This year edition of Roadburn Festival took place from the 18th to 21st of April in Tilburg, NL
Once again Marco Manzi was our representative and shares his personnel experience during the festival days.
The Spark (Wednesday 17th)
In occasion of the third Roadburn in the post-COVID-19 world, I decided to embrace the full experience even further, and attend the free warm-up gig at the smaller side of Poppodium 013, featuring Final Gasp, Sonja, and Riot City.
Upon arriving in Tilburg around noon, I got to experience all possible kind of weathers within five minutes. True welcome to the Dutch Spring, where it can be raining, hailing, sunny, windy, cloudy… and I am pretty sure I spotted a rainbow at some point, all at once!
Settling down and getting ready for the evening included the search for a nice spot for dinner. Thankfully, the Roadburners group offered plenty of suggestions and recommendations for all tastes and pockets. As a side note: throughout the actual festival days, many places around town offered many special promotions and custom “Roadburn” menus, as a sign of how the city and the event organically collaborate.
Final Grasp
Cutting to the chase, I found myself inside the venue well in advance.
After some wrestling with the lockers system (and the lingering thought of “will I be able to get my jacket back at the end of the night?”), it was nice to see already quite many fellow festivalgoers chilling around. We tried immediately of course one of those Uiltje “The Walter” beer. The resemblance of the cartoonish owl to the biggest driving force behind this beautiful event was uncanny, and the beer itself was pretty refreshing, so once again Uiltje gave us something a little bit nicer than your average festival beer for the occasion.
Finally it was time for Riot City. Old school speed metal and high-pitched screams seemed an interesting way to kick off our Roadburn, and the Canadians had an enthusiasm that soon took over also the growing audience. Nice to see that the Next stage hall was already filling up on the pre-party, while in everyone’s mind it was starting to sink in that the long wait from the previous edition was now over, and the festivities had just began.
Riot City
Hailing from Philadelphia, Sonja toned down the atmosphere painting it with a more gothic rock sound combined with traditional heavy metal. The trio fronted by guitarist/vocalist Melissa Moore (ex-Absu) had a slightly different target audience compared to the previous band but that didn’t stop fans from flowing in, as the night progressed in a more sombre tone. Ultimately Final Gasp put everyone again in a frenzy thanks to their vocalist’s performance and the clear hardcore vibes mixed with death rock/gothic metal. To give the idea: it’s like seeing Tribulation on speed.
Sonja
It was then that we noticed the smiles multiplying around us, and started thinking about all the hugging and chatter in between bands, realizing “this is it, we are back at Roadburn, and it’s going to be a rich, intense, long 4 days ahead of us”. Of course all totally worth it.
Being the first night and with some traveling fatigue starting to come down on us, we took the smart decision to call it a day and try to get a good night sleep before heading first thing in the morning to collect our wristband and pass.
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