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

by Dutch bassist Alex Jansen

Another week another trip. Most of the time the summer is slow with news, maybe not regarding to soccer as the European Championship has started yesterday. So to try to fill the lack of news I will try to keep you up with my stories traveling over Europe this summer with Primal Fear summer festival run. 

Last week it was Sweden Rock, this week we were in Finland at the Lisää Löylyä Festival, Vaasa. Mind you Finland is part of the Nordic countries and not part of Scandinavia. 

DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT

Thursday started for me with a trip to the doctors, just a check up but it wouldn’t be me if I had made a mistake looking in my calendar. The appointment was the day before so I was kinda late. I only found it out when I had to fill out my documents. Mistakes happen, so after my appointment (they let me in first after I explained I had to catch a flight). I drove to Frankfurt and dropped off my luggage and went through security, this was all pretty fast and easy.

I still had some time so I wanted to go to the lounge but as it is before the security I thought it was better to not go through the whole procedure again. Sometimes it is fast (like just before) but sometimes it takes a while. So I walked around a bit looking at the screens of the gates to see where what plane is going to. Always nice to see so many cities and think of the ones you visited and the ones I still want to visit. 

PRIMAL FEAR OFF TO HELSINKI

Alex Beyrodt was flying with me. He arrived a little later, traffic jam and then the lights of his car stayed on after he parked. He waited a bit but to catch the flight he had to leave. So let’s hope the battery is not empty when we get back. We arrived in Helsinki after a 2,5 hour flight. All okay, getting the luggage in Helsinki was fast too. We met with Michael Ehre and Arndt, they came from Hamburg.

Traveling makes hungry so we opted for some food during the wait for the Stuttgart party. Ralf Scheepers, Tom Naumann and Aaron were getting in 45 minutes after us. Annti our Finnish guitartech was already waiting for us. We finished the food and then the Stuttgart party was there. A 5 minute walk to the rental car company. The shuttle situation of the festival was a bit complicated and the flights from Helsinki to Vaasa were expensive. So we had to drive with a van. A 5 hour trip from one side of the country to the other side. 

ALMOST MIDSUMMER

The landscapes are beautiful so it was a pleasant but still a long ride. After Tampere there was no highway anymore. It is almost midsummer which means that it doesn’t really get dark in this part of the world. We arrived at the hotel and checked in. The hotel was good, the bathroom small and there was no elevator. We went to MC Donalds for some food after the ride because we didn’t really realize it was already late as it was still light. Restaurants were closed already so MC D was the only option.  

Went back to the hotel afterwards and had a drink before finally calling it a day. Got up at 8 in the morning, went for breakfast and went back to bed afterwards. Got up at 1 PM and at 2 PM went to the festival site to check the stuff out. Not all gear was there yet so we went back to the hotel and decided to watch another movie. The crew headed to the festival earlier then we did, nowadays with the communication possibilities its easy to get an update that the gear is ready. 

PRIMAL FEAR SHOWTIME

7 PM we were picked up, there was still a band playing on our stage but I could check out the gear. All looked great so I was confident for the show. Change over was easy, I checked the volume and then it was time already to hit it. 

Same procedure as last week, intro and kicking off with ,,Chainbreaker’’. Great sound on stage, great audience and although it was a bit fresh we were warm in seconds. Mainly also because we had pyros and they weren’t greedy with firing those up haha. We had some more pyro during other songs so we were sure to be warm. Anyway we get warm during the show anyway. We always try to deliver as much power and energy as we can. Yesterday was no exception. 

After the show we re-dressed and watched the Germany – Scotland game, which was won by Germany quite overwhelmingly. Gear got packed in the van and the crew and Ralf were driven to the hotel. It was just around the corner so only a stone throw away. I watched a big part of the set of Beast in Black. Ralf had to leave a bit earlier as he was picked up at 4 AM to fly to Helsinki, then Amsterdam and then Madrid, followed by a car ride of 2 hours to perform with Avantasia the same evening. What we do for rock n roll.

AFTER THE SHOW

I watched a great part of the show of Danko Jones. A power trio and they delivered despite some technical difficulties in the beginning. What was great to hear was his announcement between songs. ,,When we arrived at the festivalground, Primal Fear was ripping it up” so we thanked him for that, we got a smile back and then he announced us as the festival promoters. We watched a few songs more and then headed to the hotel. It was 1 AM and still light, this is kinda tricky. We had a great chat with Kasper from Beast in Black and then called it a day. 

GOING BACK HOME

Breakfast at 8 AM and we left at 9 AM, facing the same 5,5 hour ride back to Helsinki. Bringing back the rental, check in, security check and then some food. Boarding and up in the air, direction Frankfurt. Tom is flying with us and taking a train from Frankfurt. I will check the luggage and then head home too. A great weekend again with the mighty Primal Fear and next week we will hit Switzerland with some of our friends at a great festival. More about that next week.

Cheers, Alex

All photos provided by Alex Jansen