Summer Breeze 2007 Review

Happy Birthday Summer Breeze!

The Summer Breeze Festival celebrated its first full decade! So they said: Ready for round 10! The festival took place in Dinkelsbühl for the second time, including the Pain and the Main Stage. This year it had been extended for a further day. The Festival was being rocked for 4 days non stop! Bands like „Finntroll“, „In Extremo“, „Soulfly“ and „Pain“ arranged for music going with the atmosphere of Summer Breeze, from Wednesday, August 15, to Saturday, August 18. Inside the party tent, which has been there for the first time, they rocked along to music from the stereo as well as to live music from different bands.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007: Day of arrival!
The weather god had mercy upon the metalheads. However, there was a never ending traffic jam in front of the festival area, but it did not harm the revelers’ mood at all. The Summer Breeze Festival had invited to a newcomer challenge inside the party tent. Although it was Wednesday, the fans accepted the invitation in great quantities and opened the party marathon from 4 pm at full throttle!
The party tent was scene of the band battle. They rocked for the festival opening on Thursday. The newcomer bands had been chosen online.
„Breschdleng“ was responsible for the first tunes of Summer Breeze no.10. The fans of the swabian strawberry were down to the end right from the beginning. They welcomed their heroes by shouting „we want more“ even before „Breschdleng“ had started playing. „Unblest“, „Might of Lilith“, „Stitch“, „Karma. Connect“, „Last One Dying”, “Justice”, who prove their musical talent once more on Saturday, “Powerwolf” and “Impious” made the party tent bounce far into the night. Solidly the party tent survived this band hurricane and the jury, made up of record labels and music press, chose „Stitch“ to finish first and therefore should open the festival on the following day. The metalheads tried to make the party tent collapse until 4 am. However, thanks to the well going supply of beverages, the party tent made many a party fan collapse.
Cheers!

Thursday, August 16, 2007: Beginning of the festival!
As promised, “Stitch“, winner of the preliminary of the night before, took over the festival opening. Also the audience dared to go to the Pain stage in the morning. Those who wouldn’t eat the breakfast they had brought along could start the morning with different breakfast buffets from the supermarket: „2,5 the original“, in cans of course, or even „5,0 the original“ in cans as well. It was the turn of “Swallow the Sun” to play the background music to this wonderful morning. “Fear My Toughts“, a real live hit which only a few visitors wanted to hear. Although “Immolation“ had a very early gig, they delivered a perfect performance. A Gig worth seeing. „Lacrimas Profundere“ did a great job with their new singer, but the dutch band “After Forever”, which was founded in 1995, played their trump card, singer Floor Jansen, ingeniously as well. Ji-In Cho, singer of „Krypteria“, couldn’t outdo this strong-voiced gig either, despite wearing a red corsage and flashing sexy glances. From 5.20 pm, the band “Rage”, founded in 1984, satisfied the visitors on their muddy seats.

Party on!
After that, the American death-core band “The Black Dahlia Murder” rocked the Pain stage. “Doro”, the drawing card, attracted the crowd to its musical pole in front of the Main stage. “Suffocation” made the earth around Dinkelsbühl shake due to their death-metal and also „Nevermore“ made the local church bounce. It became medieval when the German band “Tanzwut“(founded in 1999) -the name says it all- called for dancing Schiarazula. The Swedish vikings, “Amon Amarth”, put the heat on the audience with their appropriate scenery. Singer Johan Hegg satisfied with his phenomenally loud organ. “Dornenreich” shined by a banner gig, which was not only the end of thursday evening, but also the end of the band’s hitherto cast.
Melodic- Death- Metal Bands like the German formation “Deadlock”,the Swedish-Greek band “Nightrage”, founded in 2000, “Fall of Serenity” and the likewise German guys of „War From A Harlots Mouth” made the beer foam over in the party tent.

