For the third year in a row, we have now visited wonderful Metalcamp, placed in the scenic surroundings of the Slovenian Alps, close to the town of Tolmin.

So as not to bore you by being repetitive later on, here are some things that need be done, and also something we did basically every day while at Metalcamp.
To start the day of, we walked into town for something to eat. When in need of food, there are several places you can turn to. One of the first you pass on your way is the Metal Grill, which has a lovely sign with the Devil in a cooking outfit. I can't describe it any closer, as we have not yet tried it out.
Further into town you come across the hotel, Krn I believe it is called, which probably has the most seats of all places around these parts. They offer a breakfast buffet for a reasonable price, and also some special Metal Menu's designed for drunken festival goers. I would advise you to stay away from their bar though, as they only serve homebrewed beer, and it was not to my liking. Then again, everyone has different tastes, and you have lots of time to try out different things, so why not?
There are also a couple of pizza places around town, and it is in a particular one of these you are most likely to find us hanging out. I am sorry to say that I can't give you its complete name, as it is long and quite incomprehensible for foreigners. It ends with Tmin though, and they serve, in a collected Metalmoments opinion, the best pizza in the world. We actually cut our vacation short last year and drove from Venice back to Tolmin just because we missed it so. Oh, and let's not forget the wonderful people working there. No matter how busy they are, they always have time for a smile and a kind word on your way.
Actually, all people in Tolmin are most helpful to visitors, and they are well-spoken in English which is a big plus.
On your way back to the festival grounds you must under no circumstances forget to pay a visit to the heavenly café called M-Bar. They serve the best banana split I have ever tried.

Back at the festival there is one place in particular where you will undoubtedly spend far too much time; the Beach Bar. Located right where the river Tolminka meets the larger river Soca, the Beach Bar provides a perfect place for all sorts of varied activities. You can sit and relax in the shade of the forest with a cold beer in your hand, or lie and sunbathe on the beach itself, with a cooling beer by your side. And why not take a swim in the river itself? You should be warned though, no matter how alluring the clear water may be, it is absolutely freezing. At least as a start until your body goes numb, but it doesn't really matter, for the weather is (almost) always perfect and will warm you up in a matter of seconds. Then it is probably time to quench your thirst with a freshly poured beer. Oh, and did I mention that they play loud metal basically non-stop, for your listening pleasure?
In the night-time, when all bands have tucked it in for the day, the party continues here with more drinking and music, now also with the aid of fire-breathers and strip shows. Could it be any better? I think not, and this is why we here at Metalmoments feel that Metalcamp is the best festival you can visit. Although, since we think it already has the perfect size, and wish that it will never grow bigger, we hope you will kindly disregard everything you've read up till this point. Thank you.

Friday:

The interesting start of the day came with a Metalmoments first; we decided to attend a press conference. The band was Wintersun, who had kindly decided to visit Metalcamp as the only place to play live this summer, as a short break from the studio where they are still working hard to complete the follow-up to their debut-album.
Since this was our first press conference experience, we were a bit wet behind the ears, to say the least, and we came in embarrassingly unprepared. None the less, it was a fun experience, and when it was done, we quickly started to think about how to do it better next time.
The first band we saw were also Wintersun, playing the mainstage while rainclouds gathered in the sky. Strange, I thought it never rained at Metalcamp?

After Wintersun it was time for Six Feet Under to molest our ear-drums. We had to leave a little early from their show to make it in time for the press conference with In Flames. This turned out to be unnecessary though, since In Flames had been delayed and therefore had to cancel their interview time. This gave us some time to walk around the festival area and look for something to eat. We never did find anything though, since the placing of the food tents had changed quite a bit from the earlier years, and we didn't have much time until the next band was set to take the stage.

Even though the rainclouds had dispersed during the last show, they came back with a vengeance as Carcass took the stage, and they also poured their innards out over us during the In Flames show. Luckily, they used a lot of pyrotechnics in their show, and this kept us relatively warm.
It started to dry up a bit during In Extremo's concert, but at this time we were quite wet and frozen already, so we decided to skip the last couple of songs to get back to the tent and sleep.

Saturday:

The second day at Metalcamp started with an interview with the Viking horde, a.k.a. Amon Amarth, who seemed to be very pleased to be back at Metalcamp again.
After the interview we hurried out to the mainstage to be able to catch the end of the Danish prog-metal act Mercenary, who gave a good show for a small audience.

After this we had some spare time until the next band we wanted to see, and we spent in the shade since the sun was shining with a warm smile upon us again. And just like that, the break was over, and we went to see Finntroll before continuing on to the Apocalyptica press conference.

Now it was time to have a short break to gather some strength before the three shows in a row this day had to offer.
Apocalyptica started out, then came Iced Earth, and finally finishing the day off in the company of the same people we had started it with; Amon Amarth.

