At Hellfest, Friday June 17, the sun is burning, the ears are vibrating. Under the heat wave, the Loire-Atlantique metal festival resumes the thread of its history after two editions canceled due to Covid-19. Despite the heat, 60,000 festival-goers are ready to fight for this first day of concerts. Water flows in abundance. Misters, waterfalls, faucets, the black suits are soaked. Under the artificial drizzle, Ben assures us: “There really isn’t much that can dampen my enthusiasm.” At his side Ronan experiences his first Hellfest. He had bought his tickets in 2019 and said to himself “hot as a roach (sic)! We waited all this time, but my faith, we are not disappointed.
In the hands of Ronan, a drink with a suspicious color. Alcohol ? Faced with our questioning, the festival-goer takes a falsely serious tone: “That’s a decoction that contains 94% water and it seemed to me as a doctor that it did… (hesitation and smile) Indeed, you are right, it does not do the trick at all! We have advice for children, older children and very old children: drink water, drink water… Between sips of beer!” However, Frédéric Gainé, the first aid chief of the festival, had warned us: “We had a lot of heatstroke.” And gave some advice: “Hydrate very regularly, not just hydrate with alcohol.” Because it’s a fact: alcohol does not hydrate at all. And beer even has a diuretic effect counterproductive to hydration.
Good luck to all who stay @hellfestopenair and who will hit 40 degrees today
In any case, it’s not changing, 3 years later it’s still the best atmosphere and the friendliest festival-goers. pic.twitter.com/OjNTfjPkKm
— Yann Bertrand (@YannBertrand) June 18, 2022
During this time, the concerts follow one another. Huge success for The Offspring, a few hours after The Inspector Cluzo, the two Gascons who played in the heat of the afternoon. It was their first Hellfest, enthused Malcolm, singer and guitarist: “The groups fraternize easily, which is lost a little in the festivals.”
“I feel like I’m going back to the festivals of the late 90s a bit. The guys from Mastodon and Offsping came to congratulate us at the end of the concert”.
Malcolm, singer and guitarist of The Inspector Cluzoat franceinfo
And even if you have to shout to hear each other, festival-goers wouldn’t have missed this comeback for the world, like this regular: “Everyone is smiling. We can bump each other’s shoulders when we pass each other and we will always turn around and say ‘Excuse me’ with a big smile. Well, I’m 50 years old, I say to myself that it’s something to do at least once in your life, even with the heat. Strictly speaking, the heat is better than the fleet, you have more fun.”
The Hellfest under the heat wave: the report by Yann Bertrand
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A total of 420 000 spectators are expected over the seven days of the festival, much more than the 180 000 welcomed in 2019 for the last edition before the health crisis. For this first weekend, from June 17 to 19, other heavyweights of the metal or rock scene are on the bill: Judas Priest, Deftones, Deep Purple, or even Killing Joke. Metallica, Guns N’Roses, Scorpions, Alice Cooper and Bad Religion will perform on the second installment, June 23-26.