Maybe it’s the sweat in my eyes or maybe it’s tears. Well fuck it, it’s tears. You see I just watched a bunch of children doing what would be best described as a mosh pit at the back of the crowd on the main stage at MetalDays. Fuck it, they got to me. Straight into the heart. I cried like a little child wishing my son was here as well (soon, that will be a reality as well if he chooses so).
You see, I have visited MetalDays for the fourth time this year and no matter what bands play it’s always the kids that get me. I could write about Alien Weaponry stealing the show on the first day. Or Cliteater making an insane party. Or the wild party we had during the blackout in the middle of the Korpiklaani show or any of the other bands playing this year and igniting the crowd (there were soooooo many highlights). But fuck it – you had to be there to understand. And if you were, you already get it. But the kids get me right in the feels every fucking time.
Metalheads are always considered rude, rough, uneducated, raw, violent, satanists and any other number of derogatory terms. But if there’s one place where you can see fist hand just how soft and kind we really are it’s MetalDays.
We hug, we laugh, we cry, we recycle, we clean, we curse, we hold hands and we fucking give a damn about the person standing next to us. No, we never met him or her before. But we’re brothers and sisters. No questions asked. We stand side by side and we would give everything for the stranger we never met.
Take the guy giving free hugs right at the entrance to the stage area. Every fucking year. He was here two years ago and we hugged every evening when I went to listen to the concerts. Last year my heart sank as he was nowhere to be found. Imagine my heart skipping a beat for a random stranger that returned this year (if only for one evening). That means it meant something to me back then and it still does. And to many other metalheads making the daily pilgrimage from the camp to the stage area as well. We give a crap and that’s what makes us different and real.
But none of this would be possible without the mammoth efforts put into the festival from Boban and all of the staff (security, press, volunteers, medics, police, firefighters …) who work not only the week of the festival but round the year to make MetalDays the best festival ever. My hat’s off to everyone who chips in to make this happen.
So here’s to MetalDays 2019. To Linda, to Urban, to Pieter, to Baptiste, to Marc and to all of the people who made this week of the year the most magical time ever. Fly those horns with pride and never change š¤.
See you on MetalDays 2020!