Finland is another festival richer: this year marks the first edition of The (Big Stone) Rock Fest. Surprisingly enough they managed to get quite a few major names on their line-up. With names like Rammstein and Evanescence as the headliners for the event, it seemed to hold much promise and we just had to be there to see what was going on there at Vehkala park in Vantaa.
I guess there’s a lot of good and a lot of bad that can be said about our experience at The Rock Fest. It is a festival with a lot of potential and promise… if they listen to their customers and adjust some of the bugs that obiously still are there.
First of all, they really need to take a good look at if something is to do about the festival grounds: one time it’s muddy ground, the next it’s riddled with huge rocks and the next you find yourself on proper concrete. The inconsistency of the field probably tired me out physically more than anything else. Besides the waiting that is… I know that it’s to be expected at a festival that has one of the days sold out, but sometimes it was a bit ridiculous. For instance the one water station for everyone at the festival was so not enough. The tent of second stage “Perkele” could’ve been a bit bigger in my opinion and it would be nice if the information flow at the festival was a bit smoother or more clear. We know there was supposed to be a “media tent” somewhere, but no one could tell us where we could find it or even where we were allowed to go as press.
On the plus side the line-up was of course great and the planning of the festival terrain seemed well-thought through for the most part. Also the diversity in food stalls we found at the food court was delightful, the animation that you usually don’t see at most metal and rock festivals like bungee-jumping, games to win stuff and such were surprising to us and the reasonably priced drinks (for Finland) were great! The security people and volunteers present there were one for one extremely friendly despite the sometimes chaotic or confusing situations, kudos for that!
Our conclusion would be overall: A for effort and a B for execution. This could definitely become one of the great events, but it needs more work for sure. Since it seemed to be a great success for the organisation, they already promised there’s going to be a second edition, so I’m curious to see how this further progresses.
