First ever attempt to make Helsinki a desert city!
There is Desertfest Antwerp, Berlin, London,… but nothing of the sorts in Finland despite a pretty active stoner/psychedelic/doom scene. Time to change something about that, some people were clearly thinking. Enter the first ever Desert Hel festival for the heaviest stoner and doom music from Finnish shores and beyond. It promises to be a weekend full of loud & fuzzy shows, craft beer and psychedelic visuals and hopefully the start of a new yearly tradition after having to postpone it several times due to the pandemic!
| Name : | Desert HEL |
| Country : | Finland |
| Amount of Days : | 2 |
| Outdoors / Indoors : | Indoors |
| Amount of Stages : | 1 |
| Genres : | Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Rock, Vintage Rock, Heavy Rock, Desert Rock, Doom Metal |
The Bands
Spread over 2 nights, you can expect a nice selection of Finnish bands and an international act headlining every night!
On the Friday you’ll see the heavy psych rockers of Jupiter, the fuzzy stoners/doomsters of Craneium, heavy hitting doom/stoner act DÖ and vintage occult heavy rock outfit Lucifer from Sweden/Germany which will be the first time in Finland since the release of their latest album ‘Lucifer IV’, so besides some of their classic hits you can expect plenty of kickass new tracks to be played live!
The Saturday gets started with a decent amount of fuzz and stoner with Kaiser, continued with Thermate who blends 70’s proto metal with 90’s stoner, the metallers of Khat Moses, the glorious comeback of Blue Eyed Sons giving a taste of their bluesy heavy rock inspired by some of the greats like The Doors and Led Zeppelin and lastly crowning the night with the Norwegian Lonely Kamel who will continue the bluesy heavy hitters!
The Timing
Every evening the doors of the downstairs venue of On The Rocks will open at the blessed time of 17:00 with the first band starting on Friday by 18:00 and on Saturday by 17:30 and a new band kicking off about every hour or so. Most likely every night won’t go too far beyond midnight, not counting in any possible afterparties you might engage in.
This is the way
Desert HEL takes place in the cellar venue of On The Rocks in center Helsinki, the place to be for quality rock and metal gigs. The bar is really easy to find, since it’s basically across the square right next to Helsinki central station. Barely 2 min of walking and you’ll be right there already.
Good To Know
On The Rocks is mostly a cozy rock bar, but for gigs you’ll need to walk all the way to the back of the bar where you’ll find the access to the stairs to the cellar where the official concert venue is. You’ll need to pay a coat fee of about €3 to get in, after which you’ll be able to leave your coat or any other belongings you might not want to drag along without any extra costs.
We are really looking forward to what this little event could be the start of and can’t wait to catch some of the stellar stoner/doom/heavy rock acts that are on the bill.
See you there for the fuzz and a couple of drinks!
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