Friday, August 17:
The black center! They knocked back the first, second or even third beer to the sound of „Karkadan“. Although you could find quite a few coffee cups among the early birds, „Karkadan“ was anything else than breakfast music. Frontman Robby made up for the best rooster in the whole of Dinkelsbühl and called for rocking. Those who were still asleep at that time, would have been beaten out of their tents by „Dagoba“ at the latest. Those guys promised an effective facial wash. Becoming awake guaranteed! The Swiss band „Eluveitie“, founded in 2002, performed their Pagan- Metal, even if the last place in front of the Main Stage wasn’t taken yet. The Norwegian black-metal band „Koldbrann” had their own fan club with them and put their whole hearts in it for them. After that it was „Illdisposed“’s turn with challenges for noon as well as „Disillusion“’s. The German band „Eisbrecher“ presented the very best of their albums and shined by a performance which dwarfed many a band. The finnish guys of „Hevein“ even topped it by calling Max Lilja, cellist off Apocalyptika, for help to deliver a musically perfected gig. The crowd was yowling when „Sirenia“ brought their show with too much playback and too little metal character onto the Main stage.

The Swedish „Necrophobic“ hit the right tunes after this botched try, which brought the revelers’ mood in line again. The guys of Finntroll attracted their fans to the Metal Hammer Bus with their autograph session, so you could see a lot of green in front of the stage when „L`áme Immortelle“ was performing. The Germans of „End Of Green“ stepped in for Crematory on short notice and made up with a melancholicly new program. “Finntroll” satisfied the mad metal people with headliner qualities as is so often. “Volbeat” made the boxes crack just as Fintroll did. “Bolt Thrower” showed at their exclusive gig in Germany for this year what they had going for it.

As the openers of In Extremo “Poisonblack” had a hard time keeping the metal heads in front of the Pain stage, as “In Extremo” did their headliner title credit as expected. They called even the last visitor from the camping ground. The great number of hits and the appropriate Pyro-Show had no one kept still and allured to sing along. “Dark Funeral” ended up the program on the festival area with smashing tunes.
This day the party went on in the party tent as well, and this time they had the AFM- Lable night going. The German bands “Black Messiah” (Pagan metal), “Squealer A.D.” (Melodic-Power-Trash-Metal), “Absolute” and “President Evil” put the heat on the unfavorable tent.

Saturday, August 18: Final spurt!
The last day of the 4-day head banging started with „Sycronomica“ who invited to free alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in the morning. The band „Helrunar“ sang one hymn after the other to the visitors, but unfortunately their singing did not satisfy that day.„Justice“ was allowed to play a second time on stage, but not in the party tent this time, but on the Main stage, where they surprised the audience with their own creations for the first time.
„Machinemade God“ came up with new tunes, but, however, they did not always express them so well. By an increasing number of metal fans in front of the Main Stage and the mood increasing too, “Secrets of The Moon” let the manes rotate. The frontman of „Maroon“ was of the opinion that the visitors got to hear the best Black-Metal-band within Germany when “Secrets of The Moon” were having their gig.

At 2.25 PM “Communic” tried to put the heat on the fans which then “Blitzkid” took over with catchy tunes, posing and a bassist from the audience.
The Swedish “Hardcore Superstar” rocked the Main Stage and were spreading party atmosphere for 45 minutes non-stop. But “Xandria” razed this atmosphere to the ground.
The following band „Apokalyptischen Reiter” showed „Xandria“ the ropes. Party, Party, Party over again! The band achieved this by providing the crowd with toys. Huges balloons and confetti were among those toys as well as rubber dinghies with which the band had a bath in the crowd themselves. In the end even more visitors were on the stage than in front of the stage.
On the Pain stage the German Trash-Metal band “Tankard” had their third gig at this Festival. The Fans really held the Swedish guys of „Dark Tranquillity“ high. Stage- Diving at its best.
The finnish vikings of „Moonsorrow“ saw a mad crowd in front of the Pain stage which unfortunately increasingly lost heat as the guys kept playing.
When „Oomph!“ entered the Main stage the crowd was breaking up and so the question came up whether the band was not only mistaken with their pale clothing but even with the Festival. Dero prove his talent for singing by singing „stranger in the night“ a cappella, which unfortunately half of the visitors didn’t appreciate that evening.
A huge part rather favored “Bambi onto stage“ instead of „Oomph!“.

