(obviously, the title should have been “My experience at Artmania Festival 2011″ but when have I posted a blog with an ordinary title?)
Ugh, I should really make a schedule for posting and stick with it, I’m tired of starting blogs with “Hello hello, remember me?” (not that anyone cares about what I have to say or that I’ve been gone). And you’d think that considering for how long I wanted to go to the Artmania Festival, I would write this sooner. Well no, due to exams and other issues, I postponed this blog a lot. Maybe I will write about more personal things….asap.
Well I’ll try to write this post differently than my usual concert reviews, I won’t talk about each and every song. Instead, I’ll write about every day and a short recap of every concert.
For me, the excitement began as soon as we bought the train tickets, it finally felt like we were going. A little background: Artmania Festival takes place in Sibiu since 2006, and for the past 4 years I’ve been wanting to go but never could. So when I found 2 day passes at half price at the Epica concert, I bought one instantly, even though I didn’t know if anyone would go with me. Fastforward till July when I convinced my friend Raluca to come with me, she wanted to see Sonata Arctica playing on the second day. Oh, I should tell you the line-up. Well the main concerts in Piata Mare (Large Square) were:
Friday: Lacrimas Profundere, Helloween, Tarja
Saturday: Republica, Sonata Arctica, Lacuna Coil
So after she bought a ticket too….I won another pass. She didn’t like Tarja, but I convinced her to come that first day too, it would’ve been so boring otherwise.
We left on Thursday, so we wouldn’t be in a rush the next day. Long train ride didn’t seem that long, we talked, listened to music, gossiped, watched Misfits. Luckily, our apartment was close to the station so after unpacking and eating (did we eat though? I don’t remember!), we left to explore the city. Actually, we left to find the quickest way to get to Piata Mare and see the stage. Let me tell you, Sibiu is a very beautiful city! That night we went to a “warm up party” but out of these 3 words, only the first one was adequate, it was so fucking hot in that bar! Otherwise it was kinda dull but we had alcohol and gotten a bit drunk so getting back to the apartment was very funny! 
Friday, after a coffee and doing some tourist stuff, we decided to save some money and go to the apartment and have lunch there. BIG mistake, Tarja was doing soundcheck while we weren’t around and I could have met her. I hated myself for thinking she won’t actually do soundcheck herself. Oh well, maybe next time! So after waiting a bit, we got to the third row, which was good enough, you can’t always be in the first row. *le sigh*
Waited half an hour and the first band started, Lacrimas Profundere. They sounded nice on the album (I only listened to 2-3 songs to be honest) but their sound sucked at the festival, the crowd wasn’t into the music so their set seemed boring and too long. Sucks for the people who actually came to see them, those poor bastards! 
Helloween were next and I have to admit, I only knew a couple of songs from them, but they sure did a fun show! Well, I heard hardcore fans complaining they were “too entertaining”, that they made too many jokes and they only played hits and the sound was bad. I think I even heard the word “clown” thrown somewhere in there… Well the sound was better, but far from perfect, but the rest of the things are what you should do at a festival if you know most of the people didn’t come for you!
How can I describe Tarja? She’s a goddess, she loves being on stage and you could actually see how much she loves her fans, she was adorable when we kept chanting her name, she looked like she was going to cry any minute. Waited two years to see her again, so it didn’t bother me that she was a bit late. What bothered me though was that she had a shorter set than Helloween. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the show as much as the first time even though I wasn’t in the first row again and she didn’t play all my favorite songs, sang my heart out and headbanged so much that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to move the following day. For me, the highlight of the evening was hearing Over The Hills And Far Away live, I almost shed some tears when they played the first notes. See, this very song was the first one I heard from Nightwish, it’s the one that made me fall in love with them….or Tarja. And if that wasn’t enough, she also played End Of All Hope from her previous band. I also got some really nice flashbacks to last summer, when I heard Falling Awake. Although I didn’t hear Anteroom of Death, or Enough, I went back to the apartment happier than ever!
