Hi all,
This is just a courtesy post to let you all know that I will not be active on this blog for the next few weeks. I'll soon start back to college for a year and therefore no travelling will be done!
Feel free to read through my many posts on Japan (Tokyo) and Sweden (Stockholm) and leave a comment if you have any questions/suggestions/opinions!
Please use the blog archive and search tool or the popular tags/posts at the right of the page to help you find what you're looking for.
Sue
Tuesday 9 July 2013
Monday 1 July 2013
#70 Hultsfred Music Festival
So Hultsfred Music Festival 2013 was a very last minute decision, as my friend and I applied only a week before, and amazingly got accepted to volunteer there!
We were working in shifts for parts of the festival, so it was impossible for us to see everyone play. However, we saw almost all the acts we wanted to, which was great! The festival was very small, less than 5,000 people I'd guess. It had recently moved from Hultsfred in Southern Sweden to an hour outside Stockholm to try encourage more sales (which I didn't think worked...).
The main headliners were Fatboy Slim, Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys, Imagine Dragons, Bastille, Adrian Lux and Portishead. For me this was a mediocre lineup, but since the ticket was free I decided to go anyway!
Arctic Monkeys were just boring and Fatboy Slim just DJ'd instead of playing any known songs, so for me the real stars were Imagine Dragons. I hadn't heard much of them before the festival, but they were fantastic live, and I'd recommend you see them if you have the chance! We also by chance met the drummer and bass player wandering around the festival, which was cool. (Super nice guys, we were chatting to them for ages too!) We also sat in on someone called Miriam Bryant, just to fill in some time. We had no idea who she was or what type of music she sang, but we were pleasantly surprised when she came onstage. I'm sure she hates this - but the easiest way to describe her is like a cool, Swedish Adele (she sings in English though!). And she was amazing live, even better than recordings. So I'd advise you to look her up too!
The campsites were quite small, and there was no other entertainment available - so if you weren't listening to a band there was nothing really to do. Also, there were very few artists - there were at most two artists playing at the same time, and at some points there was just one! This could be good as you don't have the problem of two or more people you like overlapping, but it also meant if you didn't like either you didn't have much choice.
There were (overpriced) food stands, hot showers and the toilets were cleaned quite regularly so that was good at least! We didn't sleep there as we had no tent, but there were free buses running to Stockholm so it was easy to get there.
The most surprising thing I found at this festival, (and also at the Grona Lund concerts) was that I could walk up to the stage, while the band was playing, and get a spot at the front! It seems the Swedes prefer to be at the centre front, or even just at the centre. This leaves ample room to the right and left of the stage so I can just walk up and snap a few great pictures! This would never ever happen in Ireland - if you want to get to the front you have to camp out all day! There are some exceptions, but generally you can get very near the front quite easily.
So anyway, that was Hultsfred, probably not the most exciting music festival, but not terrible either!
We were working in shifts for parts of the festival, so it was impossible for us to see everyone play. However, we saw almost all the acts we wanted to, which was great! The festival was very small, less than 5,000 people I'd guess. It had recently moved from Hultsfred in Southern Sweden to an hour outside Stockholm to try encourage more sales (which I didn't think worked...).
The main headliners were Fatboy Slim, Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys, Imagine Dragons, Bastille, Adrian Lux and Portishead. For me this was a mediocre lineup, but since the ticket was free I decided to go anyway!
Arctic Monkeys were just boring and Fatboy Slim just DJ'd instead of playing any known songs, so for me the real stars were Imagine Dragons. I hadn't heard much of them before the festival, but they were fantastic live, and I'd recommend you see them if you have the chance! We also by chance met the drummer and bass player wandering around the festival, which was cool. (Super nice guys, we were chatting to them for ages too!) We also sat in on someone called Miriam Bryant, just to fill in some time. We had no idea who she was or what type of music she sang, but we were pleasantly surprised when she came onstage. I'm sure she hates this - but the easiest way to describe her is like a cool, Swedish Adele (she sings in English though!). And she was amazing live, even better than recordings. So I'd advise you to look her up too!
The campsites were quite small, and there was no other entertainment available - so if you weren't listening to a band there was nothing really to do. Also, there were very few artists - there were at most two artists playing at the same time, and at some points there was just one! This could be good as you don't have the problem of two or more people you like overlapping, but it also meant if you didn't like either you didn't have much choice.
There were (overpriced) food stands, hot showers and the toilets were cleaned quite regularly so that was good at least! We didn't sleep there as we had no tent, but there were free buses running to Stockholm so it was easy to get there.
The most surprising thing I found at this festival, (and also at the Grona Lund concerts) was that I could walk up to the stage, while the band was playing, and get a spot at the front! It seems the Swedes prefer to be at the centre front, or even just at the centre. This leaves ample room to the right and left of the stage so I can just walk up and snap a few great pictures! This would never ever happen in Ireland - if you want to get to the front you have to camp out all day! There are some exceptions, but generally you can get very near the front quite easily.
So anyway, that was Hultsfred, probably not the most exciting music festival, but not terrible either!
Fatboy Slim
Guess who?
Festival Area
Big crowd for Adrian Lux
Miriam Bryant
Two Door Cinema Club
View of the festival
View of the second stage
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