A month and a half has passed since our return home. It's the perfect time to write this story.
The dream of attending a major European music festival had lived in our hearts for a very long time, and the stars finally aligned in 2018.
What do we know about European festivals? Rock am Ring. You might also recall Sziget, Download, Nova Rock, Graspop, and dozens of other names, but Rock am Ring is undoubtedly the coolest achievement simply because it's Rock am Ring.
Plus, Rock am Ring announced its lineup earlier than many other festivals, and it brought me right back to my 2005-2007 at first glance.
Rock am Ring takes place a hundred kilometers south of Cologne in the tiny village of Nurburg within the famous Formula 1 Nurburgring circuit. The festival has a twin brother Rock im Park, which takes place in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg on the equally famous Zeppelin Field. Rock im Park completely mirrors its older brother in terms of lineup and differs only in location and the order of days. That's the one we chose.
Yes, you might say that Rock im Park isn't Rock am Ring and it's not the real deal, and I might even agree with that, but here are the arguments: this was our first trip to Europe, so we chose a venue within city limits, allowing us to stay in the city itself rather than in a tent. The pros and cons flow from there.
There's something to compare it to, although the selection isn't very diverse. Of the big festivals, I've attended three: Kubana 2012, Kubana 2013, Anabuk 2016, all from the same organizers. I think my experience with solo concerts is already quite extensive, there must be over fifty of them, with almost a dozen trips to Moscow concerts. Saratov concerts, of course, have their charm, but only a few can compare in coolness to the trips.
After attending an event like Rock im Park, you can die peacefully, so the hashtag #RIP2018 absolutely clearly reflected our attitude toward the festival. The journey to the festival began with buying tickets back in December 2017. The ticket was only sold in paper form, express delivery of the envelope with tickets from DHL, and a New Year's gift in hand. The ticket at that time cost about 18 thousand rubles, which by current standards isn't that expensive considering the lineup. If memory serves, a ticket to Kubana 2013 cost about 10 thousand for 7 days. Considering the scale of participants at RIP and the policies of recent years, the prices are quite appropriate.
The festival lasted only 3 days, June 1-3, 2018. A 3-day vacation isn't serious, so in addition to Nuremberg, we decided to visit the center of Bavaria - Munich, and as a cooldown after the festival, peaceful Prague, 15 days in total. Plane tickets Moscow - Munich and Prague - Moscow cost each of us about 20 thousand rubles. Tolerable, considering that planes fly around our beloved country at approximately the same prices, if not more. The train Saratov - Moscow and Moscow - Saratov at the beginning and end of the trip was definitely the cheapest solution, but possibly not the best. Samara is much closer, maybe we could have flown from there, but this decision seemed the most natural.
We searched for accommodation in the cities on Airbnb, which is a whole separate topic - we saw a lot across three cities. And this was definitely the most expensive part of mandatory expenses, comparable to the festival and transport combined.
As for money, it's a well-known fact that in Russia everything with banks and cashless payments is much better than in many places, so we were worried about having to deal with cash. In reality, it wasn't as scary as we feared. In Germany it's slightly worse than in the Czech Republic, but one way or another, almost everywhere you could pay by card or Google Pay. The only exception was the festival itself - everything there was cash only, for regular euros, from food to merch. We prepared for this calmly and essentially experienced no problems.
About the fest
We arrived in Nuremberg almost 2 days before the fest, to have time to see the city and get used to living in it, clearly understanding that for 3 days we'd have to live on a schedule and on autopilot - without strength and tired.
The day before the official start of the festival, we went from our house almost in the city center to Zeppelinfeld to exchange tickets for wristbands and look around. Once on the grounds, you immediately feel this insane sense of celebration, freedom, and kindness. Kindness - that's what you can travel thousands of kilometers for.
On the festival grounds, besides several campgrounds and stages, there were dozens of stalls with drinks, food, and souvenirs, all as it usually happens. There's one "but" - the prices for food and drinks on average are comparable to those you're used to seeing anywhere in the center of this city. For us, this is an absolutely amazing fact. If you want to drink or have a snack at any concert or festival in Russia, you'll definitely overpay 3-4 times. For 8-9 euros you can eat your fill. Drinks aren't such a critical thing - several points are provided on the festival grounds where anyone can freely pour themselves as much regular water as they want. Remembering the expensive scorching five-liter bottles at Kubana 12, which were worth their weight in gold there, you understand what a miracle this is. There's even a supermarket on the grounds, can you imagine?
