27.08.2016. Wroclaw. Capital Of Rock @Stadion Wroclaw (eng version)
Guys love the chicks that get up in the morning before them,
And the chicks simply wish to get flowers.
And Maxim likes to sweep the shit out of his apartment,
For Maxim - it's me, but maybe also you...
Max KorzhIf you look closely, most of my classmates, group mates and colleagues-age mates have long been married, or are taking a mortgage to buy an apartment, have children, and buy cars. Well, what am I? And I'm still chasing for rave parties and concerts and getting more great pleasure from what provides a powerful rush of endorphins and is a kind of motivator. This year I had a Target to visit the European rave. The Dutch gave me a visa for a year, so a trip to Rotterdam to cult PRSPCT was not limited to that: I even went to Latvia to Korzh concert. So what if I have a stab at something significant?
Max Korzh, Garbage, Linkin Park, Kosheen, Hadouken!, Depeche Mode, Metallica ... Dyamorph, Hallucinator, Satan, Terroreast ... It's all my favorite artists and DJs. My main music taste inclinations comprise the following electronic music - heavy drum & bass, dub step, partly Trap, hardcore and hard style. Someone may ask a reasonable question: “What are the bands from the previous list doing here?” But, in reality, who knows me well will understand everything, all is logical)
But, you know, all these are secondary. My main musical love is ... Limp Bizkit !!
Last year LB organized a big tour in Russia (about 20 cities, among them there were places where, in fact, the inhabitants of our vast country will not goJ). I planned to visit 5-6 concerts, but under certain circumstances it was possible only to manage 3 (2 in Moscow and 1 in St. Petersburg).
This year, LB arranged a small tour over Europe. I have Schengen visa with virtually unlimited opportunities for trips over EU (well, the issues might be in Germany, most likely, there may be difficulties with the country entrance) having time and opportunity too, why not? There were many interesting cities on the tour but some dates didn’t match with my work, so my choice turned to be the Capital of Rock Festival (hereinafter - COR) in Poland. It was the final city on the tour, but apart from that the cherry on top was the fact that Rammstein will gig at the festival! And besides it was going to be my 10th LB concert!
So, let the Journey happen! J
I often can’t avoid the most stupid situations. This time it was similar.
The first bell has rung with the ticket. I do not know why, but the “festival organizers” of the festival did not sell e-tickets. On one hand, this is good, because something will stay in the memory.
But, on the other hand, well, this is very inconvenient! It is clear that most of the guests will be from Poland (i.e., they can redeem at the box office), but what about the other guests? There were a few ticket redemption services. Okay, it’s the EU, so everything runs as a well-oiled machine. Well, even in Ukraine, which is eager to get into NATO and the EU, everything is more or less normal. But in Russia ... Okay. I used the service eventim.pl (a worldwide network of tickets. It is also represented in Russia; it’s one of the whales- parter.ru). The fan zone tickets were already unavailable (sold out 1.5 months before the festival), so I took the dance floor. When buying a ticket one has to specify the address. Google Chrome automatically filled in my delivery address: city, zip code, street, I had already ordered tickets for Euro-2016 in a similar manner. That time I also did not indicate my house and apartment, so the courier called to specify my delivery address (DHL). Eventim also provided courier delivery so I, without any ulterior motive, left the boxes blank. 3 weeks has passed, no ticket. I wrote a letter to the customer service and was told that the ticket had been sent. I think, like all right, I’ll drop to the post office, coz there’s another good occasion: to send a registered letter from work. I randomly asked the postal workers: “Did you, by chance get a letter from Poland addressed to me?” Well, what do you think? It was seating there! Another couple of days and it would have been sent back. Phew...)))
But it was just the beginning.
