The 32nd edition of Jera On Air will surely go down in the books, as this one was one we will be able to remember for a long time. With a killer line-up there was plenty to see and do, but the festival also clashed with a heatwave, surely making it the hottest edition yet. While other festivals and events had been cancelled, due to the predictions of the 39°C weather, Jera On Air took matters into their own hands to make sure it could go ahead as planned. The stages are all already in tents, so plenty of shade to hide from the sun. Additionally they installed big fans, blowing air into the tents, creating a nice airflow. Extra water points were installed, with even some cold showers available on the festival grounds. The festival is mostly run by volunteers, who were equipped with water buckets and sponges, cooling down festival goers when needed.
Thursday gave us some time to adjust to the heat, with 35°C on the schedule. As expected from an alternative crowd, most of the festival goers still showed up in all black outfits. You might also expect the bands to tone it down a little, but nothing can stop these artists from giving it their all. Most of WARGASM already gave up on wearing T-shirts before walking on stage, and it did not take long before Sam Matlock also got rid of his. Before the first song even started Matlock already jumped down onto the barrier, getting closer to the fans who came out to see them. While women are still underrepresented on these festivals, frontwoman and bassist Milky Way made sure to leave an impression that lasts. Even while still early on the day, they filled their tent well and got the crowd to move along to their music.
Some bands on the line-up thought it wasn’t hot enough yet, as both Set It Off and Bury Tomorrow decided they needed pyro during their sets. During the intro song of Bury Tomorrow, Daniel Winter-Bates walked out on stage first, immediately gaining attention from the crowd. After staring deeply into the crowd, the rest of the band joined him on stage to start their set with ‘Choke’. With both pyro and co2, they surely set the tone for their set. This was not the time to calm down and chill, moshing and headbanging was needed and everyone needed to leave the tent dripping in sweat.
Meanwhile French band TSS did not let the temperature stop them from wearing their extravagant, multi-layered black stage outfits. Other bands on the line-up have been going for decades, which makes TSS seem like newbies to the scene. Despite that they know how to put on a killer show. With two vocalists, Matthieu Kirby and John Fine, it gave extra dimension to their set. Fine switched between taking front center doing vocals, or doing double duty while also playing guitar. The band filled up the Sparrow nicely, playing songs such as ‘KILLING ME’ and ‘Would you be my therapy?’.
While on the following days the Raven stage would be filled with bands, today it was home to Dynamo Heavy Bingo for the first few hours, followed by a dj set from Emo Night Mainland. Between the Raven and Sparrow you could visit the festival market, where you could buy plenty of things, as well as get your hair cut or get a tattoo. This is also where the Moshpital was located, where you could also lay down on a field bed if you needed a little break from the heat. Outside the festival market you could find the Wall Of Death, where a band would play in the middle of a pit, while motorcyclists drove along the walls.
Closing out the Vulture stage for the day was Rise Against, who have played at Jera numerous times before and always seem to enjoy coming back. The tent was filled to the brim with people, with others standing outside the tent to catch a glimpse of their set. The temperature was finally dropping, which seemed to awaken the crowd a bit more. During the day people were also giving their energy, but the heat made everyone a bit slower. As the sun had set, energy levels came back up, getting ready to go crazy for the last few bands of the evening. Rise Against has to cram their songs into their short 50 minute set, filling it with their biggest hits like ‘Satellite’, ‘Prayer of the Refugee’ and ‘Savior’. The crowd was singing along loudly, getting plenty of warm-up before the last band of the evening.
Architects had the pleasure to wrap up the first day of the festival, closing out the Eagle stage. You might expect that the crowd had run out of energy, but the crowd did not stand still for a single second. The moshpits kept getting bigger and crowdsurfers kept making their way over the barrier. After Sam Carter asked for more crowdsurfers, security was having a hard time keeping up, but got everyone back on their feet safely. With most songs on their setlist coming from their latest album The Sky, the Earth & All Between, they of course left some space in their 60 minute set for ‘Doomsday’ and ‘Animals’.
All photos from Thursday can be found here.
For the first full festival day the bands started playing from noon, but unfortunately with the ongoing heatwave many people decided to show up later in the day. With the government advising people to stay inside and keep calm, the festival goers found a middle ground by becoming a bit pickier on which sets to watch. As they usually would have gone and seen as many bands as possible, broadening their music taste, now plenty of breaks needed to be scheduled so no one overheated. This did result in the earlier bands like Allt, Melrose Avenue and Magnolia Park maybe gathering a slightly smaller crowd than it could have been, but luckily plenty of people still showed up to watch their sets and support them.
