Norway Rock Festival 2009

This is my trip report between Malmö, Sweden and Norway Rock Festival in Kvinesdal, Norway between July 9th and 12th 2009.

Pictures will be added later!

When I saw that MANOWAR was going to play in Norway I knew I had to be there. Not only because it was the only show in Scandinavia this summer, but also since it was seven years ago MANOWAR last played in Norway, so these shows are always special to the fans. The concert was on July 10th but I already ordered my tickets and booked my flights in March, so it was a long wait before finally be able to stand in the front rows to witness my 9th MANOWAR show.

I was bound for the trip together with my friend Fredrik, a True Brother of Steel who use to travel with me to the shows, last time it was Hamburg in 2007 and the Magic Circle Festival last year. He’s a fanatic MANOWAR fan who lives just a couple of minutes from Malmö, and I’m glad to have found such a friend here, since there’s not many MANOWAR fans around.

We met up on Thursday July 9th on Malmö Central Station to take the train to Kastrup, the airport in Copenhagen which takes about 20 minutes. From Kastrup we were bound for the airport in Kristiansand, where we finally got a ride to the festival by Olaf, one of my Norwegian Brother of Metal. Olaf used to do the Norwegian official fan site back in 2002, and at the same time I made the Swedish one, and we had the chance to meet and stand in the front row when MANOWAR played a 60, 000 people crowd at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, summer 2002.

Anyway, we got to the airport in Copenhagen quite early, so what else to do than to drink a beer in the bar. And you all know what happens after a few beers, nature calls and we headed for the toilets, and on the way we ran into IN FLAMES, which later the same day had an amazing show in Kvinesdal. It’s the best live show I’ve seen in a very long time, if you don’t count the MANOWAR shows, of course. I’ve seen them a couple of times and before and they are always good, so if you get the chance to see them live, DO IT!

Our plane left Danish ground and an hour later we landed in a rainy Kristiansand, about 1,5-2 hours with car from Kvinesdal. After realizing that they had left some of Fredrik’s luggage in Copenhagen, it took a while before we could meet Olaf outside the airport and head for Kvinesdal.

1,5 hours later (and after A LOT of MANOWAR talk and old memories) we arrived in beautiful Kvinesdal, where we got our wrist bands for the festival and camping. The area was surrounded by green mountains in the middle of nowhere, and it felt like the spot had the right magic for a MANOWAR show. We headed for our allotted camping spot and put up our tents. At the camping area, each person was responsible for his camping spot which was controlled regularly, so the camping was always clean. It was a huge camping site as well, and showers and toilets were very fresh. After we put up our tents, we headed for the festival area to have something to eat and drink. We then returned to our tents to have a few beers, to talk to our neighbors and to get the party started. Our camping spot was the one closest to the festival area, and as it was on a hill, we could actually see the main stage from our tent - which led to that we ultimately was watching more bands from our camping spot than on the festival area.

Anyway, as both me and Fredrik are IN FLAMES-fans, we went to the festival area to get a good view of their show on Thursday night. They had brought an insanely amount of fireworks to the festival, and they walked on stage with a burst of fireworks going back and forth from the stage, and from the front house to the stage. Really cool! I really enjoyed their show.

We met Thor from the House of Death forum, which had traveled like 24 hours in train to see the show. He has an amazing tattoo on his back saying “THE FIGHT NEVER ENDS” together with the Sign Of The Hammer. Great guy, just like the rest of the Norwegian people.

When IN FLAMES were finished we headed for the beer tent where the party started, and continued at countless tents where we were found singing MANOWAR anthems all night long. As we all got pretty wasted the first night, I can’t really give you any more details than this… :D

Anyway, I woke up in my tent like 8 AM with a devastating hangover, tried to get some more sleep, but around 9 AM, MANOWAR’s sound crew had found the main stage and started their sound check. An hour later, they woke the entire camping by blasting “CALL TO ARMS” with full power through the PA. Really fun and a great way to start the day.

Friday was a really sunny day and we spent most of the day just sitting outside our tents, drinking beer and relaxing in the sun. Maybe a bit too much sun - I’m still sunburned as hell. A couple of hours before MANOWAR’s show I had a major breakdown and felt very sick… I don’t know if it was the mix of excitement, too much sun and hangover or if it was something else… but just before we headed down for the last song of Holy Hell, I felt good again and got myself a good spot right down at the stage. Fredrik was lucky enough to get a good spot in the front row, where he also brought the Swedish flag with him.

