Romanian Rock Meeting, Arenele Romane, 14-18.05.15

Romanian Rock Meeting started as a Blind Guardian concert plus some opening bands, became a festival with a second day (actually first) of concerts in Club Colectiv and then again changed and became an opportunity to promote the young(er) Romanian metal bands as the access was free in Club Colectiv. I really respect Maximum Rock for all their work on the metal scene in Romania, their events are always well organised, they have their annual contest for young metal bands which they later try to include in the larger concerts as opening acts and they generally have a professional attitude all around and seem to be doing things because of a real passion, instead of doing them simply for the money, so I always attend their events with positive expectations.

Maximum Rock Festival, Turbohalle, 24-25.10.14

In the middle of a period where organisers/bands aren’t exactly lining up for concerts, let alone festivals, Maximum Rock was a breath of fresh air. First of all, I wasn’t extremely familiar with most of the bands, but I had quite a few revelations (more about that later). Second of all, it was by far the best organised festival I ever went to. Of course the way the location is separated helped and also the number of people in the audience was considerably smaller then what the location could’ve held, but it was a great example of how a festival should look like. Except for the long wardrobe line at the end of the second day, I didn’t have to wait in line for anything – there were enough toilets, enough food&drink stands... everything flowed smoothly. I loved the idea of the drum stage, where you could pass the time during the breaks and I also love that the hall has a separate section where you can smoke and sit down for a bit. Compared to Helloween and Gamma Ray at the Roman Arenas, where the organisers forbade smoking but didn’t offer a proper solution (and thousands of people had to go in and out through a door the size of my bedroom door for a smoke and eventually gave up and smoked inside), this type of room separation “convinced” people not smoke in the concert hall in a natural way, without any need to impose or forbid anything. The only thing I can somewhat complain about was the sound, it severely handicapped a few of the bands, but I think it was mostly due to the acoustic of the hall and I can’t really blame that on the organisers, considering there isn’t a single indoor concert hall with truly good acoustic in Bucharest (at least not one suited for this type of music, I don’t think the Athenaeum was quite the right place to listen to Unleashed).