During a summer of 2012, I was just finalizing my marketing master studies in Barcelona and enjoying each top class music shows of Catalan metropolis. Visits of Goran Bregović, Arctic Monkeys, Loreena Mckennitt, Guano Apes or the festivals as Sónar or Primavera Sound were accompanied by a Sonisphere fest in Madrid, which I really couldn’t miss. I had many visits in Barcelona during an early summer season, as the weather was sunny 24/7. Plus I managed to finalize my studies asap, to enjoy this season fully with my friends. Madrid’s festival was planned during a visit of my long term friend from my hometown Ostrava and enthusiast photographer, Renáta Pindurová. Our poor student asses were saved by my long term partners Pirate Smile, an agency, who was at that time handling, next to many others, a promotion for Dark New Day – side band of Evanescence’s drummer, Will Hunt. As we just recently did a front cover interview for Muzikus magazine (interview in Czech), we have arranged two guest list passes for me and my friend, hard-core Evanescence fan, in order to finalize the interview. We also wanted to give Evanescence an adequate space in our festival report, for Czech Rock&Pop magazine.

As a form of transportation we have chosen a plane, which was quicker and surprisingly cheaper than a train. Plus we had just a hand luggage, so we relied on the duty free shop, for a fancy 1l dose of Ballantine’s. Since we were really looking forward to our VIP experience, I ordered a water, with two cups on the board, to test the scotch. Stewardess was not happy about it, so she asked me to finish my glass asap. Next to that, captain just informed us, we will be landing shortly. I was used to traditionally endless flights, so there were my planning skills, right there. Renáta underestimated her plane skills, so I had to finish also hers, plus I didn’t pour a small glass. Thank you Vueling, for a lovely landing, with a full mouth of whisky. We all hear a lot about Spanish effectiveness, but a route from a plane to city train, was smooth as a local wine. Edge of Madrid’s Getafe, where the festival was situated, was an industrial ghost town, with few locked up houses and a single “restaurant”. However we were not worried about that, since we will be dining backstage, right? We could see the main stage right away from a distance, behind two campsites. So we went straight to festival’s office, located between campsites, to get our passes and build our tent before we get in. So, I went to the lovely lady behind the desk and said “Hola” in my mui practicado Spanish, with Italian accent and showed her our passports. She was looking around for about a minute, looked at me and said: “I don’t have your names!”

If I received a penny, for how many times something like this happened to me. Nevermind, we sat down and I wrote a sms and an e-mail to my contact at Pirate Smile. It was still an afternoon, so I thought we could settle this down quick. As nothing happened for thirty minutes, I called and we arranged with Peter that Dark New Day’s management will help us. We were starving, thirsty and I had a limited internet credit, so we went all the way back to the restaurant to refresh ourselves and check e-mails, before we go back to sit in the sand and wait. When we got back to our spots next to the office, I went back to exchange few more calls, sms massages and e-mails for over two, or three hours and still nothing was solved. Renáta was deadly bored, I was really pissed off and just when we were sitting on a sandy ground, a snake has just passed around us! We arrived during an afternoon, in order to settle everything down and have few hours time before Limp Bizkit would come at 20.45h. I was just in the middle of writing an e-mail, when I just heard Fred Durst coming on the stage. Right after them, around 22.30h were supposed to play The Offspring, who were also supposed to give me an interview, during a set of Limp Bizkit. But guess what, I could get in, and unfortunately, neither my contact at Sony Spain, who arranged the interview, couldn’t help us, as the guestlist spots were limited. At that point we realized what the issue was. Each band has a VIP guestlist, but it works only on the day, the band plays. Nobody knew that upfront, so just when The Offspring started their set, we have decided, after nearly six hours of crap, to buy one day ticket. We did it in orded to see the end of the Friday’s line up and enter a camp site to have a place to sleep. Both of us said goodbye to 60 euro and I ensured Renáta, tomorrow it will be all limousines. ;D

When we woke up, we could finally enjoy all those breads and salami we brought for a fancy dining. Festival’s office was not opened until early afternoon, so we went to see Getafe’s finest city edge and grab a lunch at our old friends. Office opened around three o’clock, so we came there to give it another try after all that fighting yesterday. I went with my classical “Hola” and hoped for nothing else than a good news. Señorita looked at me and said: “Hola, nice to see you again, but I’m afraid, I still don’t have you on my list. After checking my mails, with no support and few more discussions with the office, we realized where the issue was today. Evanescence were the only band, from the whole line-up, who didn’t provide organizers their guest list. Guess what, we were the only people on the Evanescence guestlist. There was nothing else to do, rather than wait for the band to arrive, so the organizers could remind their management for their list. When they told us that Evanescence have arrived, we finally hoped our shitty experience was over. Unfortunately, for another hour or two, nothing has changed. Here was the missing Spanish effectiveness, plus my hidden package of patience took a plane home. So I stood in front of the promoters desk and refused to leave and stop looking at them, until one of them sends bloody Maria to remind their lazy asses, we are waiting here for ages. Swear to god, I didn’t move my look for at least half and hour. I had nowhere else to go and there was no more f*cking waiting from us for anything. After that half an hour she returned with a news that she caught their management and she gave us our passes instantly.

Suddenly everybody treated us differently. We could use different access and could go practically anywhere. We could also finally see the areas that unlawfully banned for us the day before. First of all, we saw Children Of Bodom on the smaller stage in the middle of their set, so we convinced the security guard to let us take pics, even after traditional first-three songs period. After that it was finally the area behind the main stage. Dutch Within Temptation were getting ready for their sympho-gothic setlist, while we were finally enjoying the look on the crowd covered around the gear.

Audience was even crazier, when the Slayer came on stage. Gary Holt was fully enjoying his new role as an Slayer guitarist and the crown went absolutely mental during Raining Blood. Right after the show we headed into the backstage to check on the Evanescence interview.

When we came out, Metallica’s army was just finalizing packaging their insane stage. In order to make the whole time-schedule smoother, Evanescence went on stage, while they were still packing the screens. We enjoyed the view from a side for a while and then Renáta went to take few pics from a first line, while I was checking the show with Fear Factory’s guitarist. 

After the show we finally went to grab sth to eat. Sh*tty and expensive kebab is a solution, when you didn’t eat for a most of the day. As we were still not hungry, we went to see Fear Factory’s show, which was delayed and started somewhere around 3 or 4am. Renáta was taking pics, while I enjoyed my solo stalker look from a side, as most of the musicians who usually stand there, went to sleep. And that’s what we also did in the middle of the Fear Factory show, as this day was nothing easier, than the day before it.