Rock the Lakes 2024 - The Review

Those who read my review for Rock The Lakes (RTL) 2023 will know I was smitten by this little metal festival overlooking Lac Morat, Switzerland. I was gutted that I wouldn’t be able to afford this year’s instalment. Then, in July, the taxman came to my rescue (how often can you say that?) with a rebate that covered my ticket and ¾ of the airfare.

So, after 2 days to recover from Bloodstock 2024, off I went. Travel this year was infinitely less stressful and cheaper. Instead of travelling to Basel and catching multiple trains and a bus, I flew to Zurich, from whence a 20 minute train ride took me to Winterthur where I was accommodated overnight by Roman Kürtz who runs HELLVETIA RADIO, a Swiss metal radio station for whom I’ve spent much of the year doing a podcast on the evolution of folk-metal.

After a great Thursday night at the street music festival in Winterthur and catching up with a couple of friends I made at RTL last year, we headed off to RTL by car early Friday morning, stopping only for caffeine and “essential supplies,” in Roman’s case beer, and in mine a bottle off black currant squash and a carton of UHT milk! We arrived just after midday.

You can leave us now while we get on with the mundane task of getting armbands, finding
Roman’s friends, setting up camp and getting settled in. While we do that you can get into the festival nitty-gritty.

The Festival Site – Camping & Facilities:

Last year the festival was on a site overlooking Lac Morat in the village of Vallamand. This year it moved to nearby Cudrefin overlooking the considerably larger Lac de Neuchâtel. Arriving by car, the view overlooking the festival site, with the lake and mountains behind, is fantastic. Sadly, once down on the site that is the last you’ll see of the lake, but since you’re there for booze and music that’s no big deal.

Despite the numerous complaints I heard over the weekend, particularly once the weather deteriorated, actually in terms of size and layout this is an exceptionally good festival site. The problem is that RTL set the standards impossibly high with the amazing facilities last year and it’s in the nature of people to compare and judge. I prefer a more circumspect view and while there is no doubt things weren’t quite as perfect as last year; any seasoned and reasonable-minded festivalgoer would be perfectly content with the provisions on the whole. This is only the third year for this festival and the organisers had to deal with the logistics in the context of a new site. They’ll certainly have things to reflect upon in advance of next year but largely they did an excellent job and in the rest of this report I may make some constructive observations and air some minor disappointments, but I only have one real criticism, which I’ll come to shortly.

After camping on what was essentially lawn last year, this year’s campsite was in a field on a slight slope. It was a bit wild and lumpy but no worse than at many a festival. At least it wasn’t full of sheep or cow shit like some I’ve been to. The slope did cause some problems when the rain came as the ground was hard so the water ran straight off, at least until it turned to mud. Some campers found their tents water and mud-logged. Having been knee-deep in liquid mud at the Harvest Fayre, Fishguard in 1998 I’d say that the conditions were not that bad and par-for-the-course given that festival weather is generally unpredictable. Nothing really to complain about but in the future the organisers might consider lining the main walkways through the campsite with the large rubber ground mats they used elsewhere on site.

This year the campsite was sold out. Some late-comers found it difficult to find somewhere to pitch their tents. The campsite entrance was opposite the carpark, a short walk from the armband kiosk. Distances for carrying gear were not too bad or difficult. Toilet and shower facilities were at the far end of the campsite, together with an area containing a bar and a concession selling coffee and other hot drinks. Being British, I took my own teabags and the guy who ran it was happy to fill my thermos with hot water each morning for the price of a silly dance. Due to the inclement weather on Sunday, however, I stuck to coffee and he never did get to experience my Dance of the Seven Veils!

For those who care about hygiene at festivals, there were two long trough sinks with multiple taps at intervals, and two shower blocks. When I showered the water was cold and the water pressure low but it wasn’t something that troubled me. What DID bother me were the portaloos. There were plenty of them and also open air urinals for the guys. I understand that cost efficiency is essential to the long term health of a festival, and we were lucky last year with proper water flushing toilets. Portaloos are okay by me and cost saving is fine but nobody wants to look down at the accumulated excrement of others. Most festivals I’ve been to in recent times have started using the chemical flush portaloos and in the future I hope RTL will adopt these too.