On Saturday we had some troubles leaving the apartment too early in the morning and when we finally did, we wandered around a bit in Piata Mare, we realized there was a Lacuna Coil soundcheck, but we didn’t see anyone we knew so we headed straight to a cafe nearby. Soon after we got our order, I hear a familiar voice singing “You aaaaare goiiiiing doooooooown!” so I grabbed my camera and ran as fast as I could, even though the stage was only like 100 meters away. They played Underdog, Spellbound and I Won’t Tell You, after one of them, Andrea said something like “We play now and tonight we’ll go drinking!” After the first song, I started clapping and Cristina looked at me and bowed. I died!
Afterwards, I went back to finish my ice tea and head to the press conference/meet & greet. Well “press conference” is a bit too much, a few fans asked some questions, then they came out to sign things and take photos with us. They were all very nice, sweet and friendly. As Cristina was signing my ticket and picture, I asked if they were going to play new songs, but she said they couldn’t cause they were still mixing. Well now they have a reason to come back. And by the way, the new song kicks ass! So I got a pic with Cristina and one with Andrea, then we magically floated to a restaurant to have lunch. I’m not sure if that’s how it happened, but it sure as hell felt like that!
Waiting for the “doors” to open was boring and annoying, we got separated into boys/girls lanes so I had to listen to a bunch of smelly annoying metalheads talk about how great Sonata Arctica was and how they shouldn’t be playing before anyone. And no, this isn’t the only reason this post is titled the way it is. But anyhow, R got in first so she found some really good spots in the second row.
The first band of the day was Republica and I had no idea what they were doing at this festival. They are a techno-pop punk rock electro band (too many words?) who only had two hits and now are lucky if someone asks them to play at a festival. I mean, I enjoyed them, but that’s only cause I’m not a “true metalhead” who thinks metal is the only genre that matters and everything else is pure shit.
Sonata Arctica was the next band, the one most people came for (and the fuckers didn’t leave after them, so I could be in the front row at Lacuna 
) I only listened to them a couple of times before the concert, so I didn’t know them all that well or like them all that much but they did a great show and I surely enjoyed it, my favorites were Juliet and Replica. I would probably go see them again if they came. Which they should, we were a great crowd, all the bands loved us!
Now let me say a few things about Lacuna Coil. I got into them in high school, around the same time I got into Within Temptation and Nightwish. And these 3 bands, along with Evanescence….it is too cliche to say “changed my life”, but they sure helped me view things differently, starting with the music I was listening. So that was an important milestone, you could see why it meant so much for me to finally see them live, after 6 – 7 years of waiting. Now I love their older songs as much as the next fan, but my favorite albums of theirs are Karmacode and Shallow Life (this order), so I was more than happy to hear all my favorites from these two….AND from the older ones.
It was truly the perfect setlist I could ask for! Now I don’t remember exactly the order of the songs, but it was something like this:
Underdog
I Won’t Tell You
Fragments of Faith
Closer
I’m Not Afraid
1.19
To The Edge
Heaven’s a Lie
Enjoy the Silence
Swamped
Fragile
Encore:
Survive
Spellbound
Our Truth
Singing every single word, headbanging, cheering their name, it was one awesome concert and I’d love to see them again, playing new songs this time! I gotta mention this funny part in between two songs:
Cristina: I wanna hear now who is the best singer out of you all!
*everyone cheers*
Cristina: Of course, everyone thinks they are, like the donkey in Shrek, “me, me, pick me!”
Then she sang a few notes that we also had to sing, and in the end she was like “Rah rah ah ah ah” and everyone got quiet, but I was laughing my ass off. 
It was also their drummer’s birthday so we had to sing him a special song
Although it has been two amazing days, the whole festival ended on a bittersweet note, as they (Lacuna) threw a shitload of guitar picks that landed in front of the fence. So I asked one of the bodyguards to give me one, he looked at me, then gave both of them to a girl not too far away from me. I wanted to punch him in the face, but the annoying things weren’t over. Obviously, me and R were both dead thirsty, but we couldn’t find any chips left for sale and they wouldn’t sell us anything for money (instead of chips). So we left trying to find an open store, but of course none were after midnight. Luckily, we had one forgotten bottle of ice tea in the fridge, life->saved!
Thus ends the fifth edition of the Artmania Festival, the first one I could take part of, and I have to say – I’m already excited for next year!
I’ll leave you with Lacuna Coil’s brilliant new single, Trip The Darkness.
