Every year, the town of Ysselsteyn, the Netherlands, turns into a punk, hardcore, and metalcore heaven. In 1992, the first edition of Jera on Air took place, organised by volunteers of the town’s youth centre. Nowadays, it is a significant festival, featuring a total of six stages, all named after birds: Eagle, Vulture, Buzzard, Hawk, Sparrow, and Raven. On the 28th of June, a very warm and sunny Saturday, the third and final day of the festival kicked off.
At 11:00, the festival site opened its doors to let in the thousands of visitors. As it was the last day, the people slowly trickled in – after all, they had already partied for two whole days. The first bands took to the stage an hour later, with State Power opening the Buzzard. The band from Utrecht has only been around for about a year, having released their debut single in April 2024. The hardcore punk five-piece made the entire ground shake right from the get-go, with most of the attendees moshing and stage-diving. Even though this was only the first set of the day, the energy was already through the roof. Being a punk band, State Power also took the time during their set to speak out and show their support for Palestine. A Palestinian flag was hanging near the drum kit and one of the songs they played was an anti-zionist one, “because fuck zionism”.
At the same time, female-fronted British metalcore band Employed to Serve opened the Vulture stage. The tent was nicely filled, but leaving enough room for a big mosh pit in the middle of the crowd. Singer Justine Jones showed off powerful vocals, singing mostly songs from the band’s last two albums, Conquering (released in 2021) and Fallen Star (released in 2025).
After State Power and Employed to Serve’s sets ended, three of the other stages welcomed the crowd to their first acts of the day. Scottish band Vukovi opened the Eagle, Brit-punk duo The Meffs the Hawk, and Amsterdam-based garageband Mikki Wood the Sparrow.
Vukovi’s two members and their touring drummer took to the stage of the Eagle, the biggest stage of the entire festival, to open their set with ‘GUNGHO’. Frontwoman Janine Shilstone continuously moved across the enormous stage and even jumped into the crowd to encourage a mosh pit. Shilstone interacted with the audience a lot, sitting on the barricade to sing with the fans and taking their phones to take videos with. The crowd gave her all the energy back with their crowd surfing and circle pits as the duo’s set ended with ‘La Di Da’.
In the smaller Hawk tent, another duo took to the stage: The Meffs. The feminist band consists of frontwoman and guitarist Lily Hopkins and drummer Lewis Copsey. Known for their activism, The Meffs speak up about issues such as sexism and the current political state of countries under leaders such as Donald Trump. Before playing ‘Wasted on Women’, for example, Hopkins spoke about queer people in the music industry. While some of these subjects might be quite heavy, that only fits with their instrumentals, which, for a two-piece, are just as heavy as the sounds made by much larger bands. Hopkins easily made the crowd swing to the music, motioning for them to come forward while she herself moved across the stage.
The third band in this half-hour, Mikki Wood, got to play the barn-like Sparrow stage. The three-piece band formed in 2018 and released their debut album High on the Moon just last year. They also gained a spot in 2024’s Popronde, a Dutch traveling festival of upcoming artists, which gave them the opportunity to play a bunch of live shows. Their experience really showed on the Sparrow stage, where they performed their high-energy garage punk anthems. While the festival crowd could not split themselves in thirds to watch all three bands, Mikki Wood gathered a great audience.
From 13:00 to 13:30, Swedish metalcore band Dead by April took to the Vulture stage. Last year, the band could unfortunately not play their full set due to technical issues, so it was great to see them get to do this do-over, and they did it well. With songs such as ‘What Can I Say’ and ‘Dreaming’, clean vocalist Pontus Hjelm and unclean vocalist Christopher Kristensen treated the crowd to a mix of pop and metal. Black balloons were drifting through the air as the band shouted “I need you guys to go fucking crazy”, which led to quite a big pit.
Simultaneously, Polar shredded guitars on the stage of the Buzzard. The English hardcore punk band, led by frontman Adam Woodford, made sure the crowd moved to their heavy anthems. They made the crowd crouch down, jump up, hold their fists up in the air, and wave along to the rhythm of the beat. “Get the fuck up on this stage,” Woodford yelled out, encouraging the audience to go as crazy as possible.
