The day already started very hot, with the sun unforgiving, burning down on us. Shadow and water were our two best friends, unfortunately there wasn’t quite enough of either, as no-one expected the weather to be quite this hot. Nonetheless, there was a great atmosphere and already at the early time of 15:00 on a Friday the festival area was acceptable well filled when Verikalpa started. Transworld Identity had a lot of technical problems at the beginning of their set.  Unfortunately, a recurring thing on the Tahtilava stage.

It was a pleasure to see Ensiferum again, it’s been a while since I got to see them last time. Prestige had a surprisingly big number of fans with them. Next up was Lordi. They were even better this time than when I saw them some weeks ago with Sabaton. As if it wasn’t hot enough already, they also started using pyro from this set on.

I’m filling up my water bottle after each band, which isn’t even that easy, as huge lines are constantly building up at the water station. By this point, getting water takes about 10–15 minutes of standing in the sun. So it’s no wonder that the first people already gave up and went home by this time. Luckily, I can still manage, and so I get to see Mors Subita showered in the light of the slowly setting sun. Dead by April burned us up even more with their pyro. But I feel quite a lot of people are at a little low by this point. The sun is still shining strongly on our heads. Thankfully though, it’s slowly beginning to cool down a little and the shadow areas are increasing. So by the time Diablo starts, the low point had already passed, and the guys get to enjoy their home show fully, getting celebrated by their countless fans.

The highlight of this first day was Beast in Black though. As usual, they had a great energy.  Their happiness is contagious. I’m very happy to have caught them here at Tuhdimmat Tahdit as they don’t have that many shows in Finland this summer. And then day 1 finally draws to an end. The performances were great, but after countless layers of sweat I sweated, I’m very tired. But although I’m exhausted, I’m also hugely looking forward to the second day.