On August 15th, it was time for the first day of the 16th edition of Reload Festival in Sulingen. The festival sold out a few days before it started, with 18.000 people attending, all ready to mosh. For the early birds who arrived on Wednesday, their festival started the evening before, with a festival warm-up party hosted by MoreCore in the aftershow tent. With the first band starting around noon the next day, we could still somewhat enjoy our beauty sleep (or sleep off the hangover).
On the first official day, only a small part of the festival is open, with all bands playing the Heist Plaza Stage. The day started off a bit rainy, but in perfect timing, the weather cleared up right before the first band. The German band Iron Walrus had the pleasure of kicking off the festival, being the first to take the stage. While the line-up has its fair share of German bands, quite a few Americans took on the stage today too. The first of those was Bodysnatcher, who came all the way from Florida. The crowd showed their appreciation by opening the mosh pits and making people crowd surf to the front.
Meanwhile, the sun broke through and was shining brightly. The festival was selling all kinds of refreshments like ice cream and slush puppies, and of course, there were plenty of bars to get your drinks from. To minimize the plastic waste on the festival grounds, the drinks came in a hard plastic cup with a Reload Festival image on it, which you paid a €2 deposit for. You could either keep your cup as a keepsake or exchange it back for your deposit.
Halfway through the day, the stage was set for the oldest band of the whole festival line-up: Cro-Mags. The hardcore band from New York has been going on for 40+ years since forming in 1981. Frontman and bassist Harley Flanagan’s energy was unstoppable: “People say life ends when you get older, but I’m 57 now and it has just started”, he said to the crowd. The security workers in front of the stage were playing with water pistols, cooling down the people standing at the barricade. One of the security even pointed his water pistol at Flanagan, who then asked for it and pointed it around while speaking about all the wars and bad things that are happening in the world. He ended his speech by dedicating the next song to all victims of war.
After all that headbanging and moshing, it seemed like the perfect time for a party break. Fiddler’s Green, a German band making Irish Speedfolk music, got everyone dancing and jumping along. Their happiness and good vibes radiated off the stage, making it impossible to not dance along with them.
Walls of Jericho gave us the first female on stage today, with Candace Kucsulain as their powerful frontwoman. Her vocals were on point and showed that women are no less in the metalcore scene.
Before the American band Mushroomhead came on stage, the theme song from Spongebob Squarepants was playing through the speakers. Two sets of drums with lights were set up at both sides of the stage, both with water on top of them, making it splash up while the band was playing. Their aesthetic is definitely something to appreciate, with all-black and red outfits and endless details in the masks they wear. With eight members on a small stage, the vocalists occasionally jumped down to the crowd, Jackie LaPonza got lifted up and stood upon the hands holding her up.
Finishing up day one was the Swedish band Millencolin. A big crowd had gathered for their set, showing no signs of getting tired anytime soon. It was safe to say some of the crowd waited the whole day to see this band, shouting along all the words. Their hour-long set ended at 1 AM, wrapping up the first festival day. All photos can be found here!
