The 4-day Belgian trip is different for all listeners: someone has been visiting Europe for several days, and someone has arrived neatly before the start of the festival.
Anyway, we met at the airport on the first day of the festival. Although a couple of our friends have already settled in the campsite on their own on day zero.
We were kindly greeted by the bus driver, and our small company plunged into a two-story air-conditioned miracle. "Children, it's time to go to school!" - Derrek jokingly said, getting behind the wheel, hinting that our vehicle resembled a typical skulbass from American films.
Belgium greeted us with the sun, so it was pleasant to drive through a cozy province - an hour and a half later we were already there and checked into an incredibly cozy hotel, the windows of which overlooked the green street.
But the most convenient thing was that the hotel was literally a 3-minute walk from the departure station of the festival shuttle "Mol - GMM 2019". They rode from 7 am to 2 am, so we could freely move between the hotel and the fest. Absolutely free!
DAY 1.
Having received bracelets and exchanged money for the local "currency" - tokens, we went to the festival grounds. 5 stages, a Ferris wheel, a go-kart, an endless food court and merchandise stands were all quite conveniently located in the Graspop Metal Meeting festival grounds.
The festival day for us began with cheerful Crowbars, after which we decided to study the area of action more thoroughly. Top tip - don't buy local pasta - it's worse than your school cafeteria. Until then, and for 4 tokens (12 euros!) But the rest of the food - soups, oriental street food, burgers - is quite good! Although who can be surprised by this if there is a wonderful Belgian beer?
Everyone was expecting the first headliners, Slayer, to perform. But to be honest, I knew that I would see them at least at the upcoming Wacken, so I went to Deathstars without a twinge of conscience! And I didn’t regret it at all!
It seems that the collective that rose from the ashes performed beautifully on one of the indoor stages of the fest with excellent light and sound. But the main thing, of course, was the reunion with the Cat Casino guitarist. Gloomy industrial gothic is what the audience was waiting for. A great show and a delightful setlist - what everyone got!
DAY 2.
First, a sumptuous breakfast awaited us: traditional Belgian waffles, which everyone could bake themselves, a variety of jams, cheeses, orange juice and the usual pleasures of breakfast at the hotel.
The line-up was especially pleasing - from Godsmack to Slipknot, everything was great, here you have King Diamond and Slash and Disturbed. I had to break in. But still, beforehand, we decided to see the town in which we lived.
Mol town is a typical cozy European province: town hall square, a river, a large neat park, a bunch of cyclists, coffee shops and delicious ice cream. However, all this could be bypassed in a maximum of half an hour. That is why we decided that the city lives only during the days of the festival, when metalists come here.
To shake off the European calm, we went to the fest. Straight to the Slash and Miles Kennedy concert. The bulk of the crowd melted on the grass, and we easily made our way to the front rows. The temporary mute on the track Anastacia angered the guitarist, but the front-row audience could hear Miles continue to sing.
We decided to listen to the Godsmack concert lying on the grass, because the sun was hot up to +35 and there was no desire to stand by the stages, waiting for Slipknot.
Armed with sangria, we accidentally clung to some group of guys (as it turned out, from Israel), had some fun with them and went to the Ferris wheel. A roughly 3-minute ride cost 1 token. It was very funny to see such a large-scale festival from a bird's eye view.
We decided to leave the disturb after a couple of tracks and went to King Dimond. A slice of Halloween was prepared for all visitors. We stood at the forefront of the dance floor, but it was too stuffy, and somewhere in the middle of the show we went to the middle of the hall, where it was freer. And more fun. Some Belgian fans treated us to beer and offered to compete with them in the weirdest dance to King Diamod. Well, OK.
We saw Slipknot at Rockfest a little earlier. And if then there was the premiere of the show, now the guys have already run it even more and charged the top with their frantic energy. But sorry, no one likes the new masks! Hey, please, see them)
DAY 3.
Traditionally, the final day is the most eventful. Everyone wants to be in time for everything - to spend unspent tokens (ps! Someone even resold them 2 times cheaper!), Buy merchandise, see ALL groups! My personal challenge was: Whitesnake, Rob Zombie, Sabaton, Def Leppard, Kiss - in short, I just had to run between two scenes. Fortunately, there is no liquid mess on Graspop, a special covering was laid near the stages - walk around and rustle with plastic glasses, which everyone immediately throws away.
Whitesnake - and did not think to surprise me with something. I just screamed famous tracks in the company of persons unknown to me who came for the same.
Rob Zombie - that was fire! Everything is very green, bright, lively. All the hits are in place, the costume show is there, the audience is delighted. Crowdsurfers sail non-stop
Sabaton is a good large-scale production of the show, see you also at Wacken. But the sound failed. There was some kind of "pit" in the middle of the show. And then it seems like nothing. Well, the audience didn't want to let them go
Def Leppard show was nastalgic. Elliot was out of his voice, unfortunately. But we danced there, of course, from the bottom of our hearts.
Kiss - closing of the festival! Bmmm! Shock, effective, classic. There is never too much glam - everything sparkles, the audience is dying. Nearby, some 19-year-old guys from Chile, who knew absolutely all the texts, were furious. It all ended with fireworks and the announcement of new festival dates for 2020! We no longer felt our legs, so we were sparingly delighted with this infe and with a note of light sadness went to wait for our shuttle bass.
BONUS:
Free time in Brussels. Early in the morning our group was picked up by a bus from the hotel and, picking up the guys from the camping, carried it to Brussels airport. My flight was in the evening and I decided to wander around the city a little more. It was very hot, so my cultural program was limited only to gastronomy and the search for real Belgian waffles with fat layers of ice cream and fruit. However, quite by chance I came across a huge exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of Audrey Hepburn (she was born in Brussels) and finally decided to plunge into the world of Hollywood.
And to fly away was, of course, sad. And, finishing chicken soup for 3 euros at the tail of the plane, I remembered my cheerful tourists, a large-scale festival and a cozy hotel. My head was buzzing with impressions. But Graspop is too cool to visit it just once in a lifetime.
