Hello lovelies, 

last week we were at my first festvial, Area53 in Leoben, for the acts Feuerschwanz and Nanowar of steel. As both my partner and me are old and have back problems, we decided to not camp and instead, get ourselves a nice hotel with a hot shower and clean bathrooms. Lucky for us, there was a kind of The hotel was located in Leoben, about 5min away by car from the festival and it was amazing. The room was called "Industrieromantik" and it looked like a set from a Rammstein promotional video.

The festival took place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I took the train on Thursday at 10am. It only takes about 2 hours to get to Leoben, and that stressfree. My partner had to work and we decided that he would take the care and drive to Leoben after his work ended. 

It was raining a few hours on Thursday but stopped a few hours before Feuerschwanz. I actually enjoyed Dominum, who had a kind of Master and zombies concept and Soulfly. Feuerschwanz was the main act and I had the feeling, that a lot of older metal fans were a bit sceptic with their music but as soon as their cover of Manowar's "warriors of the world" came, even they jumped and were suddenly very hyped. Feuerschwanz played some old songs (Rohirrim, Kampfzwerg, Schubsetanz, etc) and one from their new album (Berzerkermode) which was released at the end of July.

We drove back to the hotel but couldn't find a restaurant that was still open at 11pm. As we had breakfast at the hotel in the morning we decided to skip dinner and went to bed hungry.

The next two days were sunny with a peak temperature of about 30°c. We roamed around the city and wallowed in nostalgia. Both of us had been to the city a few times but haven't been in about 10 years for different reasons. We ate lunch at Adlerhof but it was bland and not good at all. At least the waitress was very kind, even though she was alone and stressed by all the tables filled with metalheads.

We arrived around 3pm at the festival to watch Dymytry, a Czech band. I enjoyed the music immensly. Afterwards were nanowar of steel and we had managed to get into the second row. I danced and screamed so much, the band was just so hilarious. Too bad they didn't play my favourite songs Uranus or Pasadena 1994.  

Angus McSix was afterwards and we just watched from the right stage side as I liked the singer but my partner was not so fond of him. 

The signing session with nanowar was just afterwards and I got such a cute message and a lot of hearts from the band. Core memory achieved! Nanowar thought I was cute! 

 

Afterwards we left as we didn't want to see the other bands and went back to the hotel. We asked the receptionist if she could recommend a restaurant as it was 8pm and most restaurants were probably already closed. And to our shock and horror, most of them were indeed closed already and she sent us to McMullens bar, which was just around the corner to the hotel. And it was the best recommendation we got in this city. The food was plentiful and delicious with yummy vegan options. I ate chicken wings with fries and a cider and probably had about 10 chicken wings for 4,5€ and a big portion of fries for 2,5€. We were exctactic with the prices, taste and food. 

The next day we arrived at 3pm at the festival again in time for Autumn Bride but they didn't really hit me. My partner loved the next band, Crypta. I'm not a fan of death metal at all, so I could not really share his enthusiasm. 

 

The next band was another death metal band who was quite boring in their performance and they also looked like they didn't enjoy being there. But at least we managed to get into the first row at the right stage sight to see Vision of Atlantis.

There was this Jesus guy, who liked to shower people down with a water hose. He seemed to be pretty famous for it as he was also mentioned on the instagram page of the event.

My s.o. went to get an autograph from Crypta and even got a hug from the singer/bass player, it really made his day. 

 As we were tired and not a fan of the rest of the bands, we went back to the hotel and to McMullens. They had a karaoke night and as we entered the song "Tell me why" from the Backstreet boys were playing. An all time favourite of mine, haha. I ordered onion rings and got a full basket, and some fries. We hadn't eaten anything after breakfast and were famished. The food was delicious again and the staff friendly. They were mostly singing at the karaoke as slowly people trickled into the establishment. After our food we left because we had to get up around 6.30 am. 

And that concludes my first festival! I enjoyed myself and had a lot of fun. We decided to return again next year and already booked the hotel room. As my cousin from Australia asked to visit us in summer, it's not fixed yet but I would definitely love to go again. 

All the best,

Auris Lothol