Prices for any drinks include 1-2 euros deposit for a cup or bottle, which you can get back by returning them. Apparently this should help with the garbage problem, maybe it does, but throughout the territory during the festival it's quite dirty, which is naturally expected and you treat it calmly. At night - dirty, in the morning of the next day - already clean. Toilets are cleaned and filled with appropriate accessories throughout the day.
Walking through the campground, you start to regret choosing accommodation in an apartment. They have enough entertainment and amenities to live through these short 3 days, and the level of involvement when you live in a campground with the same people as you, who came here for the same thing as you - is off the charts.
Besides, we all know what problems there usually are at mass events with transport and that after another day nobody usually has much desire to walk. We lived an hour's walk from the festival and still kept this option in mind, but fortunately it wasn't needed. Usually night buses in Nuremberg run once an hour and, understandably, tens of thousands of people can't be transported that way. But during the festival, buses came to the stop every 5-10 minutes and because of this were less crowded than a regular German bus in Saratov during rush hour. This is super cool, I really wish our mass events would learn from this.
People
I probably haven't seen so many people at once in one place anywhere else.
Unexpectedly, most visitors are Germans, and there weren't that many people who came from elsewhere to pose any competition. Perhaps at RAR, because of its location, everything is a bit different, although Nuremberg also gets almost a 20 percent addition to the population during the festival. German language everywhere, all announcements, signs in German and often without duplication. During the festival you get so used to the fact that people's speech around you is meaningless white noise that you almost stop noticing it and react only to other languages. You can count on your fingers when you hear Russian again, but you'll probably run out of hands. By the way, the Germans themselves, when they see that you don't understand them, calmly switch to English. This applies mostly to young people; in the city in general it's not so simple, especially with older people.
It's worth noting separately how cool everyone's gear is. When people walk next to you in Guns N' Roses and Metallica t-shirts, followed by Architects and Bring Me The Horizon, and behind them Linkin Park and Prodigy. When you see a worn Rock im Park 1995 t-shirt. When 5 Power Rangers run into the slam train together.
Stages and schedule
There were 3 stages at the festival. They were located relatively close to each other and transitions between them were quite simple.
Zeppelin Stage
The main stage. The first fan zone was entirely covered with plastic coating, which is quite pleasant underfoot. The second fan zone and the space beyond are all grass, dirt, and gravel. If desired, all this could easily accommodate 100 thousand people. From the feeling of a person when you're inside - quite spacious. From the feeling of a person who sees photos or videos from above - holy shit, am I such a psycho that I'm standing right there close close to the stage where there's such a meat grinder?
By design, probably, the most top-tier bands were supposed to perform on this stage, but everyone has their own top-tier.
Park Stage
For us, a significant part of the coolest concerts took place on the second stage. Here the atmosphere is already much more cozy, everything is closer to the stage, there are usually fewer people. So many people simply won't fit here. Just like on the first stage, there were huge screens here broadcasting excellent footage of what was happening from a bunch of cameras. And even those standing far away see everything well. How I wish I could watch these recordings now - RAR does post them!
But there was practically no covering in front of the stage: dirt, dust, stones. I wouldn't recommend falling on this to anyone. Notably, many heavy concerts took place on this stage, and it's clear that such a surface contributed to a dust cloud in front of the stage. Like the good old days with a bandana over your face at Kubana.
Alternarena
The only indoor stage, essentially a basketball arena. Here it's almost like at home in Saratov, not very many people, not a very big stage, no screens. All the more strange is the presence on this stage of, for example, Asking Alexandria, who in my opinion could have filled Park Stage.
The covering on the dance floor quickly becomes extremely slippery after the start of the concert due to spilled water and beer. Life is hard, but it's soulful.
Schedule
Three stages - three parallel schedules for each day. Naturally, conflicts were bound to arise when you wanted to be in two places at once, but the schedule was almost perfect. Of all the conflicts, only Stone Sour simultaneously with Thirty Seconds To Mars and Asking Alexandria simultaneously with Muse are worth noting. Although not without a bit of regret, in each case the decision was clear.
About the concerts. First day
Nothing But Thieves
First stage, the best start to the festival you could imagine. After last year's brilliant album, NBT look like a personal headliner in any lineup, and here they're opening the festival - emotions overflowing. Very pleased with the sound, the concert arrangement the guys have is much heavier than the studio recording, the vocals are frighteningly beautiful. Throughout the concert you marvel at where you ended up and wonder if all this is a dream. Amsterdam - madness, chaos, the first powerful movement on the dance floor, circle pit, flying shoes after which it became clear that everything that can be tightened should be tightened. Amsterdam - this is what I'll remember for the rest of my life.
