of the festival for me was Drone. This German groove/thrash metal band was a good decision for the warm-up event of the festival. The guys ruled the infield with a likable front man, who asked for party the whole show, and a good like powerful performance with a good sound and an appropriate light show. What a quite impressive package for a beginning of the festival.
The well-known thrashers of Kreator ended my first day of the festival on the infield. It was filled with motivated people, who celebrated the whole show. The powerful performance of the musicians was supported by a nice light show as like as a quite nice and brutal sound. Songs from the big spectrum of their discography attended all thrash-driven music tastes. Old, raw songs and newer, groovier songs made the show nice and special. I saw many people with patches of Kreator, so I guess the band was a good decision for the festival or rather for the warm-up night and the crazy crowd in front of the stage confirmed that. That was quite cool.
The first day ended and it was a nice experience. I had the feeling that the visitors (myself included) were in a good mood and ready for the next full three days of the festival. The warm-up turned out well!