(not all pictures are up yet, there's more of them on the way)

Sharpen your swords, braid your beards, and charge your charms! It’s time for the most fantastical of all festivals once more, Epic Fest!
Yes, returning for its fourth year with the evocative logline “Tales of Might and Magic”, Epic Fest promised greatness once more, and given how impressed we’d been of the festival in the past, we were more than ready to enter the magical kingdom in Roskilde once more…

While the festival stayed with its two-day formula, there was actually a nice little warm-up bonus for those who showed up already on Thursday night. Here the festival had hooked up with none less than the famous Roskilde Cathedral for a very special event. Apparently the church does something they call night church, where you can visit the church by late evening (night just sounds catchier in the title, doesn’t it?), and for this specific evening, the priest had prepared a special sermon or talk, where she interwove the lore of the bible with the fantastical lore of Epic Fest, after which the organist had prepared a special set of classic power metal tracks to be played on the historical Raphaëlis organ. This was both mind blowing and absolutely beautiful, as the organist had really put his heart into adapting the tracks to work with this very different instrument than they were originally written for.
This being our first visit inside this mighty establishment, I can honestly say that the building and what lies inside can best be described with the word “epic”, making this an even more fitting venue. If you remember, last year Theocracy played a special gig here at last year’s festival, which we were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts. So of course we were glad to visit this time around, and after the music was done (more was to come later, but that wasn’t related to the festival) we got to walk around and enjoy the many famous, historical kings, queens, and other high-standing dignitaries buried in the cathedral.

While I do hope there aren’t any buried bodies, famous or otherwise, at the Roskilde Congress Hall or Gimle, these two venues that make up the main areas of the festival, were still decked up to the nines!
Already coming in from the outside, you could spot the Congress Hall from far away, as the tall flagpoles outside were dressed with eye-catching Epic Fest flags and banners. There was also the small tent village leading into the hall, which this year housed the festival entrance, the one and only festival food vendor, and one large tent dedicated to long-tables where warriors could rest their weary legs and ears between or indeed during sets.
All this was wonderfully etched in our memories from last year, but there was, sadly, something we’d completely forgotten as well, and that was an epically long line to get in! Not only was it epically long, but also astoundingly slow - so slow in fact, that even though we arrived in good time by our own measurement, we finally had to accept that there was no way for us to enter in time for the opening show with Angus McSix, which is sad, as this was one of the shows I was looking forward to.
It couldn’t be helped though, and instead we dropped the line in favour of heading straight to Gimle, where a young Danish band was set to play a little later. Well inside, we could see that the decorating demon had run through here as well, having the large red runes up by the sides of the stage, as well as a huge twig version of the rune hang high up on a side wall, making it look like something out of The Wickerman. There was also a band of course, but more on that further down.
Later, after we got to enter the Congress Hall, we noticed that the setup was highly recognisable. Right inside the doors to the left was the merch area, and to the right were some tables decked with Magic: The Gathering decorations and moving past this was the signing area. There were no food vendors inside anymore, as mentioned, but the large hall that held the wardrobe, there had been made space for photo backgrounds for anyone wanting a fun souvenir photo to bring home, as well as an adult sized pillow fort that was a designated quiet area for when you needed to unwind. Not a bad idea, and from what I saw, people were enjoying the relaxed atmosphere in there.
King Roar’s Hall looked very much the same as I remembered it, and the Nintendo area was also much like before, and filled up at every point I walked by it.
Inside the large hall, I could see that the stage decorations for the main stage had been downsized a bit from the year before, and while my initial thought was of wonder, my guess is that, while it had looked absolutely spectacular last year with the cave-like stage setup, it did also limit the angle from which you could properly see it, so when only putting up a few stone pillars instead of solid walls this year, it opened the stage up for more viewers not straight in front of the stage, and that’s not a bad thing, now is it?

Enough of the majestic look however, it should be time for some music, right?!
Now, this is probably where the biggest surprise lay in wait. You see, in our minds, Epic Fest was synonymous with a power metal festival. Indeed, this has been the prevalent musical style of the past, with only a select few outliers, but already on the first day, we were treated to such varied genres as heavy prog metal, 90’ies goth metal, and melodeath viking metal, to name a few.
Lunah pointed something out though, which intentionally or not made things fall into place - look at the title of the festival; Epic Fest. And if there was one common thread among the varied bands and styles, it was just that. They all had something epic about them, something to make them stand out from the mundane. Now, that isn’t to say that each and every band was great. Allowing for individual taste and all that of course, but not all were our cup of tea, I should say. Even so, we were pretty much on our feet through the entire two days, wandering from one hall to the next, always trying to catch as many bands as possible.
There’s no reason to just list everyone off, there are other sites that do that, if that’s your thing, but I do want to give a little word about some of the more stand-out concerts we saw.

