Exclusive | Primal Fear Summer Festival Run – This week Bulgaria!

By Dutch bassist Alex Jansen

Hah it doesn’t seem to end this summer. Friday it was time to hop on a carbon eagle again, this time Bulgaria bound. We had several travel parties this time. Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart. I was in the Frankfurt party. Arriving at the airport at 4 pm, I park my car and enter the terminal. It is holiday season. It means it is very busy. Long lines at check in, I already checked in but still have to drop off my luggage.  Here comes one of the perks of having bulky luggage. It is a different counter, no line there, I drop off my basses and head to security. Here again no line so I am through in no time. 

AIRPORT WORRIES

Alex B arrives a bit later, also Milena who is traveling with us. She is from Bulgaria and a friend of the band. There is a message in the WhatsApp group, Michael’s flight has a delay before even starting. He will not travel to Frankfurt but to Munich and get a flight from there. The Stuttgart party is traveling by Deutsche Bahn to Frankfurt and already have a delay too. Sounds promising for a start. I am at the gate and wait for Alex B and Milena, we decide to have a quick bite at a restaurant.

Here we get the message that the Stuttgart party has arrived in Frankfurt. Still have to check in their luggage and security check. We tell them to go to bulky and check in there. This works and right before boarding, Tom, Ralf and Vult (who is doing Drumtech duty) arrive. The flight is delayed otherwise they probably wouldn’t have made it. A bus brings us to the plane. We board and we sit in the plane for more than 1 hour before taking off. The flight itself is okay and takes a little over 2 hours. 

SOFIA

Sofia here we are. A phone rings; Michael is now in Munich and his flight to Sofia got cancelled oh, and they lost his luggage. Nice job! He gets a hotel and our tourmanager Basi takes care of his stuff, technology is a nice thing. In the meantime we have our gear, go outside and are treated by our shuttle and promoter. Short drive to the hotel, it is now midnight. We refresh in the room and head into the city to eat something. Milena took care of this and she arranged a restaurant where we could still get some food. 2 am we are back at the hotel and while we stand outside the Hammerfall guys arrive.

WHO IS WHO 

The next morning at breakfast I meet up with Volker from Axel Rudi Pell’s band. We have an early lobby call because it is a two hour drive to the festival. Glamorous ain’t it? On my way down in the elevator I join the small space with Biff and Brian Tatler from Saxon and Diamond Head. Short chat and outside it is like a gathering of who is who. Accept is going to the airport, Saxon too, as do Hammerfall. We are heading to the festival, as do Stratovarius and Jelusick. 

Two hours later we are at the festival, the highways are perfect. The few small roads we have afterwards are okay but bumpy. The festival is at a winery. Beautiful location, dressing rooms are airconditioned and it is organized perfect. We meet up with Ernst who will do the sound for us. We did ‘Rock Meets Classic’ together in April, our guitartech is Adam. He was our guitartech on ‘Rock Meets Classic’ last year. He drums in The Sweet and is here anyway with Steel Panther. We have line check this afternoon, til then we hit catering. 

Great food and we chat with Steel Panther and many more colleagues like Ferdy from Axel Rudi Pell. I haven’t seen Johnny Gioeli though. My brother from Hardline happens to be the singer for Axel Rudi Pell. I have been chatting with him all morning by WhatsApp but haven’t seen him yet. He will arrive later that afternoon.

SWITCHING PLACES

Michael is still not there and we switch places with Rhapsody Of Fire and Stratovarius for the line check. As the airline send Michael’s luggage to Croatia (thank you for AirTags) he has to do some shopping and still has a long way to the festival. He arrives minutes before our line check, all the other bands offer gear if he needs something. Vult did a great job setting up so Micheal just has to adjust small things. I have my own fight in the meantime because I forgot my batteries for my wireless. So I borrow a wireless from the festival and they also provide me an amp and a cab. Well like with some brands, if they work they are great, if not, it happens.

Today is a day it doesn’t work. I am not gonna say the brand, it is a brand I played for a while before switching to Ashdown. We get the amp and set it up, wireless is there, I play literally 10 seconds before the amps only makes noises. Adam tells the guy we need another amp. The guy says the amp works perfect, which it obviously doesn’t. Then he tells us it is because of all the antennas, which is not the case of course. I mean this is not our first rodeo. I decide to go directly into the system of the front of house, I have a great sound and after adjusting the monitor I am set. We play one song and we are good to go for later that evening.

HERE’S JOHNNY

We eat a bit and chat with other musicians, all of a sudden I hear a voice I recognize, Johnny arrives and we chat as he enters our dressing room, he jokes, I joke but in general we are happy to see each other again. Let’s see what comes up with him, hehe. You never know with that dude. 

For us it is time to get dressed, it is 40 degrees Celsius outside so this will be a hot one, like last week in Spain. Intro runs and we are back where we belong. The audience goes crazy and we take advantage of the 45 minutes we have. Not too much talking, just faster beats that are pounding. The crowd loves it. We have the pics to prove it. After the show we hit the dressing room. Jelusick passes by and is amazed by the show, a minute later the Steel Panthers come by and congratulate us with a killer show. Ernst told us they were at Foh and watched our whole show, this is always nice to hear. 

We decide to stay a little longer as planned. I watch a bit of Sratovarius from the stage. In the meantime Mr. Big arrives and it is nice to meet Eric Martin. I catch Billy Sheehan but don’t really have the time to chat with him. It is almost time for Axel Rudi Pell to hit the stage and we chat with Axel and Johnny and Volker just before the show. I watch the first 3 to 4 songs from the stage. It’s is almost time for us to get in the shuttle, remember 2 hours ride back to Sofia.

GOOSEBUMPS

Johnny and the audience play a goosebumps version of ,,Hallelujah’’. I know how good he sings this song from Hardline as we play it there too. Our shuttle arrives to bring us to the hotel. We make a stop at a gas station where we have great fun with our drivers. In Sofia I hit the room immediately, I am tired and tomorrow is an early flight. 

I fly with Milena and Alex B, check in is fast, security too. Boarding uncomplicated and now we fly high above the clouds on our way to Frankfurt. 2 hour flight.

Next up is Wacken Open Air.

All photos provided by Alex Jansen