We started off the day with a lot of rain and the great Dynazty. Nils Molin had been seen the day before with Amaranthe, and today he showed us his work with his other band. I love the band for their symphonic metal and great attitude. Even though it was pouring, we had polonaises and happy jumping pits. Dynazty definitely will lift your spirits up, even though you’re getting soaked. Closing with my personal favorite ‘Heartless Madness‘, Nils included the crowd and made us sing along with him. It was an awesome party and great start of the day.

Having seen Iron Maiden a lot of times, I’ve had never seen Bruce Dickinson‘s solo project. The stage seemed a bit bland, with not much on it besides the band members and their instruments. No fancy backdrop or stage props, just the band. Which is fine, but not what I expected. Bruce clearly wanted more time to play, because that’s what he kept on repeating to the crowd. He decided to play only one song of his new album The Mandrake Project; ‘Afterglow of Ragnarock‘, even though he clearly would have liked to play it all. The rest of the setlist contained other hits. And of course his classic line:

“Scream for me Graspop!”.

Oh, how I love seeing this band live. Their symphonic metal makes for great storytelling on stage. Lead singer and mastermind behind it all, Tobias Sammet enters the stage and tells his story together with other great artists like Ronnie Atkins and Bob Catley. Surprisingly, there were no songs from latest album A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society, but Avantasia has many good songs, so the setlist still didn’t disappoint me. It was nice to see that they changed the setlist and played songs that I hadn’t heard live yet. Besides that, there are some songs that can’t be left out, like ‘Farewell‘ and closer ‘Sign of the Cross / The Seven Angels‘.

For those who have seen Electric Callboy before, know that their show is always a party. Their metalcore with electronic/techno elements in it gets the crowd crazy and ready for a good time. And that is exactly what they delivered. We also got to hear ‘Ratatata‘ here, but also not together with Babymetal, unfortunately. Still a great performance, but would have been great to see the two bands together. The performance of Hurrikan was outstanding. It’s their schlager/deathcore song and for those who know it, you know what’s going to happen, and it all makes sense. But for those seeing it for the first time, it can be a little strange to see people dancing like that during a metal show. My personal favorite MC Thunder was there, the outfit changes during Hypa Hypa, Pump It, and We Got the Moves were there, it was all there. Nothing to complain about. A great show, and the sun came out during their show. Had an amazing time.