PVRIS
After NBT we needed a breather, and we watched PVRIS from a relatively distant position in the company of water and heat. They sound wonderful, during the hour-long concert Lynn managed to play all the instruments that were on stage - guitar, keys, drums, not to mention that she has a beautiful voice. Based on the results of the festival, I would have been happy if there had been more such concerts, where you're kind of satisfied with everything but don't suffer from pain and fatigue like from all the other gigs. Very glad to have heard them.
The Bloody Beetroots
At this point already a serious choice: Bad Religion on the first stage, The Bloody Beetroots on the second. The company split, I went to the Italian band's set and don't regret it one bit.
This is simply the best concert of the festival. This is the concert when you come just to another concert, but leave as a fanatic because of everything you saw and heard. Madness on stage, madness in front of the stage, I honestly don't know how it's possible to stand under such circumstances. From our position at the epicenter of all the action on the dance floor, it felt like this concert pumped up the whole world. Reality in this case turned out to be many times cooler than expectations. Respect, sir.
Good Charlotte
Transfer to the first stage again. After Bad Religion there were already so many people in front of it that getting closer seemed almost an impossible task, but we still managed to get behind the fence of the first fan zone.
And then The Anthem starts. I don't know how it works, but the effect is comparable to a time machine. Mentally, from this moment on, I was far from 2018, in my head besides euphoria only one thing - I'll never forgive myself if by the end of the concert I'm not in the main pit. You have to understand that the dance floor at such large-scale performances turns into a dozen circle pits not connected to each other, and I had to go through about five on the way to that very central one. This wouldn't have been possible without the wonderful Keep Your Hands Off My Girl and Girls & Boys.
Screaming I Just Wanna Live in the middle of the main circle pit at a huge festival in the center of Europe - priceless.
At this concert I caught all the wildest flashbacks I could.
Rise Against
It's clear that before such a concert I had no right to move at all considering my position in the center of the dance floor. I didn't move, and there were dozens of people like that, just sitting where they stood after Good Charlotte waiting. We waited. What happened at Rise Against - this is punk, harsh, sometimes very harsh, but not deadly. An absolutely exhausting concert.
At Savior I was everywhere, I was thrown from the fence right in front of the stage to the fence that separated the first two fan zones. At Give It All there were 3 circle pits around me that interlocked like gears in a watch, being between these gears at times was really scary, but you just had to be there, otherwise you can't.
The Rise Against concert is a dream. Dreams come true.
Foo Fighters
Only about a couple of concerts at this festival in general can be said to have been legendary. In general, you can find a thousand more epithets, but only the word "legendary" is the right word, you understand what I mean. So the Foo Fighters concert is a legendary concert where there was everything. A show for two and a half hours from, possibly, the main rock band of our time.
I've never been so close to nirvana and probably never will be, in every sense. This is rock and roll.
I really regret that at that moment we were already barely living through the day without strength and there wasn't enough to end up in the main fan zone to feel it even more intensely.
Gorillaz
What can you say about Gorillaz. The concert was wonderful, but from start to finish it passed for me on autopilot, there was no strength even to stand. I heard Clint Eastwood live, Lord.
First day behind
The rain predicted by the weather forecast never came, for which we paid with sunburned skin in all open places. After cold Russia and neutral Munich, we didn't even keep this option in mind.
What catches the eye - for most people, a festival is a festival. People come to such events to relax, drink, eat, walk, listen to music. For country boys like us - it's half a dozen solo shows in a row. Physically and psychologically - very hard, unprepared people will find it difficult.
Second day
Babymetal
The sweetest concert. I've never seen as many crowdsurfers as at this concert in my life. Every few seconds someone was tapping on my back to turn around and help drag someone further. Chaos.
Jonathan Davis
Jonathan Davis - the man. Luzier on drums. A cool performance by a cool dude. The double bass MVP, gave indirect heart massage the entire concert.
Enter Shikari
What's your criteria?
Complete hysteria
Fifth. Fifth time at an Enter Shikari concert. Two at Kubanas, two in Moscow, one in Nuremberg. Triangle. And triangle is Enter Shikari. Illuminati.
My first concert after The Spark came out. When you see a setlist without Sorry You're Not A Winner or something similar - it's always sad, then you see in the setlist some Quickfire, you learn what it is - 8 minutes of continuous meat - Sorry You're Not A Winner, Sssnakepit, Meltdown, Antwerpen. You understand that this is love. Enter Shikari - gods.