Starting from the top of the billing poster, we had Sonata Arctica, Ensiferum, Roy Kahn, and Rhapsody Of Fire playing as headliners and the bands just below them.

Sonata Arctica was out with a 30th anniversary show (yes, that includes the Tricky Beans and Tricky Means years), complete with their own small merch vendor right next to the stage, and a large helping of 30th anniversary balloons for the crowd to play with. Their backdrop was quite cool, showing off album artwork through the years caught in a frozen landscape, reminiscent of old Iron Maiden covers by Derek Riggs.
The band dished up songs from most of their back catalogue, but showing that they haven’t forgotten their roots, the most frequented album was their debut, Ecliptica. The show was surprisingly fresh, with an energetic band and an enthusiastic Tony Kakko leading us through it all.

Ensiferum had their 30th anniversary last year, but even without something special to celebrate, they’re just a solid, entertaining band that hits home far more than not, and having them headlining the main stage on the first day was clearly something that was a hit with the crowd, a well deserved hit.

Roy Kahn, headlining the main stage on the second day of the festival was definitely also something that was a hit with the crowd. This was, I think, the largest crowd gathered at once counting the entire festival, and what a show the Norwegian singer put on. As a backing band, he used Seven Spires, who’d also played their own gig earlier in the day, as well as Lars Andre Kvistum of Conception (now that’d be a cool booking for the future) and let’s not forget the entire Roskilde Cathedral girl’s choir! If that doesn’t spell epic, I don’t know what would!

Well, I do actually, that would be Rhapsody Of Fire. Returning champions of symphonic power metal commanded the larger stage (last time they played at Gimle, as that was the only stage at the time) with confidence and strength. And a whole lot of fun, coupled with majestic tunes everyone was ready and willing to sing along to!

Outside of the headlining acts there was still a lot to come for of course, including a few firsts. First off, we had nothing less than a live debut from brand new Danish act Ipomonia that opened up Gimle in style, with their unique take on progressive metal, and moving to the opposite end of the festival, we had Hagane from Japan, closing down the entire festival with their gig in King Roar’s Hall, their very first show outside of Japan. Both bands made a favourable impression and got on the list of bands we’d like to see again in the future.

One of my personal favourite performances was delivered by Masterplan, as they were closing down the first day of the festival, also in King Roar’s Hall. This was just pure, undiluted fun, as the members, especially Rick Altzi and Roland Grapow, spent nearly as much time talking shit as they did playing songs. Laid back, easy going, and a great time delivered by Germany’s master procrastinators (who are about to drop a new album later in the year).

Other mentionable shows, to name a few, came from Mercenary, who celebrated the 20th anniversary of the The Hours That Remain album.
The aforementioned Seven Spires delivered a surprising and energetic show as well, making them a new and positive acquaintance.
High fantasy was delivered by Twilight Force, while Victorius delivered the sillier side of things - and this is saying something, coming from a festival that also housed Angus McSix!
Sirenia ranked among the bigger surprises to see at this particular festival, but they were well met by fans and other festival goers alike, and Fairyland delivered a highly enthusiastic show that failed to grab this particular reporter.

So, that’s the music covered, or some of it. With overlapping concerts in different buildings, it was impossible for us to see it all in any meaningful way - Epic fest just has too much to offer!
Luxury problem perhaps, but what about the festival as a whole?
Epic Fest is a wonderful festival with a completely unique heart and soul, but it isn’t without its issues. First, and by far the biggest, was the line creating entry guards. Look, we don’t have anything against security at these events, but these guys were so thorough in their job that the line literally moved at a snail’s pace at times! Coming back from Ipomonia at Gimle, I kid you not in that it took us between 15-20 minutes to move about three or four metres in the line to get into the Congress Hall. Yes, I did check my watch, because what else was I supposed to do with my time? In that time the line had also grown from said three-four metres, to a massive line five times that length or likely more.
The food situation was another minus, I’m sad to say. Having only one food vendor present was a mistake in itself, and it wasn’t surprising that many festival goers chose to leave the festival to go to the local supermarkets and town restaurants instead, but having that one vendor price their food by the weight of the plate, so you had no earthly chance of knowing what your dish would cost until after you reached the cashier, where it was too late to change anything on it, that’s just not a functional system for an event such as this. Fingers crossed this will be improved for the future.

Those things aside, Epic Fest is in so many ways a wonderful place to be, and as said above, a completely unique festival experience. Where else would you see nearly half the crowd being cosplayers? Or have RPG events? Or have such a singular vision attract crowds from basically all over the world, year after year? I don’t know, I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere else, that’s for sure.
And to tell you the truth, with the early announcements made at the festival, 2027 is already shaping up to be something spectacular as well, so we’ll see you all back here next year!