This year Badia Rocks festival in Badia-Abtei (Italy) had its tenth anniversary. Because I had been to Summernights festival the day before, I could stay in Italy only for one day and I missed e. g. Rage and White Skull. The festival counts with its about 400-500 visitors to the smaller ones, but that doesn`t mean anything.
Arrival: The way to Abtei was very adventurous, because most of the time we had to go uphill, and on the narrow and winding streets we couldn`t drive too fast. Arriving in Badia after two hours journey, it was very easy to find the stage, cause the town is very small and the stage very big… therefore you could hear the music from afar.
On location we had a few problems with the press/backstage passes, cause the communication was very difficult, Italian plus some German words were unintelligible for us ;D Luckily Johnny from Suncold joined us, who could speak German very well and helped us a lot.
I liked the location very much, Badia seems to be seated very highly, because you have been surrounded by mountains. The stage has been great enough and you could also watch everything from a higher position. On this higher plain you could find catering and the festival-bands.
In the lower area with the stage you could find beverage stands, merchandise and four pretty clean dixi toilets.
At the beverage-stand I first was very surprised as I saw the prices. 2.70€ for 0.3L beer and 4€ for Cola Red??? Ok, different country, different prices :(
Bands: The first band, in which Johnny is playing, Suncold:The Italians are not unknown to me, I have seen them Silvester at Hellfire festival in Innsbruck. They do something like Death-Thrash Metal with a lot of guitar-solos. I liked it quite a lot. Whereas I have to say that they could have abandoned one or the other well played solo, because it sometimes didn`t fit to the music.
The next band started accurately at 18:35. Raintime, also from Italy, play Progressive Metal with a few growls. I liked especially the keyboard-passages and guitar-solos, everything sounded very harmonious.
Lost Dreams from Austria also started at time. The schedule has been pulled through consequently. (It doesn`t surprise me, because in Italy you take everything very seriously, the bands had to enlist their songs to somehow register them, then every musician had to sign a contract.)
Lost Dreams - a STALKER Fresh Act – today played their new album, which soon will be available. The Melodic Deathers from Innsbruck began their show with a intro and they immediately got down to brass tacks. The LD guys, who still couldn`t find themselves a quick drummer, can revert to the Thirdmoon drummer for their live shows. Unfortunately he has been injured, so the LD ex-drummer Michael replaced him.
After circa 2 songs, it seemed like they wanted to stop the track because of some technical problems. But LD continued with their song and then tried to persuade the sound engineer to solve the problems. However, they couldn`t fix the problem and the show had to go on. Personally, as a normal fan in front of the stage, I didn`t find a fault in the sound, accept that the speakers blasted from time to time and that the intros were too quiet. LD though seemed to have a great problem with it, plus the disinterest of the Italians, so there wasn´t any fun in playing.
All the more I`m looking forward to Metalcamp to see them in perfection :).
After the Lost Dreams concert I got myself something to eat. They had a couple of things to offer, e.g. the common like fries, sausages or steak, I then decided for pasta. If you are in Italy, it should be something Italian.:D
With After All and Pink Cream 69, the headliners of the day, the spirits were rising again. All sound-problems seemed to be solved and those two Power Metal bands offered a grand and impressive finale of this festival.
Homeward journey: During the Pink Cream concert I left the festival with Wibs, to start our homeward journey to East Tyrol. After circa 5 minutes we have been stopped by two Carabinieris. Italians take everything very seriously, the second ;P
We got frisked for drugs completely, I had to empty my purse on the engine hood, as they couldn`t find anything (I surely don`t keep my drugs in my purse ;P ) he took a look at my three suitcases on the backseat, where I kept my camera equipment. As I tried to explain, that I only kept my camera in there, he needed to know it exactly and I had to unpack everything.
Some when, as they consulted the center for controlling our identities, they allowed us to drive on.
Arriving in Austria the same game again, just with the Austrian police; "drivers license please and blow in here" .. policeman checks the drivers license, Wibs blows into the breathalizer ... 0.00 blood alcohol level, "thanks you can drive past". I think it didn`t even take us a minute ;D
Conclusion:
A location that`s surrounded by mountains, is not to be found very often and I liked it a lot. Beautiful great stage with even greater bands and additionally good food. You could only find a few flaws. There have been problems with the sound, which the audience didn`t notice, but the bands even more. The prices for beverages were close to obscene, but let us not criticize that, for these may be the normal Italian prices. I can truely recommend Badia Rocks.