Also, a few people commented to me that there could have been a few portaloos and urinals in other areas of the campsite to save the long trek and, given how the weather turned out, the area around the toilets/showers could probably have been fortified more with ground-mats. My apologies for raising the indelicate subject so early but it is my only serious criticism in what was an otherwise fantastic festival, so let’s move on to the good stuff.

The Festival Site – Arena:

The arena was spacious and well laid out and apart from the areas you would expect to be congested – the stages and around the food/bar concessions – it never felt overwhelmingly crowded. Care in the location of food stalls, bars and toilets made site navigation easy. I located three water points, each within easy access of the part of the site I found myself. The huge double stage had plenty of room for the audience between the sound tower and VIP/disability platform. This year there was much more shelter provided, including a very large canopy adjacent to the main bar. Apart from the official merchandise and signing tent, which was placed near the entrance and away from everything else, enabling easy access, there was again little in the way of commercial retail outlets (something of which I heartily approve) but yet again you could get a real tattoo!

I liked the way food concessions were set apart from the other areas and all situated in one place. There was a decent range of dining options available including burgers, pizza, curries, wurst & rösti (big, delicious sausages with a loose hash brown done with bacon and onions – so good I had it twice), stuffed Greek pittas, poutine (Canadian french-fries with cheese curds and gravy), pasta (I had ravioli with an amazing pesto and parmesan) and even, this being Switzerland, a place where you could sit down and have a fondue or, and don’t ask me how that works, a fondue sandwich. From a dessert POV I spotted a crêpe stall and I’m delighted to say that not only was the ice cream stall there again but this year it also accepted Visa/Mastercard (yet again this year it was a cashless festival). I can heartily recommend the Meringue Double Crème and the Caramel Beurre Salé! Price-wise, food was maybe a little more expensive than a UK festival, with a meal setting you back between £15 to £20 but, if the crap I ate at Bloodstock is anything to go by, twice as delicious.

I’m aware that, as a non-drinker, last year I let you down by not reporting on the price of booze, so this year I made a special effort! In the main bar you could get a 50DL glass of beer for £8.00 or a 1.4L pitcher for £20.50, spirits were £11.50 for 4CL and a 1DL glass of wine would set you back £4.50. Not that I should encourage you smokers, but cigarettes were RIDICULOUSLY cheap. A pack of twenty for £6.50 sounds unbelievable, right? But it’s true.

In the meantime, back on the campsite, Roman and myself had found his friends, pitched tents and were ready to party. So let’s get to the reason we’re all here… the music!

FRIDAY 16^th AUGUST 2024:

The first three bands, Vicious Rain (Switzerland), Avralize (Germany) and Urne (UK), came and went while we sorted ourselves out on the campsite but it was exciting to discover that we could hear all the music perfectly right from under our cosy gazebo. From what I can tell all three are variations of metalcore and I can’t say I felt like I missed much. We headed down to the arena in time for Bodysnatcher (USA). To get to the arena campers had to go all the way around to the main entrance which was puzzling since it would have been easy to create an access directly from the campsite. Bodysnatcher proved to be more of the sort of extreme noise that doesn’t do much for me so, in bright boiling sunshine, I contented myself getting my bearings on the site and finding what shelter had been provided this year. As I said, vastly improved, though at this point nobody knew that it wasn’t the sun we’d need to shelter from!

I headed down to watch the next act up, All For Metal (Germany/Italy). It’s worth mentioning the stages, which were in fact one huge stage partitioned into two performance areas. Thus while one band was performing the next could set up and sound-check. This worked perfectly all weekend, with the audience simply shunting left or right between bands. There was little delay between artists and if you were of a mind you needn’t miss seeing a single band. Since there were some bands I wanted a front row view for, I just waited by the empty stage without missing a note of the act before. I was initially disappointed that the audience area was flat and not on a slope as with at Lac Morat; the slope made it great for everyone to be able to see the stage. However, after rain turned the arena into an ice-skating rink I revised this opinion. Thank goodness it was flat!

