Beat a Go Go

Destruction, Metal Camp 2004 (photo by Taisija)

So, here we are again in sweaty-red-hot-boiling beautiful  summer - the season of summer festivals and thundering summer storms.  One of the most beautiful places you can find to get all this together is Tolmin - Sotocje where stormy bands will attend the fifth Metal Camp, July 3-9.
The place where the festival happens is between two rivers and you have a feeling like you find yourself in a mystical fairy tale where a turquoise green river rules and all around are high mountains.

Stam1na, Tuska 2005 (photo by Toni Välisalo)

Tuska is a lucky bastard when it comes to weather. For all the years I've been there, it's been incredibly hot. If it has rained, it's rained during the night and the metal audience could have happily partied for three whole sweaty days.

No, I'm not whining, I'm happy about that. Summer, sweat, shorts and long days belong together. And if there happens to be a rock festival, it surely is two thumbs up. Festivals are the best - there's nothing like a summer festival. At least there's nothing like it in Finland. But when you combine rock, festival and summer, there is nothing to beat that. Not in Finland anyway.

Aleš Rendla, Nino de Gleria and Bratko Bibič in Cerkno, Slovenia, May 2003

It's May of 2003 and we're on our way to the jazz festival in Cerkno, a small town about an hour's drive from Ljubljana. We're hurtling along the narrow road at high speed and I'm watching the countryside flashing past.