Right after the tornado called Avatar raged across the Main Stage I went again over to the tent. Here it should be a little bit calmer with the American progressive metal band baroness. Singer and guitarist John Baizley was giving it everything just like his allies Gina Gleason on guitar as well as Nick Jost on bass and Sebastian Thomson on drums.
It was extremely crowded in front of the Main Stage when a female voice could be heard out of the loudspeaker asking the people in Dutch to do the honour to the king. What was following was definitively the surprise and one of the highlights of this year’s FortaRock.
After the disappointing performance of DragonForce I went over to the open-air theatre where a stage was setup. The tribune was already extremely well filled just like the corridors (later that day due to overfilling the entrance to the Theatre Stage was even closed) when the guys of Death Alley entered the stage at about 15:00.
After the epic folk metal of Týr there was now fast power metal on the main stage being played by the British band DragonForce. Furious fast guitar solos, a slightly video game touch sound and high voice singing parts of singer Marc Hudson could be expected. Already from far you could see the playful banner at the background when the first notes of “Reaching Into Infinity” of the equally named album were waving towards one.
The only thing that I could hold against the FortaRock is the fact that there is no break between two bands on the Main and the Tent Stage. So you are hurrying from the Main towards the tent (OK it only takes 2-3 minutes) but it is disappointing that in-between they already start playing. Inside the tent the Faroese folk metal force of Týr was waiting for the excited audience.
Surprisingly I received a mail from the organization team of the FortaRock one week before the festival telling me that I won two tickets for the whole weekend at their contest where I took part two weeks ago. As I unfortunately was not able to go on Friday the festival started for me on Saturday.
At 21:00 finally the time had come. The stage modifications as well as the sound check were finished, the lights went down and the first sounds of the intro “Eidola” could be heard. The 1000. concert of the band Epica began and inside the sold out large hall of the 013 in front of the stage the crowd is absolutely dazzled.
Just before it was getting to the climax of the evening the Italian combo Lacuna Coil being not less successful had the change to enthuse the audience. Actually they are currently not on tour as they work on a book and a DVD. For the invitation of Epica they made an exception.
After MaYaN I decided to have a short break to get something to eat. This mini festival will continue some more hours so that a small refreshment will be not that bad. So I only watched half of the performance of Myrkur. The Danish singer Amalie Bruun running this solo project together with her nameless instrumentalists.
The first highlight of the day was for sure the gig of MaYaN. That was not only obvious due to the quite well filled venue but also due to the efforts spent on the stage. At least during that show not less than 11 musicians should populate the stage.