„Caliban“, the following band, was better received by the fans. The short guest appearance of singer Flow Velten (Machinemade God) and the show on stage were self-evident.
On the Main stage “Soulfly” disappointed the audience the voice of Soulfly, Max Cavalera, was chipped. So it wasn’t the best gig of Soulfly. Last but not least “Pain” had themselves celebrated by the metal heads. Rightly. The shining end of the festival’s birthday Pain had delivered was emphasized by the organisers by banner fireworks.
The crowd ran to the last party of Summer Breeze 2007 inside the party tent or started out to get home in order to avoid the traffic jam the next morning.
The gannets among the Metal fans could let off steam for a last time at the „Metal Hammer Party“ inside the party tent.

Other things worth knowing:
This year, Bambi had a battle with Spiderpig ( The Simpsons). The beer-can-Bambi had the virtue of being the plastic pet and had a mass appeal rallied behind itself just as the year before. Spiderpig was missing all day long. People shouted “Spiderpig” over and over again, but in vain. Whether it was found? *grin* The party tent has been there for the first time. This idea had neither been new nor bad, but, however, this kind of tent has to be rethought. Those who felt like monkeys in a circus after their 10th beer could be sure that sober guests didn’t feel different either.

A big top which wooed probably everybody to loosen some belts. You couldn’t talk of Feng Shui. The party tent was easy to find, just as easy as the piece of plastic where you lived in. The camping ground was ordered very well, as the through roads were parallel and always met in a right angle. Furthermore there were alphabetically ordered and clearly visible towers to which you were geared well. You could take the great camping ground home on an A2 sized photo. Only those who rendered a full garbage bag got this aerial photograph of the camping ground. Thus they fighted for the garbage. Everyone wanted to have a share in cleanliness.

While we’re at cleanliness:
This festival is a very unhygienic festival. The port-a-Johns have been a horror movie of a class of its own!!!! Let alone the door the port-a-Johns brought about. Toilet coaches would be appropriate urgently and furthermore they should arrange additive port-a-Johns. As there is no tree on the whole festival area, they peed all over the place. This was the only tree. But he was brought by the metalheads!

A shuttle bus drove to Dinkelsbühl every 30 minutes. The drug store sold condoms as never before, Mc Donalds had an increase of turnover of 150% and also stores like Rewe or the gas station benefited from Summer Breeze. The Dinkelsbühler didn’t really complain about the respectable metal heads. Those who didn’t make use of the free shuttle bus could as well buy their stuff in the festival’s own supermarket. There was an additional merchant’s mile on the festival area where you could buy anything from tees to chain mails. But let’s not forget the food mile. Many a stomach liked this range of different meals from all over the world.
In turn, some couldn’t tolerate this food and decided to slide on it! This sport is called „Sauerkrautsurfing“. Everyone could proof itself in front of the festival entrance. As there are not only grown up metal fans but children as well, a special holiday program was offered, so they could enjoy the VIP-area and a look into the backstage area. The guards saw to it that no visitor would accompany the kids. They took care of all the respectable metal heads. The guards kept themselves awake with coffee, milk and lots of sugar. The ambulance was also on the ground and dispatched the alcohol out of many a persons body. It may be said that 20 000 visitors per day visited a successful festival.

Prices:
3-Day- Ticket, camping+ parking incl. => 60 €
1-Day-Ticket, without Camping => 30 €
Festival T-Shirt => 15 €
Program => 1 €
Beer (0,4 L) => 3 €
coffee => 2 €
Whiskey- Cola (0,2 L) => 2,50 €
Döner, Flammkuchen, Fries, Burger, Wedges, Pizza, Bratwurst, Chinese Wok food,
Waffles with cream & cherries => from 2,50 € to 6 €

Note of the co-chief-editor:
Thanks a lot to the writers of the article, Vera and Petra!!!