Memory Lane: Rockstad: Falun 2008

The time has come to show some rare images from the very first Rockstad: Falun (Named: ”Sabaton Open Air” today) festival here in Falun, Sweden.

The background was that me and Pär & Joakim from Sabaton talked about doing a very special release party for their brand new album ”The Art of War”, and we wanted to do more than just a simple club show and invite some friends there. We wanted to something completely different, and so we did.

One night a few months prior to the festival we ended up in Pär’s apartment for an after party, but since we only wanted to talk about band stuff all other guests left early so us 3 could set the masterplan for this crazy event. We had a few (!) beers and when the sun rised in the morning we had the perfect plan: Let’s do a heavy metal festival, invite some local band to play, and record the Sabaton show for an possible DVD release!

Just like that.

This image shows a slightly frustrated Joakim who after a few days with very little sleep needs more than just a cup of coffee. 😉 We were all damn exhausted cuz we arranged pretty much everything ourself, and that includes bulding stuff, carrying stuff, cleaning bathrooms, making sandwiches, etc.. Glamour at it’s finest!

A shit load of stuff packed inside this 800 capacity venue where we some hours later filled with over 1 600 metal heads. Yes, we had to upgrade the venues capacity with licence from the local fire department and we also had a special permission from the police to make this happen. With fire and pyros. 🙂

Here is the sound check. I think this is just 3 hours prior to doors open, and the stage is the only area where things seemed to work good. 🙂 A lot of details were left to fix and at this point we have called in all (3) friends we had to help us out. I cannot really understand how i even had the time to take this photo to be honest..

R) Just realised i lied above. This is the soundcheck the day before the show, and not the final sound check with camera rehearsals etc a few hours before doors on show day. Sorry.

The poster.

Stay tuned for part #2 from Rockstad: Falun 2008…