It was then time for Bad Nerves to take to the Eagle stage. The power pop group from Essex might not have been the heaviest band on the line-up, yet they sure know how to throw a rock and roll party. Inspired by bands such as The Ramones, frontman Bobby Bird is effortlessly cool as well as a flawless performer. Together with his bandmates, Bad Nerves delivered an energetic performance of songs such as ‘Radio Punk’ and ‘You’ve Got the Nerve’. Not only did the band jump around, so did the entire crowd.
45 minutes later, Dayseeker took to the same stage for a slightly longer set. The American post-hardcore band, led by vocalist Rory Rodriguez, filled up the tent nicely. Last year, they released their sixth studio album, Replica. With emotional, hard-hitting songs such as ‘Homesick’ and ‘Neon Grave’, the band was able to get the crowd singing and waving along for the entire 45 minutes.
In between the two, Swedish rock band Smash Into Pieces performed on the stage of the Vulture. Just for their set, a bunch of LED screens were set up, including a few in front of a raised platform that would be used by the masked drummer Apoc. He was the first to come on stage as soon as the intro began, taking a Dutch flag with him. Lead singer Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye and guitarists Emanuel Magnil and KJ Melgoza joined him only seconds later. Usually, Benjamin Jennebo plays the lead guitar, but Melgoza had to fill in for him today as Jennebo had unfortunately taken a fall during a recent performance. The band opened their set with ‘Never Ending Song’ – and a LOT of pyro. “Welcome to tonight’s manifestation,” the voice of Apoc sounded in between songs, making this set not just about the music but also about the world the band has created throughout their albums. The visuals on the screens majorly added to the atmosphere. Smash Into Pieces’ set included some of their best songs, including ‘Trigger’ and ‘Six Feet Under’. During the latter, Sörbye changed some of the lyrics to “Jera, you’re in my heart”.
On the same stage as Smash Into Pieces stood on before, the audience was treated to music sung by not one, but two powerful women. First up was American pop rock band PVRIS, led by frontwoman and queer icon Lynn Gunn, stage name of Lyndsey Gerd Gunnulfsen. Over the past decade, PVRIS has made several albums that have gained them a nice fanbase, and quite a few of their fans made it to the front during this set, loudly singing along to songs such as ‘Animal’, ‘Zombie’ and ‘Hallucinations’. As Gunnulfsun herself played the guitar for almost the entire set, this did not give her much leeway to move around, but that did not take away from the fun. During ‘My House’, Gunnulfsen directly addressed the crowd while changing a lyric to “I guess you guys can stay”, which made for a wholesome moment.
While there had not been much space for moshing or crowd surfing to PVRIS’ music, this was not much of a problem at all, as second powerwoman Poppy made absolutely sure the crowd did exactly that. The American singer whose music blurs the lines between pop, metal, and electronic amped up the energy to the max as soon as she and her masked band took to the stage. “Shall we begin?” Poppy’s pre-recorded voice sounded over the speakers before she dove right into ‘have you had enough?’. In between the songs, more interludes sounded out over the speakers, and some visuals appeared on the back screen. They might have been a bit more visible had she used a setup more like Smash Into Pieces’, but honestly, her flawless performance of each and every song was already enough for this to be one of the best sets of the day. Using both clean vocals as well as growls, Poppy twirled across the entire stage as the crowd ran at each other in circle pits and a wall of death. “This is for everyone that’s ever wronged you,” Poppy stated before closing with ‘new way out’.
Right after Poppy’s set ended, Dead Poet Society took to the Eagle stage. While the entire Vulture had been filled, this tent was not full by far. Bassist Dylan Brenner requested crowd surfers and lead singer Jack Underkofler stated that “I wanna see a pit”. There was enough room for the latter, but crowd surfing here turned out to be a little rough – there were, unfortunately, a few too many gaps in the audience for that to go smoothly. The American band did not let this bother them, however, and easily made their setlist flow from one song into the other, with their biggest fans shouting along the lyrics right in front of them. The highlights of their set were definitely their final two songs, the first singles of their latest album Fission: ‘Running in Circles’ and ‘HURT’.
