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M'era Luna 2016


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On the 13th-14th of August 2016, the 16th edition of M'era Luna Festival took place. The unofficial first day that precedes the main events is Friday; it is also a perfect time to take a good spot at the tent camping site, welcome the habitués, eat sandwich with pork or bounce at the disco. Once again the organizers showed unmatched professionalism, every detail buttoned up, this year's novelty was the Gothic Garden - an exclusive part of the campsite, up to 400 guests, very convenient solution: you come and everything is setup and good to go, tent with full equipment and in addition, an access to electricity and wi-fi. There were a few several variations of this, let's call it a package, in a nutshell: you can come to the festival as you stand - the rest? Dont'worry, organizers will take care of that - the only limit is your wallet or rather its capacity ;) Also; the gastronomy was expanded and the stalls were relocated, thanks to that the main stage was visible from almost anywhere. The weather was as requested, not too cold, not too hot and most importantly without rain - let's begin!

As always the festival was opened by the winner of M'era Luna newcomer competition: SHAÂRGHOT. They spent whole 20 minutes, up to the last second, playing an intriguing mix of electro with some heavy guitars for the fairly large audience. The French were whole painted in black and they were far from a toned performance; they stepped onto the stage with the heavy kick, spreading loudly chaos with the audience. I recommend this to all fans of the work of Rob Zombie, the singer Etienne at the end of the show said goodbye with the words: "My name is Shaârghot and you are all my Shadows!" - I hope their music will reach the bigger audience. As each year, concerts were held alternately, between the main stage located in the open air and the hangar, which for security reasons allowed a limited number of viewers, in front of the entrance they installed a large screen with a solid sound so no one was hurt.

Man cannot live by music alone. M'era Luna had prepared a lot of attractions for guests: literary readings with authors, trading posts with lots of treasures to hunt, this year's novelty was a store with the official festival jewelery, among the offers there was for exmaple a silver ring with festival clown. A fashion show became a solid point of the program, unfortunately the opportunity to photograph during its duration was limited only to the media invited by the designers, it's their loss. Interesting what it's going to be like next year. Walking through the festival area was a good alternative and a great opportunity to capture many attractive stylizations, the participants themselves are very creative, as the evidence check out the extensive photo galleries.

The concert tempo and temperature rises with such artists as Vlad In Tears, Erdling, A Life Divided, Gothminister - the main stage performance, as always in case of this artist, included a drama with a puppet of a werewolf. My only complaint is, locating this concert on the main stage during the day; Gothminister is definitely better in darkened rooms or in the evening, glowing, smoke and other dark attractions are better suited to their task. Then in the hangar performed: Chrom, Stahlmann, Noisuf-X - this trio's performance is perfectly expressed by three words: fast, loud and hard! The audience barely followed them up. The next stop on the big stage was Oomph band as always for this performer, full of humor and energetic performance! The audience with dose of adrenaline from the stage kept pace with the atrist -  performance culminated with a dive into the audience made by Dero - the frontman of Oomph! Hits like "Augen auf", "Labyrinth", and "Gott ist ein Popstar" were of course present. Then there were concerts of the next two giants: Diary of Dreams - on M'era Luna after a four-year break and Diorama in the hangar. Both performances attracted crowds of fans. The later performance of the Finnish Apocalyptica  will definitely stay for long not only in my memory. Great show backed vocally by Franky Perez. In spite of the sun glowing relentlessly on the stage in the late afternoon, the musicians did their best. Beside the well-known and well-loved tracks from Metallica's repertoire: "Master of Puppets", "Seek & Destroy"  and tracks from the last album with the perfect "Shadowmaker". The absolute icing on the cake was a strong finishing note, a cover of Edgar Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King".

