Thundermother was the first band of the day for me. They opened with ‘Loud and Free’ and like that, the only all female band at Graspop started an almost hour show full of Rock ‘n roll madness. Guitarist Filippa Nässil jumped off the stage and went to continue playing close to the crowd. An energetic and powerful performance, closed off with one of their hits, ‘Driving in Style’.

Airbourne has one of the most high energy performances of all the bands that played the festival. If you’re at their show, you won’t stand still. Crowd surfers and mosh pits will pop up everywhere you look. Lead singer and guitarist Joel O’Keeffe was throwing beer and whiskey into the crowd. He used to do a part where he smashed a beer can against his head, but that couldn’t be healthy to do that at every show. So now he just drinks it and throws it. Amazing old school Rock ’n roll music to just forget everything and rock out to. 

As I was working with Inter, an organization that makes festivals and events accessible for people with a disability, I was on the raised wheelchair platform for this one. Since I’m usually at the front, it was the first time I noticed how massive Amon Amarth‘s stage and props are. Drummer Nico Kaukinen was sitting in a huge viking head, and on the side was a massive dragon head as well as a huge viking that was resting his arms on a sword that pointed to the floor. Top that off with flames and damn, it was an amazing view.

Disturbed always delivers a strong performance. The music is solid and clean. Alternative metal and hard rock straight from the heart. Also, straight from the heart was the message lead singer David Draiman told us about depression. During the show, he asked the crowd to raise their hand if they had struggled with depression or if they knew somebody who did. Almost everybody raised their hand, and then David said the most important sentence on the whole festival. ‘’You are not alone’’. And we are not, seeing all the hands in the air. David said he almost joined Chester Bennington, who took his own life. It was close, but he realized he was also not alone and wanted to spread that message to the world. What followed was a beautiful version of The Sound of Silence.