Farmageddon Open Air 2014: with the festival now over, it’s time to catch up on sleep, nurse sunburns and reflect on a great experience. One thing is for-sure; all of the volunteers and festival organizers deserve some massive accolades. This festival was definitely a labour of love of metal and I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of work that went into organizing and running three fantastic days of metal. (Four if you count the kick-off party/show that I did not attend).
Friday, June 13th started out with some unstable weather, catching arriving festival-goers in the process of setting up tents in a short-lived rain shower. The metal-gods must have been smiling though because the sky cleared up by the time the bands actually got underway. Although not the first band of the evening, Mongol created the atmosphere for the rest of the weekend, playing a solid, fun set. Being between costumes, the Star Wars themed outfits seemed to fit in with a weekend of friends, beer, barbecues and as much metal as anyone could ask for. I was looking forward to seeing Ides of Winter, but they were a last-minute cancellation on Friday. Scythia ended the evening with a well-executed show, playing several fan favorites and putting listeners in the mood to continue the party through the night and into the early hours of the next morning.
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| Mongol |
Saturday morning seemed to start earlier than scheduled, which may have been a bit questionable considering several people seemed to be nursing some pretty wicked hangovers from the night before. I was one of those people and was disappointed that I missed Skymir, Kryosphere and Eye Of Horus. There were other bands interspersed between those few that would have been interesting to see, but it wasn’t in the cards on that particular day. While I could hear the sets from the sauna-like atmosphere of my tent, it would have been nice if they had played at the scheduled times as that would have given those of us who partied a little too hard that much more recovery time. That being said, Saturday continued to be a day of heavy partying for many festival goers with antics happening left, right and center, including a very entertaining wizard-staff jousting match. Wandering over to the merchandise area was impressive considering the sheer amount of shirts, hoodies, patches, stickers and other merchandise that each band brought to a still-growing, fairly intimate festival. There were a few vendors present as well, including Ragnar the Trader, who always has some unique and finely crafted Viking themed goods. (I couldn’t resist buying a beautiful dragon bracelet for myself).
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| Idolatry |
Idolatry, a newly formed band, was one that I certainly was not going to miss. They played an excellent set, with vocalist Lörd Matzigkeitus’ stage presence invoking a feeling of true, old-school, Norwegian black metal. Death Toll Rising was another band not to miss and like each and every time I have witnessed their live show, they delivered a solid set of thrashy death metal.
Sunday’s first big highlight came in the form of Scimitar, a melodic death metal/folk metal blend from Victoria, British Columbia. Even the wind storm that ripped through the camping area out of the blue couldn’t stop fans from enjoying this band, although many came back to find destroyed tents and belongings scattered throughout the festival grounds. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend was BLËED, a band which I had previously heard nothing about. With well-planned costume changes, fake blood and dead babies spewing Jagermeister to eager fans backing up a great musical performance, they are a band that I will be checking out again. Female-fronted Ironstorm was another pleasant surprise with festival organizer Tyson Travnik on drums. Closing the festival were well known bands Wretched and Havok. While both were good, Havok seemed a little too intent on apologizing for (complaining) about technical issues that weren’t actually that apparent to the majority of the audience. I suppose it was a bit of a surprise for them to play ‘in the middle of nowhere’, but they could have been a little bit more gracious about it considering several people bought day passes and made the drive just to see them play. Plus, I thought those in charge of sound and other technical aspects did a great job, definitely making it appear as though everything went off with very few issues the entire weekend. At least to the majority of the crowd without sound or tech experience.
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| Scimitar, with Lylia Chorosive |
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| BLËED |
Overall, I was very impressed with Farmageddon. I fully intended to watch a few more sets than what I actually did, but it was difficult to fully pay attention to each and every band with so many other things happening and the opportunity to visit with old friends and make new ones. I was planning on taking notes during the weekend as well, but that didn’t happen when the beers started being cracked and the conversations and music began.
A food truck was on hand for those who came without, but with small barbecues and camp stoves allowed in the camping area, festival goers had plenty of options. The kegs may or may not have been dry by the end of the night on Saturday, but this created very few issues as I could find a great view of the stage while drinking my own supply of beer. Having a fire pit with a good vantage point was another nice touch, amongst a few other small touches that made the experience run smoothly. While I sometimes found it difficult to move out of my lawn chair and quit socializing long enough to catch full sets, that seemed to be a large part of what the weekend was about: bands, friends and metal heads all mingling and having a good time. Despite near-freezing temperatures Saturday night, the weather held, making for one great weekend of music. This is one festival that I (and I’m sure many others in attendance) would love to see grow. I fully plan on being back next year, if at all possible.
Band photos used taken by myself; not nearly as good as the professional ones, but they work.
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