09,10-08-2008 Mera Luna Festival

Location: Hildesheim (Germany)
By: Ann-Kristin Gebhardt

It was raining, as it so often does on festivals, as we entered the former British Army airbase in Hildesheim on Friday, where the M´Era Luna festival of dark music is located. Despite the rain we had to spend some time looking for a free space for our immense marquee. Finally we made it through the tent city of nearly 17 000 other visitors and established our little palace. Our first evening was spent drinking and talking and calming down from the journey – but mostly drinking. A few hours later, we went to the “Hangar” and joined the disco there. With the music of VNV Nation came a thrill of anticipation for the next two days and the fantastic acts we were going to see on the two stages, of which one was inside and the other outdoor.

Saturday, the first official festival day started with sunshine. We got dressed and walked down to the stage area, listening to some of the gigs, while walking around and watching the shops of the medieval market and dealers such as “XtraX” or “Aderlass”. It was a bit too sunny maybe and the mood was a little low, even in front of the stages. There were many people standing around but there wasn’t much dancing, singing or clapping. I had a few chats at the press-tent and watched the stage from there.

The first Band I went to see on Saturday afternoon was “Epica”, a symphonic- metal band from the Netherlands. After the lost of there drummer and short part there recording contract, in the year 2006, it could have been the end for Simone Simons and her guys, but it wasn’t. So I was excited to see the progression of “Epica”. As I came into the “Hangar” there were many people already waiting, and as the Band entered the stage, there was clapping and screaming all around. We got completely caught up in the band’s symphonic-metal sounds and nearly everyone started head-banging. They were as catching and energizing as they had been before their streak of bad luck. It was a pity to see them leave the stage after only 50 minutes, I could have listened to them much longer.

After a short break, I was going to see “SAMAEL”. The band from Switzerland had started their career in 1987 as a Black- Metal band, but over the years they had changed and grown and are a fantastic live act by now. Me and around 500 others changed between banging, alternative- dancing, screaming and clapping. The audience enjoyed the 50-minute set immensely and the band seemed to have loads of fun as well.

After the gigs me and some friends went shopping and watched the outfits of the others, discussing which ones were hot and which not so much. During the whole day not one drop of rain had fallen and that seemed like a miracle to us, so we decided to have a little tent party. The other reason was that our hurting feet didn’t allow much more walking and dancing. So we chatted, drank and joked around with our Neighbours who lived in a huge tipi next to us and had candleholders made of beer cans.

On Sunday the rain was pouring down on us and with the rain the real festival atmosphere finally came. I stood in front of the stage from 11:30. The first band I saw was “End of Green”. The guys from Stuttgart rocked the stage even though there songs were rather emotional. Everybody was dancing and enjoying their performance. The sound of “end of green” reminded a little bit of “HIM”. They played songs from all of their Albums as there are “Infinity”, “Believe My Friend”, “Songs for a Dying World”, “Last Night on Earth”, “Dead End Dreaming” and their newest album “The Sick´s Sense”.

There was much applause for them as they left and passed the microphone on to “The Other”.
The band based on Halloween 2002 arrived as usual dressed up in there outfits reminding of old horror movies and the crowd was flipping. There was screaming all around as they started playing their “horror punk”. They gave a great show and Roderick Usher, Sergeant von Rock, Andy Only and Dr. Caligari brought the night along. The rain didn’t matter anymore, although an awful shower came from the roof of the stage and it was bloody cold. But they made us dance and scream the hell out of us as they declared to us that the darkness was coming. It was darkness we all welcomed. The Gig was over so fast that it was annoying and there was so much noise, that they came back onstage and played one more song from “The Place to Bleed” for us.

After the gig I went to the lounge and had a little break, chatting and drinking beer and listening to “Blitzkid”.

At 14:10 I rushed to the stage again to see “The Vision Bleak”. Songs like “Wolfmoon” were perfect to get lost in the music. Sometimes the band’s front man Markus Singer gave us a short laugh with empty phrases like “Seit gegrüßt”. But mostly his dark voice gave the reason for the enthusiastic mode, the dancing and the clapping of everyone. The singer kneeled on the boxes several times and there was banging and a chorus of people shouting out the songs of the band. It was a really cool performance and, as all the shows, much too short.

I never really left the main stage on Sunday and never got tired, even though I spent about five hours just dancing without eating anything, simply because there was no time. 10 minutes alteration and “Lacrimas Profundere” had their time. There was a party going on before they even came onstage. It was the perfect festival atmosphere and everyone peered up into the headlights, waiting for the music to start again.

As the band finally came up, we danced and sang along, really enjoying it. Rob did his best and looked like he had much fun singing the songs which reminded me a bit of 69 Eyes while Peter just looked cool and rocked us with his put-on attitude. He wasn’t moving that much, just playing Guitar and watching the crowd of moving bodies beneath him.
Rob joked around with the others, sometimes he was even jumping and as they had finished, Korl threw his drumsticks down to the crowed and everybody tried to catch them. The girl standing next to me looked very disappointed, because she hadn’t caught one.

The last show I was going to see on the festival was the gig of “Saltatio Mortis”. The nine boys, calling themselves Alea der Bescheidene, Falk Irmenfried von Hasen-Mümmelstein, Thoron Trommelfeuer, Lasterbalk der Lästerliche, Cordoban der Verspielte, El Silbador, Bruder Frank, Magister Flux, and Samoel are mostly playing on dark age Spectaculums or markets. They started their act with the song “Prometheus”. All who were able to sing – or even thought they were – sang with them, all arms went up and as always there was a lot of clapping and screaming. Cordoban told us that it was nearly the best picture he’d ever seen and begged us to do it again. So we did it, partying along to “Tod und Teufel”. It seemed as if it had grown much more crowded shortly before they’d started and after a few minutes there was nobody not going with the show. Cordoban jumped around onstage while the others were standing, building little groups playing together or dancing. Cordoban left the stage once to sing directly in front of us, on the barrier, kept by a fan. I think Saltatio delivered the best show of the whole festival. All enjoyed themselves and the general mood was the best it had been all weekend. Their last song was “Spielmannsschwur” and it was amazing to experience this whole crowd singing along and waving their hands up to the sky. I think they did this song over 5 minutes, due to the fact that we weren’t stopping. Even after they had left the stage the chanting went on and so they came back and started once again. Cordoban decided to do some stage diving and finished the show swimming in a sea of hands. It was an amazing experience from start to finish.

It’s sad but true that every good thing has to come to an end sooner or later and so we finally had to return to our tent and started packing our stuff. We all agreed that it had been a fantastic weekend with plenty of gorgeous gigs and are already looking forward to see each other again on M´era Luna 2009.

Links:
Epica MySpace
SamaelMySpace
End of Green MySpace
The Vision Bleak MySpace
Lacrimas Profundere MySpace
Saltatio Mortis MySpace