Sweden Rock Festival 2017

On Tuesday morning we got into the car and drove south. We arrived in the afternoon and immediately set about raising our tents and exchanging our tickets for wristbands. When that was all done the party began. The first night was also the worst night. Lots of rain and wind. In the morning two tents were broken and three others had water in them. Only ours was whole and dry :) The worst was with the guy who had forgotten to zip the door closed before falling asleep; he had a small pool in his tent the whole next day xD

Wednesday was the first day of the festival. We only had one planned concert that day; Black Ingvars, which we went to, but we didn't see the whole thing.

After that it was party for the rest of the evening. When the rain returned we called it a night and went to sleep.

Thursday was the big day for concerts. Already at 1pm I was listening to my first concert of the day; Apocalyptica. Haven't listened overly much to them before, but they were really good and I don't regret going. Directly after Apocalyptica we went and watched some songs by Iced Earth.

After that we returned to the camp for some more partying. Before I went back to a long row of concerts. First was Alter Bridge. It was the same with them as with Apocalyptica - I haven't listened overly much to them, but I've liked what I've heard so I went to see them. After that we met up with more people from the camp to see Steel Panther. That was an absolutely amazing concert! Though I wish they had played Party Like Tomorrow is the End of the World.

After Steel Panther we seated ourselves against the fence around the stage and awaited Edguy. The two largest stages are so close to each other and they have big screens on the sides so we could easily sit there against the fence of one stage and watch Aerosmith perform on the other stage. It was magical when they started playing I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing. The whole area was singing along, not just the people in the crowd watching Aerosmith, but literally the whole area, including us waiting by the other stage. At five past midnight Edguy came on and gave us the best show of the year. Tobi was amazing as usual ♥

I was at the very front, fangirling my heart out with another girl from camp and it was magical. Towards the end the rain started drizzling again, but nobody left the concert. And then they finished with King of Fools and I cried. We went back to camp, soaked by the rain and with acheing throats.

On Friday we had no concerts planned until the evening and so the whole day was dedicated to partying. In the evening Toni and I went inside the concert area to see Ratt. I only knew one song by them, but Toni knew a bunch and I really liked their sound.

Directly after Ratt we met up with some people from camp to watch Scorpions. Scorpions, imo, was the biggest disappointment of the year. The singer's voice hadn't aged well, and the crowd didn't seem impressed and the band didn't seem able to get us all going. Not even Wind of Change ellicited the same response as Aerosmith's I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing. Neither did Still Loving You or Rock You Like a Hurricane. After Scorpions we returned to camp and went to sleep.

The sun was relentless on Saturday. It was the last day and I didn't really have anything planned this day. That is until I found out that the special project called Sweden Rock Symphony Orchestra that played this day would feature Tarja Turunen. That meant I had to go xD So I went in there and watched the Orchestra play well-known metal songs accompanied by a rock band and five well-known singers: John Lawton (Uriah Heep), Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen), Tarja Turunen (solo, Nightwish), Dan McCafferty (Nazareth), Peter Tätgren (Pain, Hypocrisy), and Joacim Cans (Hammerfall). I was mostly interested in Tarja ofc and when she started singing Nightwish's Nemo, the crowd went wild. Dan McCafferty seemed ancient. He was the only one who didn't stand up or run around on stage. He walked out, sat down, and sang. But what a voice!!! And the crowd went wild when he sang Nazareth's Love Hurts. The most hilarious part was when Peter Tätgren came out and started to sing. Half the orchestra looked terrified of his growling. The old dudes playing the cellos didn't seem to know what to think, and the choir girls were hilarious singing Shut Your Mouth. And then Joacim Cans came out and sang Hammerfall's Hearts on Fire and the crowd went wild again. They finished the whole concert by bringing all the singers back up on stage and giving a rendition of AC/DC's Thunderstruck. It was amazeballs, all of it.

After the concert we met up with some people from camp and watched Rhapsody. We saw the concert from the side, since we huddled up in the shade of a tree with lots of other shade-seekers.

After the concert we went back to camp and started working on getting rid of the last liquor so we wouldn't have to carry any of that with us back to the car that night. There was also a debate on whether we should see In Flames or not. In the end we decided not to, and as to not have to force our way through lots and lots of people we decided to start the drive back home during their concert. Our designated driver had been sober the whole day. So we packed ourselves into the car and around 11pm we left the festival.

We arrived back home just before 6am and fell into bed completely exhausted. It's been an amazing year! See you in 2018! :D