Festival Review: Hellfest 2023 Day 1

Day 1 – Hellfest 2023 – The Odyssey Begins

To metalheads in mainland Europe, Hellfest is the pinnacle of festivals. Yes, you have the more well known Wacken and its smaller cousin in Belgium, Graspop, but Hellfest is always the one that people talk about and want to go to. Even at customs at Ijmuiden in Holland getting off the boat, we had our car given a wee bit extra attention due to the Parkway Drive sticker on the back.

“I’m seeing them next week at Hellfest,” says the customs lady as we engage in customary metal chat about the line up after having our passports stamped. That is the reach and reputation of Hellfest.

One of the greatest things about Hellfest is the organisation of the thing. It is held in Clisson in north west France, about 20 miles from Nantes, and with an estimated 240,000 people attending in a village that has a population of 8,000, you know everyone has to be on the ball on singing off the same hymn sheet.

There are 3 massive car parks in a transport infrastructure no bigger than your average British village, and, despite the main dual carriageway closed for festival goers to walk on, there is no disruption to traffic flow. This is clearly something that Download organisers need to look at given the troubles that they encountered this year. Also, parking and camping is free, the only payable festival essentials are the reasonably priced lockers and showers.

We had picked up our passes the night before and had a look round “Hell City” which is the massive shopping and bar area and join the festivities going on that included the obligatory Air Guitar competition.

Photo passes this year were part of the festival wristband with your entitlements loaded onto them and this seemed to work well, although some of the togs did seem miffed when other togs pushed passed them in queues for bands as they had “Priority” passes that are normally indicated by the colour of your pass.

This year’s opus is four days long (last year’s event was seven days over two weekends to make up for Covid cancellations). I’ll run through things day by day and start off with Day 1, headlined by KISS.

With only two people covering the event, it’s difficult to see everything but we started of on the main stages as bang on 4.30pm Code Orange open up with their usual amped up energy. Starting with “I’m Going To Get You Good” they have the crowd entertained from note one and give us the first circle pit of the festival.

The crowd are then transported into prog land as Coheed and Cambria are the next act up. Their set is more lively than the one that they have been performing on their own European tour and this pleases the crowd as they ease into the day. There’s not a lot of engagement with the crowd but they are a band that like to let the music do the talking.

We disappear for a break before the much anticipated Generation Sex stroll onto the stage. A mix of Generations X’s Billy Idol and Tony James, the combo being completed by Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols. Their set is punchy and despite playing songs that are nearly 45 years old, everyone knows all the words. Despite being 67, Idol displays a swagger that most of the frontmen/women of today’s acts would kill for and delivers a performance true to the best punk traditions.

If you like what we do, consider joining us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!

Things are bubbling under nicely and you got the feeling that something was ready to light the blue touch paper and explode the mainstage into life and this duly arrived in the form of the Swedish Metalcore royalty that is In Flames. Having played the prestigious main stage slots before headliners and the midnight slot after them in previous years, it seems strange (or is it a masterstroke?) that we see them at 7.40pm on the first day. Like a drug running through everyone’s veins their enthusiasm and music lifts everyone to new levels and we enter multiple circle pit land as I spot at least four. Singer Anders Fridén has the crowd eating out of his hand immediately, and their 11-song set, closing with the obligatory “Take This Life” is a lesson in musical perfection.

Much hype has been made over the appearance of the Hollywood Vampires. Having Johnny Depp in their ranks certainly helps and it brings a bit of Hollywood “sparkle” to their band even if his guitar playing isn’t up to the standards of his more illustrious bandmates Joe Perry and Tommy Hendriksen. Alice Cooper owns the stage and following the opening tracks “I Want My Now” and “Raise The Dead” they give us a very good hotch-potch of covers from Cooper’s own band, and Aerosmith, as well as Killing Joke, The Who and The Jim Carroll Band. Also included is a great rendition of David Bowie’s “Heroes” with Depp on lead vocals.

Following a beer stop, we take a wander away from the main stages to check out the four others: The Warzone, The Alter, The Temple, and the newly relocated and expanded Warzone. Hellfest veterans and doom masters Candlemass always deliver, Dark Funeral are on top form and French hip hop/punk crossover band Svinkels provide mayhem on many levels.

There are massive levels of expectation in the crowd for the headliners for the day, KISS. Yes, there are detractors who will say, “not another farewell tour” or “it’s nothing different” but the levels of consistency that they deliver have to be admired. If they were a footballer, they would be an 8/10 every week. You get everything with KISS, the vocals, the guitars, over the top showmanship, and the pyro, lots of pyro! After 50 years you’d thing that founding members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons would be slowing down as they move towards retirement, but it’s the absolute opposite. There’s no slowing down of songs and detuning of guitars here, just pure unadulterated rock and roll of the highest order.

Sad as it would be to see, I hope they do finish on this high and not drag things out for yet another farewell tour, and it is a great high to leave is on and a memory to savour.

For most shows that would be it, but not Hellfest. How do you top KISS? By bringing up Parkway Drive next! The Aussies have played here before, again, previously straight after the main headliners and it seems to suit them as it keeps the crowd highly entertained and amped up to the max.

Winston McCall and his merry band have been on a yearlong tour to support their Darker Still album and it shows, they are about as tight a unit as I have seen, and boy do they love pyro too!

Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!

At this point we wander into the days biggest mystery… Who decided to put Behemoth last on The Temple stage? This place is rammed, and I mean dangerously rammed with people spilling 50 metres past the back of the tented venue, causing a massive jam. They were awesome, but given their popularity, it would have made more sense to have them on the main stage (as they were on their last visit) to let more people see them.

As we wander into the night, we marvel at the day that we have just had and looked forward to what is to come on day 2.

Band of the Day – Parkway Drive

Surprise of the Day – The switch from Kronenburg to Carlsberg as the festival lager

Daily totals

• 100-400mm Lenses left in Scotland : 1
• Pints drunk : 9
• T shirts bought : 7
• Number of times mangling French language : 12
• Annoying Brits : 3
• Lens caps lost : 1

Photography by Gavin Lowrey