Hollywood Undead
It's a real shame that this concert is right after Enter Shikari on the second day, because of this, obviously, we couldn't make it to the first fan zone and missed a bunch of impressions. The Undead performed magnificently, managed to rock us even behind the fence in the second fan zone.
Du Hast in Germany - it's beautiful. That moment when you're standing and yelling du hast mich, and everyone around knows the real words.
Thirty Seconds to Mars
This concert was objectively bad, but who are we anyway to judge concerts objectively. Fucking Jared Leto. I was absolutely ready for both a terrible setlist and a choir of bunny boys on every track, I didn't care. I was at a 30stm concert and screamed The Kill. I'm happy.
Marilyn Manson
Everything like Gorillaz the previous day. Over the whole day there's such an overdose of positive emotions that there are none left at all for the finale. Physical fatigue over two days, here it's not just hard to stand but to live. But the old man is good.
Second day finished
What's good for a Russian means death for a German, yes. In terms of the level of intensity, Moscow solo shows by top bands will give a huge head start. For Russians, every time is like the last, the Germans lack soul, they know that this time is not the last.
I especially want to note that the movement at concerts differs from ours, which we're used to. Here there are tons of crowdsurfers, and in any unclear situation everyone starts running in circles in a circle pit. If you're a crowdsurfer - you can be sure you'll swim to the end to the fence, and not end up upside down somewhere in the crowd, as often happens with us. Crowdsurfing was officially prohibited in the rules, but there were no consequences for it, security helped catch floating people, accepted danke and a smile in their address and let them back into the fan zone.
Speaking of law and order, it felt like everyone behaved well simply because they were used to it. We didn't see any police at all, security at the festival were extremely calm, understood where they were and everything was very light from their side.
Largely due to the excellent invisible work of security, it wasn't as difficult and long to move from one stage to another as we were used to hearing in reviews before the trip.
Third day
Shinedown
Expectedly solid concert by a good band, no more no less. Great for starting another day. Actually, it's precisely by such middle-tier bands that you should measure the level of the festival. You just enjoy the fact that around you constantly plays music that's been with you all your life, especially if these aren't first-line performers.
Don Broco
The first concert from the third stage we got to. The main word that describes the Don Broco concert is bouncy, it was impossible to stand, everyone wanted to jump. I knew it would be cool, but believing it would be this cool was too optimistic. A set that starts with Everybody is doomed to be gorgeous just because from the first track nobody can stand on the dance floor. And the final T-Shirt Song with its performance, of course, is an ornament to any festival.
Bullet For My Valentine
My second Bullets concert. Excellent concert by an excellent band. The performance is simply wonderful. Tracks from the new, not yet released album sounded very fresh and interesting. But screeeeeeam aaaiiim fiiiiiire. If I'd managed to break through to the first fan zone I would have ended there.
Muse
Of all the headliners, I was most confident in Muse. A performance beyond reason. Mister Matthew Bellamy wrecked one guitar on stage and played a solo with his tongue on another, what can you say? And in general, musically it was just space, the sound that the instruments of this trio produce is not from this planet at all. I'll remember Plug In Baby for the rest of my life, during which something abnormal was happening around me, and flashbacks from 2006 were spinning in my head. A very emotional ending to Knights Of Cydonia was a wonderful completion of the festival's main stage.
Avenged Sevenfold
The last concert of the festival for us, fatigue was taking its toll, so I started the concert very far away sitting on the grass that was cold by that moment. Then I stood up. Then I came closer. Then even closer.
I was already yelling Hail to the King, Nightmare and Afterlife like crazy. You catch yourself thinking how many A7X songs you know despite never having listened through the band's discography.
Despite the cold waiting, the concert was super hot. Besides the insane show that Shadows, Gates and co put on stage, an additional warming effect came from dozens of pyrotechnic charges that the organizers prepared for the festival finale. In a word - fire.
Last day all
This is such a perfectly organized celebration of life that sometimes it's even disgusting. Not a single delay in an artist's appearance throughout the entire festival, you could set your watch by it. Almost complete absence of queues with such a number of people - it's a shock. And how wonderful the sound is at the venue - can't be conveyed, I haven't heard such cool sound at any other concert, in any other city.
Fireworks as a mandatory attribute of any festival ending. In our country it's customary to shoot much larger volumes of money into the air, here it looked German-restrained.
And the lonely area in front of the stage after completion. As always, it's sad that this celebration must end, but this is all outweighed by the feeling of happiness that we did it. Lord, how fucking amazing this was.