After a short dinner break, it was time to visit the Hawk stage for Static Dress. The English rock band played a set consisting of songs from their debut album Rouge Carpet Disaster as well as newer singles, including ‘face.’. Lead Singer Olli Appleyard ran from one side of the stage to another and encouraged the audience to jump on the big blocks in front of the stage to join him. Enthusiastic fans ran from one side to the other and stage-dived off, hoping to be caught. Unfortunately, this was not always the case – some people fell to the floor instead. It was, however, all in good fun, and no one was harmed. Appleyard himself came down to these blocks as well to get closer to the audience and tell them to form a circle pit. “I said a fucking circle pit, not a pussy pit,” he yelled out, encouraging the crowd to go even wilder. “Danke schön,” Appleyard kept repeating throughout and at the end of the set. The festival did not take place in Germany, but oh well: the message was understood.
The grand finale of the day began at 22:15, when Knocked Loose took to the Eagle stage. The tent was fully packed for the American hardcore band and started moving aggressively as soon as frontman Bryan Garris and his bandmates took to the stage. From start to finish, the raw vocals and heavy guitar riffs filled up the entire space. While for the first few songs the crowd was already wild, the moshing and crowd surfing became a lot more intense from ‘Belleville’ onwards. “I promise to give me my energy, give me yours,” Garris stated, and the message clearly reached its intended audience. At one point, Garris even asked the people to start doing circle pits around the six poles that held up the roof of the tent. Maybe he meant for it to be one giant pit, but there being six small ones was possibly even more insane. Highlights of the set obviously also included the Grammy-nominated ‘Suffocate’ (unfortunately performed without Poppy) and the title track of the band’s recent album Everything Is Quiet Now. The lit-up cross that is visible on the album cover stood prominently behind the band the entire set and only added to the dark atmosphere.
On the stage at Hawk, the vibe was meanwhile just as, if not more, crazy. American rock band Zebrahead took to the stage there and did not only perform iconic bangers, but also turned the entire stage and floor into a huge party. People were invited on stage to grab a drink from the bar they brought, bubbles were blown from handheld machines, and of course, there were a lot of crowd surfers. What one might not have expected: a crowd surfing raft filled with people that floated above the heads of the audience like a boat at sea. Every time one caught a glimpse of the stage, something else was going on. For the song ‘Anthem’ front man Ali Tabatabaee asked fans to form a circle pit around him – without hitting him, please!
The day ended with quick visits to the sets of Denzel Curry, Fat Dog and of course, headliner Turnstile. Denzel Curry took to the Vulture stage right after Knocked Loose and Zebrahead finished, and while the tent was only half-filled, Curry gave the crowd an amazing performance. Hip hop might not be a standard on the Jera on Air line-up, but maybe it could be! Together with DJ POSHtronaut, Curry mainly played music from his most recent mixtape, King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2. While not for everyone, the people in attendance surely enjoyed this different style at the festival, and Curry delivered each line perfectly.
At midnight, it was time for the final two acts. In the Hawk, English indie rock band Fat Dog took to the stage. The band has only been around since 2020 and released their debut album WOOF! only last year. Their music is quite unique in a haunting manner, mixing synths and guitars with saxophone to create songs that sound like they have been taken from an alien-film soundtrack. Honestly, the band deserves a way bigger audience than they got this audience, as they had to unfortunately play their set at exactly the same time as headliner Turnstile.
As expected, the main tent was completely filled for the aforementioned headliner. Hearing so many people sing along to the set’s opener ‘NEVER ENOUGH’ was a beautiful experience, and so was the final moment of the entire festival: the band inviting people on stage during ‘BIRDS’ to close it all together. It will be a Turnstile Summer, for real. All photos of the festival can be found here!
