From June 16 to June 19, the 25th edition of the Graspop metal meeting festival was held in Dessel, Belgium. My son and I had received Christmas tickets from my wife for this cool festival last year. Anyway, our youngest never knows what to ask for, so my wife thought she could do him a big favor with a ticket for this festival, only he can't go here alone :) so she got me a ticket too. Isn't she sweet :)

The main field had two large stages, north and south. When a band played on the north, the south stage was converted and vice versa. Very efficient, you never had to wait too long for the next band. In addition to these two stages, there was a smaller field with a large stage for the lesser-known and big acts, a large tent and a Live karaoke bar. In this bar you could choose from a whole list of songs that you could sing whenever you wanted, the song was played live by a really good band.

It was going to be a warm weekend, and it was. Actually too hot, there was little shade on the site, but the organization did everything possible. There were free water points, extra shade cloths were hung so that was not the issue.

The Curse of Millhaven

Never heard of the Curse of Millhaven. It tend to be a belgium band. It was a bit to deathmetal for us :)

Tremonti

Tremonti, founded by Alter Bridge and Creed's Guitarist Mark Tremonti. What a energetic band and sound. Never saw them live before but they were killing it..

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden played a complete show. My previous post was about the gig in Gelredome Arnhem, that was after this show. The sound in the open air was way better than at Gelredome, and although it's a festival, they had all the stage appearances included :)

Volbeat

This song, Fallen, is a song which my son and I like a lot. We couldn't share it together thoug because he was in front of the stage. For me it was to crowded but he asked if he could go, and of course I let him, because he loves Volbeat so much.

Black Label Society

Zakk Wylde, former guitarist of Ozzy playing whith his own band. Raw, loud and full of great guitar riffs. There is a whole following of fans wearing BLS patches , just like the motor clubs divided in chapters. His sound was phenomenal.

I've been to the festival once before years ago. Then Black Sabbath, Dreamtheater, Soulfly, UFO and many more great bands played, so I was really looking forward to it this year. To make the party complete, we rented a tent on the festival site so that we didn't have to go anywhere afterwards and could sleep right away :).

My son having a good rest of all the impressions

After a good night sleep, time for beer !!!!

Megadeth was for me one of the surprises of the festival. They were on fire. Dave Mustain was well of voice, very social talking to the crowd (it's normally not his thing). But beside all the music was awesome. I love the gig a lot.

Whitesnake

Joel Hoekstra, the awesome guitarist of Whitesnake

In my opinion one of the best bands around, although David Coverdale was not as good as he used to be with his voice. Afterwards they canceled the entire US tour cause of his health, so lucky us we saw the farewell tour.

Whitesnake had a new bassplayer, TANYA O’ CALLAGHAN, a gorgious appearance with a great musicality. There couldn't be a better mix :)

Scorpions

My son was looking forward to the Scorpions, in fact we both did. It was with mixed emotions cause already two years ago I lost a very dear friend of mine. (@verhp11/some-hard-weeks-but-things-have-to-picked-up-again). During his ceremony they played "Still loving you" by the scorpions, I always thought it was a great song, and I still do, but now it has a more emotional load to it. When they played the song my son wrapped his arm around me and we both let a tear, it meant a lot to me expiriencing this with my son.... It was really special.. Pitty the people in front of us where screaming like they were brought to the slaughterhouse ;).

It was a great weekend, again some quality time with my son, enjoying the music, atmosphere and eachother.

Have a great night,

Peter