Probably each of you has a group of your favorite performers, whose concerts can be watched and listened to countless times and each time, it is at least a great experience. VNV Nation is one of mine, on such a list. The audience gathered under the main stage seemed to share my opinion, filling every free space, up to the range of sight. Ronan full with amazing energy kept a contact with the audience, from time to time saying something, and of course he was doing what he does best: share his optimism, his joy and his vocals. The "Illusion", "Legion", "Control" the well known songs by the project were available, as well as to the fans at the festival, as to the online fans. During the ballad "Nova" a sea of lights came, made from the phones, flashlights,  even clouds revealed a moon, maybe not by chance ;), creating a magical effect. Absolutely beautiful concert, ended with not performed for a long time live "Electronaut". The last project that filled up the hangar on Saturday was the Mexican HOCICO, the power of the two does not need to be presented. This time they were backed up by two additional drummers. After the initial "I Will Be Murdered" and "Sex Sick" the party turned up for good.

We are heading to the finale, and right at the top of the festival - concert of the headliner - Sisters of Mercy. Let's face it, the years of their glory had long past, but still, the show gathered a large number of fans under the stage. Unfortunately, the band did not agree to broadcast the show on the screen and online. Tons of fog projected into the stage almost completely covered the dressed in yellow Eldritch, as well as the rest of the band. Another sad thing was the quality of the songs, I understand that the years are passing by, but they could have tried to do it better or even play everything from the playback, a seemingly illusion of the former glory of the Sisters of Mercy. The last point of the Saturday program was Hangar disco, practically a party till the morning, the playlist were created by Martin Engler from MONO INC. and Sven Enzelmann.

Sunday, on the main stage Norwegian trio Essence of Mind, was waking up slowly gathering audience with light rock mixed with electronics. The initial performances like: Me The Tiger, Aeverium - the winner of last year's competition for young bands. They only had 20-30 minutes, so each band had to make a good use of them. Yesterday Hocico, today Rabia Sorda - Erk on stage is invincible, definitely the first big star of the hangar scene.

At M'era Luna, there is always something going on, I know it can be said about almost every festival, but here is something special, something that always makes your day or some relief when you're looking for a break. I recommend to take a time and walk through the festival area to simply watch what's going on, meet lots of interesting people who are eager to share their stories, or invite to party together, intricate styles, including a guy on stilts, each year preparing some spectacular costume and many other things, (example: blacksmith workshop), which permanently integrated into the culture of this place. I recommend to experience this by yourself. The absolute must see on Sunday was the Combichrist concert - the slogan "Party Time" on the drummer's shirt perfectly reflected the atmosphere on and in front of the stage. Strong entrance, then "Slut", "Skullcrusher" made the audience furious, and this was fueled by the cheers and smile of vocalist Andy. There would be no Combichrist concert without a demolition on the stage - the drummers did not simply destroyed their instruments, they were throwing drumsticks to themselves through whole length of the scene, at same time they were playing drums. Crushing "Get your Body Beat" and "Blut Royale" - literally squeezed to the last drop of sweat on both sides of the stage, all in full sun, today's fitness - checked ;) The end of this powerful party machine was the song "Maggots at the Party."

Sunday was equally full of magnificence and musical diversity as the previous day: Beborn Beton, Faun, S.P.O.C.K. - Stark Trek fans, for you this band is mandatory, Lord of the Lost acoustic version, Zeromoancer - great performance in the hangar, the fans were not disappointed, theonly problem was a bit too much smoke, covering the vocalist Alex. Only the veterans of the scene left, starting with Eisbrecher on the main stage and Suicide Commando in the hangar, which finally managed to overcome the health issues of the singer, after two years the postponed show took place during M'era Luna. Johan van Roy started the performance with the words "Welcome to my world!" Proving that it was worth waiting. The festival ended with In Extremo, unique in IAMX design and a finale by Within Temptation, whose show was highlighted by a glamorous fireshow straight from the stage. Everything is awesome, but... you know what will be the hardest thing now? Waiting for the next edition, see you next year!
Author:
Translator: Toshiro
Add date: 2016-10-13 / Live reports


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