I downloaded the city map 4 days before the festival. And I started to look for hotels options near the stadium. But, there, something strange happened: I filled the address into maps.me application (by the way, the really awesome one - it works without Internet, the only requirement is the mob connection), but there was none. Hmm. Okay, I have to look into the ticket myself. Holy hoo!! Stupid me! I filled in wrong city! The festival will not take place in Warsaw, as I believed, but in Wroclaw, which is 350 km from Warsaw! I have my plane ticket already available (arrival is at 12 noon, and the fest begins at 15.30) ... What would I do? I started to look for options in a hurry, got in the official fest site page in fb hoping maybe I will find a better travel option? But folks were either buying or selling tickets. Although the very first message that I saw, was from the Russian girl Irina, who lives in Poland - she asked for help to bring her tickets from Moscow (she has left them there). In general, we exchanged letters with her, helped each other, she also gave me some tips. I’ve been thinking about BlaBlaCar, but there were not relevant options to get to Wroclaw. I also discarded coach trip due to consideration (5 hours trip is OK but there is not proper time). Well, the train ... it is generally nightmare. 10 hours travel including several transfers...
Direct flight from Moscow to Wroclaw costs incredible sum of money (almost 50,000, although the round trip to Warsaw I have managed for 12, 000). I'm in a terrible panic ... I was ready to opt out of the trip, but found an option with the flight from Warsaw to Wroclaw for 7, 000. Well, thank God, at least something. It was easier to get from Wroclaw to Warsaw, there were a lot of suggestions (most people will be returning from the same festival) for 800 rubles. Although the day of departure, there was a decent option on BlaBlaCar, but I had non-refundable tickets from Warsaw, so there was no doubt how to get to the fest. However, I explicitly added gray hair and dead nerve cells. As for the fest, I’m obviously late: I arrive in Wroclaw at 6 pm - Well, okay. Local bands perform first, anyway. There will be interesting after 7 pm, when Bullet for my Valentine appears. I have already been to Warsaw. Given that I have a gap of 4 hours time I decided to spend it at the airport. Yes, there is definitely nothing to do there. But there is free Wi-Fi so I can droop in the internet.
Finally, the embarkation on the plane was announced. True again, there were some troubles: we were not run through the sleeve, but carried to the aircraft by bus - so, when the doors closed, and before leaving we stayed for 10 minutes it became clear that 2 metalheads of old school from Ukraine are coming with us (black T-shirts, one says «Manowar», the other was wearing the T-shirt of the same kind). The first thing they told me was: “Rock without borders” Yes, all is well! Let us leave this matter to the politicians - we all are ordinary people. We talked about the city Wroclaw (they have already been there), the various concerts. Little knowing my history with this trip, they trolled me a bit like: “Well, yes, Moskal. You saw the letter, which, if you turn it upside down, you get the first letter of your city; what, the hell, to read further for?” J In general, we were cooking on gas)
By the way, when buying a ticket, it was said that I will go by LOT - Polish Airlines. But in fact it was EuroLOT, a subsidiary and, concurrently, the Polish low-cost airlines. And the plane was... Oh my God ... He rotary-wing!
Look at the picture, I am not alone in shock ... (ahah J in fact, this photo was snapped already on arrival in Wroclaw - we were given out our luggage straight from the plane). In general, it was a normal flight. We even got some waffles. This time I was lucky: the plane consists of 2 rows 2 seats each. I was sitting near the wing and the second seat was free so I was able to take a nap for 30 minutes of flight. But the plane, of course, is weird: the windows are located under the wings. I vividly witnessed the opening of chassis. Frankly speaking, the moment of landing was not a sight for the weak-nerved.
Well, at last. I'm in Wroclaw!
It’s 6 pm. It’s time to rush to the fest; the city seems beautiful. I looked at it a little bit from the airplane, but there was no time to examine it from the ground - not at all - so I have to come back some day) But Wroclaw is a provincial town, and to find a taxi driver - it is really a difficult task. There was 1 who offered too high price, but while I was looking for another - that driver was already taken. Generally, after monitoring various tourist sites, like Uber, I realized that the good price was 350 rubles. I found a taxi driver from Uber, but as soon as we left the territory, he said: “You have indicated another trip address when booking. Is r name Barreth?” LOL Anyway, he brought me back to the airport. Somehow or other I found a taxi driver who finally took me to the fest. The price was 900 rubles though (no Internet, it was the only option). I have to remind that I was taken to Warsaw a little cheaper (which is 350 km away while the airport to the stadium distance is 7 km).