From our neighbouring country, German post-hardcore band annisokay kicked off our festival day. Being introduced with a corny joke, the presenter asked if anyone in the crowd had seen Annie and if she was okay. Not long after kicking off their set, frontman Rudi Schwarzer jumped down off the stage, climbing onto the barrier.
Each day five bands also appeared at the Impericon Singing stand, ready to sign a supplied photo of the band and have a little chat with their fans. Over the different days the tent was visited by Rise Against, Hollywood Undead, Bury Tomorrow, Imminence, Ice Nine Kills and many more.
Unfortunately quite a few bands had some technical issues during their sets, luckily most of them got resolved quickly and the bands could go on without much delay. The Raven stage was filled with artists, leaving a small gap between sets for the changeover. DeathByRomy was scheduled to start at 7PM, but unfortunately faced issues, with the sound of the bass not coming through. The band was very excited for their short 30 min set and was visibly upset with the situation. Romy tried to start the set a few times, with only the drums and one microphone working. After some more tries to get everything working, Romy did a bit of acapella and later started the set with just her drummer. Unfortunately due to the delayed start we did not see the rest of the set, as we had to run off to the next artist.
All you can expect from a Hollywood Undead set is one giant party, and they delivered. Their setlist consisted of banger after banger, getting the crowd to sing along loudly. Starting their set with ‘Undead’ they immediately had everyone chanting along with their band name. For ‘Comin’ In Hot’ a young fan was invited on stage to play guitar. Charlie Scene proceeded to lift the child in the air, while ‘Circle Of Life’ from The Lion King played over the speakers, creating a little Simba moment. Between songs they spoke a bit of German, maybe not realising the people in The Netherlands speak Dutch. Ending their set with ‘Everywhere I Go’, beachballs made their way into the crowd, while the song was sung along loudly.
During A Day To Remember a group of fans was invited to stand at the back of the stage, gaining a special moment they will remember for a long time. Iconic song ‘The Downfall of Us All’ kicked off their set, getting the whole crowd to scream along to the “Let’s Go” at the beginning of the song. The band gave off headliner energy, getting the crowd moving and singing along throughout each song in their 50 minute set. A song that’s currently going rounds on TikTok, ‘All My Friends’, making the perfect festival summer soundtrack was of course also played. Two of their biggest hits were saved for last, ending their set with ‘If It Means a Lot to You’ and ‘All Signs Point to Lauderdale’.
Simultaneously with A Day To Remember, Bad Nerves filled up the Hawk stage with energy. The band from Essex, UK seem to really like the festival, as they played an early slot on the bigger Eagle stage at the 2025 edition. While bigger stages might seem better for bands, Bad Nerves really shines in the more intimate setting. Putting them at the Hawk stage on a later time slot was a great call. The band does not need a barrier between them and the fans, frontman Bobby Bird thrives on interacting with the crowd, taking on full frontman responsibilities. Playing their newly released song ‘NETWORK’ as well as ‘You’ve Got The Nerve’ and ‘Can’t be Mine’.
Combining horror movies and metal music should not be such a crazy idea, as Ice Nine Kills thought. With their music being based on horror movies, their live set does not let anyone down either. Two cops wheel out a restrained man, wearing a mask, based on Silence Of The Lambs. While the man escapes and kills the cops, Ice Nine Kills are on stage playing their songs. Some of the theatrics are happening around the band, while frontman Spencer Charnas also takes part in the acts. Dressing up as a butcher, he chops off the arms of a man tied into an office chair, waving the cut off limbs around. Chainsaws, guns, axes, nothing is too crazy for an Ice Nine Kills concert. For ‘Twisting The Knife’ Hannah Hermione Greenwood from Creeper joined the band on stage, also coming back for the concluding song of the set. During the last song of the set, ‘A Work Of Art’, Art the Clown made an appearance on stage, waving around a baby doll. Unexpected people who did not know anything about the band before surely got treated to a set they will remember for a long time.
Headliner of today was the iconic band The Offspring, with over 40 years on their name, both young and older fans have come out to watch their set. Before the band even got on stage, someone dressed as Waldo climbed on top of the crowd, hyping them up. Throughout the crowd you could also find multiple people dressed as the guy from ‘Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)’. Of course the band has aged throughout the years, but they are still strong as ever. Their setlist included their biggest hits, turning the Eagle tent into one big party, while also including some covers. With the passing of Ozzy Osbourne last year, many bands and artists have been playing tributes to both Black Sabbath and Osbourne. The Offspring added both Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ as well as Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Crazy Train’ into their setlist. The usual crowd at these kinds of festivals might seem to only like heavier music, but they are also usually the most open minded to other types of music. When The Offspring played ‘Love Story’ by Taylor Swift, a lot of people sang along, showing off their ‘softer’ side. After the covers were done, they played hit after hit, kicking off with ‘Why Don’t You Get A Job?’. Their set of course concluded with ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’ and ‘Self Esteem’.