All For Metal were superb, musically and visually, playing highly proficient melodic metal, heavy on the Norse mythology, complete with costumes and body paint. Very silly, highly entertaining, they have a new fan in me.

Two other bands on Friday, Rise of the North Star (France) and Lionheart (USA), were too raw for my tastes, but the rest of the music that day ranged from great to transcendent, in my humble opinion anyway. Insomnium (Finland) dished up a set of melodic death metal before Amaranthe (Sweden) had me scratching my head in appreciative awe. They are hellishly difficult to describe but phenomenal for all that. Clean male and female vocalists and a growler, Kick-ass metal musicianship bathed in warm synths and electronica. Dance metal? Disco metal? In the end, having been in my youth around the advent of ecstasy/rave culture, I’ve opted to call it E- (MDMA) Metal. Absolutely brilliant.

Exodus (USA) may be thrash metal legends but their set found me glued to the railing of the other stage so I only heard but didn’t see them, except out of the corner of my eye. It must be a sign that now, into my third metal festival, my tolerance of extremity is growing. They were fast and frantic but had some as yet unidentified ingredient that made them enjoyable in a way that some of the bands earlier in the day weren’t. Maybe I’ll make a metalhead out of myself yet.

The highlight of my evening, in fact the whole festival, were up next; I’ve been a fan of Amorphis (Finland), not so much for their metal but as a lover of psychedelic progressive rock, since 1996. Their set did not disappoint and I was entranced by their performance in the same way Eluveitie blew me away last year. When they performed “My Kantele” I was in heaven. How such an amazing band could be third on the bill at the O2 in London, underneath Testament and Nightwish, is utterly beyond me.

Behind me during the band was a young English guy who was at his first RTL and feeling lost because everyone was speaking French or German. By the time we had a drink and a chat the headliner, Behemoth (Poland), were underway so we watched from a fair distance. With an atmospheric stage set and lightshow, explosions of fire and smoke aplenty, the band alternated between bludgeoning and mesmerising me: another band I expected to dislike pleasantly surprised me. From the distance it looked more Nosferatu than Satanic to me. An exceptional performance to end the day. So, hot, sweaty and elated back to the tent I trundled.  

There was no sign of Roman or the others so I crashed out to the sound of The Comeback Kid (Canada), a hardcore punk band who, in my contented state, sounded okay.

SATURDAY 17^th AUGUST 2024:

There must have been some rain in the night but it was dry and bright when I emerged from my tent. I knew it had been raining because the guys all sat there expectantly watching as I sat down on a camping chair full of pooled water and soaked my backside. Oh how they laughed! To my surprise I’d slept until midday. After a cold shower and dancing for my cuppa I laid my towel foolishly over my tent and headed down to the arena, promptly forgetting all about it.

It was after 3pm when I hit the site. Kassogtha (Switzerland), a proggy death metal band who sounded okay, Vukovi (UK), some sort of abrasive modern metal, and Thrown (Sweden), a nu-metal/hard/metalcore/phonk outfit, who sounded dreadful from afar, were all finished and symphonic metal band Xandria (Germany) were in full flight. They were pretty decent. The singer’s soprano was not too grating and thankfully the synths were not cheesy. Not a band I’ll be rushing out to explore but entertaining live.

 

Next, Annisokay (Germany), a hardcore metal band who I didn’t think I’d enjoy but who in fact were saved by a guy countering the dirty vocal with a clean high voice which balanced things out nicely. I gave Crownshift (Finland) a miss while I went to get food because another band I wanted to see were up next. Everyone has to see a band called Rotting Christ (Cyprus) before they die, right? I caught the end of their set at Bloodstock the week before and was determined to be up front at RTL. Despite their confrontational name they play excellent, intelligent gothic-tinged melodic black metal and their show lived fully up to my expectations.

Brothers of Metal (Sweden) are a power metal band heavy on the Norse/Viking thing and stage costumes to match. They were preposterously, fantastically brilliant. Highly recommended if you get to catch them and, Thor help me, I think I’m even going to buy their CDs! They were followed by Caliban (Germany), metalcore which emphatically wasn’t my bag so instead I made myself comfortable at the front of the other stage for Dark Tranquillity (Sweden) who proved to be an excellent melodic death metal band even if they were fronted by a guy who reminded me disturbingly of Mick Hucknall. Maybe if Hucknall had sung Holding Back the Years with a cookie monster growl I wouldn’t hate Simply Red so much.