There was not long time between Holy Hell and when MANOWAR got up on stage. The stage setup was very familiar with the one that they have been using for a while now. One of the best moments in the show is when Joey and Karl comes in, goes up to the drum kit, and you can see Joey count in 1, 2, 3, 4 and then hear the first notes of “MANOWAR”. They followed up with “BLOOD OF MY ENEMIES” which is a pure classic. Then it was time for HAND OF DOOM, which never have been played live until this tour. Really cool song to hear live and it has a great chorus. And yeah, by the way! AWESOME to see DONNIE live, he’s having so much fun behind the drums. After finishing the song it was time for Joey’s first speak, not very long, and then they continued with BROTHERS OF METAL (pt 1) which is Fredrik’s all-time favorite song. The next song was CALL TO ARMS and now it began to become really tight in the front rows where I was standing. One girl next to me couldn’t take it anymore and was starting to go down, so I had to call the security over to help her get over to the pit.

Then I can’t really recall the correct set list - at least it was the same songs that were played in Bucharest, Romania (+ Battle Hymn) the show before:

MANOWAR, BLOOD OF MY ENEMIES, HAND OF DOOOM, BROTHERS OF METAL PT 1, CALL TO ARMS, HEART OF STEEL, SLEIPNIR, LOKI GOD OF FIRE, KINGS OF METAL, FAST TAKER, THE GODS MADE HEAVY METAL, WARRIORS OF THE WORLD UNITED, KILL WITH POWER, HAIL AND KILL, BATTLE HYMN, THE CROWN AND THE RING (LAMENT OF THE KINGS).

Highlights was THE GODS MADE HEAVY METAL when they brought like 20 (!?) girls on stage and gave one guitar away to a guy. A lot of fun.

After a while Joey came on stage and said that the Metal Mayor of Kvinesdal just had said “Fuck the curfew!” so they played longer than initially allowed.

The songs I enjoyed best was BATTLE HYMN and THE CROWN AND THE RING, with the last one being live with Eric, and so perfectly performed.

When the show was over, we waited a while in front of the stage to let it all sink in, before we left for our camping site.

As MANOWAR had played at Friday night, the whole Saturday was dedicated to one thing: partying. Somewhere around lunch I cracked my first beer together with all the friends we had made during the festival. The Norwegian people knows for sure how to party, I’ve never laughed my ass off before for so many crazy things that happened during the day. One guy in our camp actually turned out to be in Norwegian television, wearing a pink helmet and being piss drunk. It was so much fun.

Sometime in the evening I had got too drunk, so I needed to get some sleep to carry on through the rest of the night. I went to my tent and when I laid down, DORO entered the main stage. They played insanely LOUD so my tent was shaking and there was no chance to sleep. So I got up and enjoyed DORO which I have seen live before and she’s very good, with an entertaining live show and great songs. We headed for the festival area because Fredrik wanted a good spot for Nightwish’s show, and I wanted a good spot in the beer tent. ;)

When Nightwish had entered the stage, I went back to party at the camping site, and then went to bed very late. When I woke up, there was people still partying outside my tent. Crazy.

Our flight to Copenhagen was to leave Kristiansand airport in the afternoon so we packed our stuff and headed for Storekvina, where the train took us to Kristiansand. There we had to take taxi to the airport, and finally we were back in Copenhagen and Malmö.

It has been some wonderful days in Kvinesdal, and the Norwegian organizers and people made it a pleasure to be there. The organizers should be proud of a very well organized festival; everything worked out great; food, beer, toilets, camping site, festival grounds, transport and security. I look forward to visit Kvinesdal again if MANOWAR comes there.

The best is yet to come: The Magic Circle Festival in Loreley, Germany this week (July 16-19). I expect MANOWAR’s show to be a little bit different since it’s also the premiere of THE ASGARD SAGA, the band’s collaboration with German-author Wolfgang Hohlbein. It will also be the festival where I get the chance to meet all the great people of MANOWAR’s official forum The House of Death, which is having an exclusive party on Thursday.

HAIL TO MANOWAR!
HAIL TO KVINESDAL!
DEATH TO INFIDELS!

See you in Loreley!