13-03-2010 Batman fest 2.0

Venue: Dock03, Hendrik-ido-Ambacht (The Netherlands)
By: Elvira Visser

From early afternoon till night-time there was a small scale festival organised at Dock 03 in the Netherlands. A small festival which attracted mainly local youngsters. When looking around it seemed that the average age was between 16 and 20 years old. Like said before a small festival where the small stage consisted of the drums on a pool-table and the others in front of it with some gates around it. Nothing much there, but enough to rock that place down.

Two stages and bands from around and even some international ones. That all for the cheap prize of five euro’s. During the day and early evening it seemed more crowded that at the end of the festival. One of the bands “Wasted Bullet” travelled with a bus full of fans from their hometown. Making sure there were people to go wild when they would play. That is what happened they pretty much moshed as if it was their last gig. It must the the vibe around the smaller stage that was better then in front of the “main” stage. Comparing bands from both stages, I would say that the most interesting bands played at the smaller stage. The ones from abroad seemed to have a hard job getting the audience to respond and go wild. The shows from the local bands where more energetic and spontaneous. One band had some problems with the bass-guitar and their amp but just played and make sure the temperature in the room raised. The bands on the mainstage had the problem that the sound was not good. The vocals sometimes were drowsy and dull sounding, not in favour of the bands at all. The bands that convinced me that I should see them again were “When All Light Dies”, “Wasted Bullet”, “Headhaunter” and “As Enemies Arise”. This Batmanfest is not an amazing festival but is a hell of a good festival to see some local and international bands play in a small hall on tiny stages. Performing in a way that the band should be able to make their show really intimate. Some of the bands tonight had some problems with that. If you are around next time, it is a nice festival to catch as this year the entrance fee was only five euro. However I must say the average age of the audience was young.

More photo’s of this event can be found at Photographic Retentions

Links:
Headhaunter MySpace
Wasted Bullet MySpace
When A Light Dies MySpace
As Enemies Arise MySpace