I passed on post-hardcore band The Amity Affliction (Australia) to get ice cream and absorb the atmosphere. At this point it was still warm and dry, though that was soon to change. I met the English lad again and we headed down for Beast in Black (Finland). They play excellent old-school heavy/power metal. I’d seen and enjoyed them the week before at Bloodstock so I stayed for a few songs before heading to the other stage to book my place for In Extremo (Germany). As early proponents of medieval metal, this bunch were right up my street. Their set was brilliant and it was great to see and hear all the medieval instruments in amongst the electric. The stage set was elaborate and the lights and spouting flames (in the front row the heat was intense) added to the drama. Sadly, during their performance the rain arrived properly and by the end of the set it was absolutely pelting down. At the climax they released millions of smoke filled bubbles out over the crowd. With the light and heat it was glorious but as the final note faded we were left standing in a downpour.

Myself and the English guy convened under the shelter to debate watching Skáld, a French folk group who use all manner of exotic instruments. He stayed to watch them but this old man decided he’d had enough. Ordinarily I’d have jumped at the chance but gone midnight and hammering it down? Nope! It’s a shame because what I could hear as I walked away sounded amazing. I figured I’d be able to hear the set from my tent but the rain was too loud. Not only that but my forgotten towel was soaked, as was I, so I had to dry myself with dirty T-Shirts before crawling into my sleeping bag and off to nod.

 

SUNDAY 18^th AUGUST 2024:

The campsite and arena on Sunday were squelchy to say the least. It rained on and off, sometimes heavily, all day. That, and meeting up with Valentine, a friend I made last year who lives locally and came down for the day, meant many of the bands passed me by. We watched Illumishade (Switzerland) and D’Artganan (Germany), the two bands that drew her to the day. The former were of interest, being the side project of Fabienne Erni, vocalist/harpist with Eluveitie. They played slightly proggy metal with Fabienne’s fantastic voice elevating them above the ordinary. D’Artagnan are a slightly cheesy folk-metal outfit with a musketeers thing going. Nevertheless they were really excellent live and have a great sound. At this point it was pouring again so we listened to Elvenking (Italy) under the awning. They are folky power metal and they sounded decent but the violin was largely inaudible, robbing them of an essential element.

Valentine then headed home via the signing tent. It stopped raining and I thankfully got front stage for the phenomenal Dragonforce (UK). With two giant airsock dragons and life-sized arcade game consoles, the stage was set for an hour of high speed power metal. We even got a Taylor Swift cover-version! Herman Li has a reputation for being a lightning fast guitarist which to my eyes and ears seems a bit unfair because his fellow guitarist Sam Totman is equally shit-hot. Mightily impressive.

The rain started again before Dragonforce finished and the ground was slippery as hell. Not wanting to find my way back to the tent in the dark, I cut my losses and listened to Axel Rudi Pell (Germany), largely excellent power metal though he did bang on a bit at times, Jinjer (Ukraine) over-rated metalcore to my mind, and thrash legends Kreator (Germany) who played legendary thrash, from the comfort of my very damp sleeping bag.

 

AND SO… 

Monday dawned fair. Having dug and pushed the car out of the parking field, homeward via Winterthur and Zurich. Despite the weather it was a brilliant weekend. From last year when I was a stranger to this year when I was welcomed as part of a group and several times heard my name called out on site by people I met in 2023, not to mention all the new people I met, I really felt at home. I mentioned before, the organisers will have some stuff to reflect on but mainly they should congratulate themselves on another year well done! Hopefully, I’ll be back for 2025!

POSITIVES:

Fantastic variety of bands including big names.

Double stage worked well.

Well laid out arena.

Range of ticket and camping options. Good value.

Great food.

NOT SO POSITIVES:

Primitive toilets (in this age open bowl toilets at festivals are unnecessary and unpleasant).

Poor water pressure in showers.

No access from campsite direct to arena.

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