All photos from Friday can be found here.
Saturday started off with some amazing bands, we unfortunately had to miss out on due to the heat. We started at 4PM again, with Trash Boat. The band have played at Jera On Air before and always have the best time, gathering a full tent with lots of energy. Despite the heat, frontman Tobi Duncan expects the same treatment as previous times. Unfortunately some technical difficulties got in the way, so Duncan apologized if he sounded like shit since he couldn’t hear himself. For their setlist they like to mix both new songs, and highly requested songs by fans. Every comment section is always filled with fans asking them to play ‘Catharsis’, so they added it back to the setlist. Keeping the heat in mind Duncan told the crowd to do what felt right during ‘Synthetic Sympathy’ instead of asking them to go crazy. Before ‘He’s So Good’ Duncan used to give a political speech, but now just opened up about songs usually being hard to write. This song however was the easiest he has ever written, as he has been a bisexual man his whole life and he has no problems speaking or writing about it.
The Netherlands produces some great bands as well, one of them being Distant. They filled up the big tent of the Vulture nicely, treating both fans and people that just stumbled in to hide from the sun to some crazy screams and pig squeals. Their shows always are great to attend, and this one was no different. After their set ended, Imminence was up on the Eagle stage. Before their set started, they had the visuals for their upcoming headline show displayed on the giant screen at the back of the stage. On January 10th they will be back to play at Poppodium 013 in Tilburg. When thinking about metal music, you might not immediately come up to add some violin in there. Imminence did and showed everyone how well it works.
From the first notes of their set, Unpeople was ready to rock off the roof of the Sparrow stage. The crowd was jumping around, starting mosh pits whenever it felt right. Judging from the energy in the crowd, the band should come back for their own headline show as soon as possible, so we can do this all over again (maybe with a slightly lower temperature). Before Bob Vylan kicked off into their songs, they wanted to start their set calmly with some meditating and stretching. The whole crowd was matching his moves, warming up their muscles before going absolutely crazy just a few minutes later. The duo both go as Bobby/Bobbie Vylan as their stagenames, with Bobby Vylan being the frontman and Bobbie Vylan being the drummer. Since they were with just the two of them, Bobby had all the room to run around the stage at the Buzzard. Under their band name on the backdrop a Palestine flag hung. You might remember them from the whole Glastonbury fiasco, after which they also named themselves the Glastonbury Goons. Their set was filled with energy, even prompting the women and non-binary people to come to the front, to have their very own moshpit.
Wrapping up the main events of the festival was Papa Roach. Another band that has been around for ages, still killing it in the scene. Opening their set with ‘Even If It Kills Me’ immediately set the tone for their set. As the temperature was finally cooling down a bit, with a huge storm incoming, Papa Roach added lots of pyro to their set. The sleepiness has definitely kicked in for a lot of people, with some leaving early to either head home or hope to catch some sleep at their accommodation. The tent remained full for the rest of Papa Roach their set, singing along to songs such as ‘Help’ and ‘Scars’. The band also added in a nu-metal medley, including Korn’s ‘Blind’, Deftones’ ‘My Own Summer (Shove It)’, Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff’ and System Of A Down’s ‘Chop Suey’. Their biggest hit was of course saved for last, ending their set with ‘Last Resort’.
During Papa Roach their set, K3 covergroup Alle Kleuren took over the Sparrow, filling up the barn with anyone wanting to release their inner child and scream along to the songs they grew up with. This was certainly the only place you would find crowd surfers to K3 songs, which was a great sight to see.
As the festival came to an end, the wind was picking up and we went from one weather warning to the next. A thunderstorm gave the festival workers some extra work, helping people who got soaked or had their tent ruined. From beginning to the last minutes, the organization really put the wellbeing of their crowd in the first place. Making sure everyone could handle the heat and helping out where needed. A big shout out to the organization, but also all the amazing volunteers who did their best in these extreme conditions. The dates for next year’s edition have been announced, so get ready to note down June 24th, 25th and 26th in your calendar!
All photos from Saturday can be found here.
Written by: Sabine de Graaf
Photographed by: Sabine de Graaf for Impericon NL