Upon walking back to our tent and listening to Tankard playing on the 2nd stage, we ran into the poor fellow who had managed to get up on the stage during the Amon Amarth show. He told us that he had gotten his wristband cut off, and wondered if we had a spare we could give him. Sorry, no. Better luck next time.

Sunday:

We spent a bit too much time in town on the Sunday, which resulted in us running back to the backstage area to be in time for the Helloween interview time, only to find that it had been changed to a much later time, now sadly colliding with Brainstorms concert. We used the spare time to walk down Merchants Alley, the short road between the two stages, littered with stands filled with all the things you might want but don't really need.

With a bit of luck, we did manage to stay for the whole press conference and still see a bit of the Brainstorm gig, and then it was time to get the dancing shoes out, as the next band to take the stage was Korpiklaani.
Here, the clouds began to gather again, and when Behemoth went on after them, the skies literally opened up. We had decided to sit and see their show from the hill, but the rain forced us to run out and take cover in a big restaurant tent in the camp area. People gathered quickly from near and far; somebody had been kind enough to bring some music, and soon the party-mood was high again, as thunder shook the ground and lightning lit the sky outside.
Sadly for the Behemoth fans, they had to cancel the rest of their show only a few songs in, because of the unforeseen amount of water everywhere, and the main stage had to be closed until further notice.
All this we did not know however, not until later where we had found a pair of Metalcamp trash-bags which had to do as temporary raincoats, and we had merrily skipped along back to the backstage area, singing Happy Happy Helloween as we went.

About two hours after they were set to go on stage, we finally got to see Helloween. By then the rain had calmed down some, but it had not stopped all together though. We had actually planned to see Ministry, as we had missed them at Graspop but with the delays, stage changes and the weather still unstable, we decided to pack it in for the night instead. We could hear Opeth play on the 2nd stage from our tent, and felt sorry for those people still up, since we could also hear the rain grow wilder again.

Monday:

When in town this day we visited the library to borrow their internet, something we haven't tried before here in Tolmin, as they had had a nice, cool internet café which we had used the previous years. This establishment, however, had for unknown reasons closed its doors this year, and so we were in need of a new place to hang.

The rain started to drip lightly as we walked up from the beach. We went over to the food-tents right next to the 2nd stage for a bite to eat, while watching a lively Damnation Defaced try to get the small crowd before them going. After this we sought shelter beside the mainstage while the rain increased rapidly. Mystic Prophecy was playing for a small and wet group of true fans.
Since the weather didn't seem to get better any time soon, we went up to the car to get more clothes out. When we came back, Mystic Prophecy had been replaced by Sahg, but since it was still raining we decided it was best to stay dry on the porch in the backstage area. We still had a long way to go before the end of the day.

Finally the rain stopped as we went to see the start of Rage, and after this hurrying over to the 2nd stage to watch At The Lake from Poland. After they were finished, we went into the veggie stand next to the scene to buy a toast. When I wondered what was in it, this being a vegetable stand and all, I was told "A toast is always a toast". I believe this shall be my new motto.

Next on the scene were fellow Swedes Soilwork, who didn't impress me much. Impress did the last band of the day, however, and surprisingly so. The band was Morbid Angel, a band I never would have thought I'd like live.
After that show we took a quick peep at the strip show which (probably because of the unsteady weather) had moved from the beach bar into the big bar-tent opposite the main stage, and after this we went back to the veggie stand to get some more of their vitamin shots. On the way there, we saw one of the trucks normally used to suck the toilets clean use its big hose to dry the road up in Merchants Alley.

Tuesday:

The program was pretty "light" this the last day of music, compared to the other days, at least in our opinion, so we took our time wandering around town saying goodbye. It would be at least a year until next time, after all.
We had actually planned to go up the small mountain in the town, the one with some form of ruins at the top, since our Hungarian neighbors had highly recommended the view from there, but the weather, although dry, looked threatingly unstable, so we chose to keep this trip for next time.
Later, down at the river we met a nice Slovenian guy playing with a remote-controlled boat one of his neighbors had just left laying around. He told us he was in a band called Sweet Sorrow, and hoped to be playing the 2nd stage with them next year. We sincerely wish him good luck, and will try to remember to come see him if he succeeds.

Not until after 7p.m. was the first band we wanted to see set to go on, but then we saw everything from thereon out.
First out were Volbeat, followed by folk-metal acts Eluveitie and Subway To Sally, and last came Arch Enemy.
After the shows were all over, the mainstage was closed down while playing the Metalcamp Anthem by Prospect over the speakers. Another year was over, and with heavy hearts we left for the tent. We did not even have the possibility to take advantage of the last open day since we had to drive early to be in time for the next festival of our trip.

So, while sitting at home, writing these words and sipping our last Lasko pivo, we are very much looking forward to the summer of 2009 for another year with a Heavy Metal Holiday...