Almost 7 pm - I am finally at the festival and at the same time I give Ira a ticket! While walking to the entrance of the fest, I was several times offered to sell my ticket to the dance floor double price. No, no, sorry! I have done this entire trip for other purpose...
Control was fairly mediocre: barcode ticket reading, bags inspection; nothing else. Well, OK. After the entrance the owners of fan zone and the dance floor tickets get a bracelet.
Immediately at the exit there is a fan shop and several food courts.
Just a couple of days before the “festival organizers” wrote in fb that Bullet for my Valentine will not gig. They were in Japan before COR. The “festival organizers” posted the announcement that something happened in Japan (it was written in Polish in fb. I took advantage of a built-in translator, and it gave out some rubbish. In general, as I understood it, there was a typhoon in Japan and the flight was postponed considerably), so Gojira will appear instead. This is a French metal band. A couple of years ago, they performed together with Fear Factory at the warming up for Metallica in the Olympic. I liked Fear Factory then, and Gojira left incomprehensible impression - nothing special. So I decided to listen to them outside the stadium bowl, in the open air drinking beer. Besides I felt jet legged: early flight, crumpled sleep, plus I caught gold on the eve again (it’s good that paracetamol rules). Beer prices are very democratic - 10 zlotys (about 170 rubles) per 0.5 liters of beer. Along the way, all rock concerts in terms of alcohol are all the same: beer is diluted heavily. Well, at least without dimedrol J
And in general I got a number of reasonable questions to the “festival organizers”:
1. According to my calculations the Fest was visited by about 50,000 viewers. There were about 30 food courts - critically not enough. Average waiting in line was 20 minutes. Horror! But this is not the worst thing - up to 9 pm half of the courts ran out of the liquids: All right, forget beer, but no simple water and all kinds of Coke - how is it even possible???
2. Around the perimeter of the stadium there were information boards indicating the stands (I understand that this is for soccer). But it is absolutely not clear, how to get to the dance floor and the fan zone. This is a complicated puzzle. Numerous stewards make no good sense there! Many of them do not know English, as well as in Polish they are not much helpful, those guys do not know anything.
3. If you buy merchandise products before/during the festival - which means to hang with it that is very inconvenient. Therefore it is logical that many will buy it after the festival. Ah, no, everything is closed after the festival. How did it happen??
4. 50, 000 viewers. Somewhere there is no queue (this is an exception to the rule), but the longest queue is to the WC. Was it difficult to put portable cabins??
If we talk about the contingent of listeners, then there is such a situation:
1. Most of the spectators are Rammstein fans - about 80%.
2. 15% -17% of viewers were the same as me - Limp Bizkit fans (wearing LB shirts or Boston Celtics T-shirts).
3. The remaining portion (3-5%) was Gojira fans.
4. There were very many Germans. But there are those Russian-speaking ones (immigrants, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians). I even met a guy wearing Ария T-shirt J
5. There were very many representatives of the weaker sex. And the majority of them were dressed appropriately for a Rammstein concert J
Of course, you can’t avoid the kind of people beer played a cruel joke with - they were on the ground in their excrements. Yes, they were few, but still. In general, all this reminded Marseille at Euro Cup: a lot of British, many of which are no longer on their legs (Rammstein), there are also Russians (Limp Bizkit). If we discard the clashes that took place in Marseille (this is nonsense), in general, everything was fine and friendly - exactly the same here)
By a long search, I still manage to find the entrance on time.
This photo was snapped immediately after Gojira’s gig:
Looks like there were not so many people, but the bulk was under the stand:
so it was full house)
Read next: part 2