Punk Rock Holiday 1.6

Let’s start from the fact that everybody has been asking me for years to go to the punk rock holiday, being surprised that a “crook” like me hadn’t been there yet.

Well, better late than never, I succeeded at last in organizing my holiday in Slovenia!

All charged up, four of us start on Sunday afternoon to arrive at Tolmin before night to find a nice camping place the day before the Warm Up Party.
A comfortable journey, a stop for beer and sandwiches, and at 10 p.m. we arrive at Tolmin, where Davide (a dear HC friend from Trieste) and his girlfriend are waiting for us and give us some logistical tips.
We place our tents, drink some beers, meet Francesca and Panca, two other friends from Ferrara, and wait for the night to go to sleep.

Warm Up Show:
The warm up party day arrives, we have fun with our friends from Bologna and the night comes.
We arrive at the main stage on time for Sick Of It All and Lagwagon, and I’m ecstatic about the amazing location with a great atmosphere and a wild audience. Great synergy between bands and audience and free stage diving. Something that makes you smile and mesmerizes.
2 live shows and 2 set lists which add fuel to the audience so that we can’t see anything for several minutes… but it’s ok. Loads of energy and rage and at each track I get madder and madder! I’m wild and my friends are happy as children. I look around and see enthusiast people, and Milo from Descendents and Greg from Bouncing Souls enjoying the concert together and I think, “if tonight is like this, tomorrow is going to be a blast”.

The warm up party ends and we meet Susy, Pasta and children, Zaira, other friends who live there; we make friends with other people such as Tiziano, Stella and family and other Italians from Naples and Sicily. We drink the last beer and go to bed, to find out that me and Marcello’s tent has disappeared together with out backpacks and clothes. We curse a lot (luckily we still had our phones and money) and in the end Serena and Gibo let us sleep in their tent. Fuck off you who stole our things… we had fun as well, assholes! This, too, is punk rock, more or less.

Day 1:
We wake up on August 9th,  DAY 1 is here.
We have breakfast in the festival area and in the village. And I must say that it’s all well organized to welcome a lot of people.
In the festival area, lots of snack bars and restaurants with various kinds of food (including very good vegan food), Indian food, Italian pizza and typical Slovenian food. Perfect organization and a lot of kindness.
I must taste everything to be happy. And in the festival area the prices are average, so we can taste any food or beverage.
In the village the prices are low and the people welcome us with a great smile (they have it all figured out, unlike us eheheh).

The afternoon comes and for several reasons we miss our friends X State Ride on the beach stage. But we are told that they kept up the made in Italy and I had no doubt about it. Chapeau for them.

We reach the main stage for one of my most wanted concerts, the Flag (I was lucky enough to meet Chuck in person and I was happy as a child!)
About an hour in which Keith, Chuck and company show who still rules.

Bill Stevenson on drums is amazing, the show is great and the audience gets crazy. Songs such as  Louie Louie, Rise Above, Fix Me, Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie get me sooo excited.
Seeing these founding fathers still great on stage makes my eyes shine.

It’s Iron Reagan’s turn. They can play on a 50 X 50 mt stage or in a 15 person tavern and they make you jump like crazy in any case. Even here they fill and charge the pit in a few seconds. A concert without interruption just the way I like. Really amazing with loads of attitude. I meet Tony Foresta after the concert, I tell him that I’m among the organizers of Distruggi La Bassa Festival in Ferrara, where they are going to play in a few days, and he goes, “P***o D*o, fire fire fire in Ferrara city!”. Just imagine my face after these words…

Then comes one of my favourite bands, Bouncing Souls, and I’m all messed up. I sing along, I drink water because I can’t drink beer out of the emotion and I know more and more why I adore them.
They can light punk rockers’ hearts and souls with every note and word and the continuous stage-diving proves that. The set list includes several tracks from the new album, “Simplicity”, and we all know them by heart. An hour of Bouncing Souls passed by and I’ve just seen one of the concerts of the year.

And now… here’s the band that really got me here, the Descendents. The main stage area is full, you feel a rare emotion in the air and as they come on stage it’s the apotheosis.

I’m breathless: I almost stand still, I want to fully enjoy each second of their set list. Even under the pouring rain, the audience goes wild, the show is amazing, including some tracks from the new album, “Hypercaffium Spazzinate” (a masterpiece in my opinion).
Their 75 minutes are worth the ticket’s price. A concert ended up in a blaze of glory. The concert of my life.

Day 2:
The next day, with a cool temperature after a 12-hour rain, we’re going to enjoy NOFX, Agnostic Front and Strung Out. But due to relax and beers we miss most of the line up on the main stage and the very good Thanx For All The Shoes on the beach stage.

About the three headliners I must say that I was amazed by the almost perfect concert of NOFX (something rare in the last years). The audience is ecstatic for Fat Mike who provokes with his personal show as usual.

Agnostic Front make a great live show, with Roger’s voice better than other times. It’s one of those bands that always get me wild. You never forget your first loves…

Strung Out: I’ve never appreciated them much, but their performance was good, not considering Jason’s vocal fail.

Beers and snacks, chatter and then we go to bed, ready for Day 3.

Day 3:
August the 11th: here’s our last day here in Tolmin, we have breakfast with pastries and beer in the village and we don’t want to go away.

We don’t miss Such Gold on the beach stage. Young and technical, it’s not my style but I appreciate them as much as the audience.

Back to the main stage, between one beer and another we enjoy The RumJacks.
Almost unknown to me, I appreciate them as well and in my opinion they could steal the scene to more famous bands. The people here, unlike in Italy, are always under the stage even to explore new bands.

Another band I loved are Authority Zero.
The perfection, the energy expressed and diffused among the audience, the rage and passion in their eyes left me breathless. The circle pit with the singer in the middle got me really wild. I want to see them again very soon!

Then here’s the headliner of the day: Jello Biafra with his Guantanamo School of Medicine.
A strange concert, I appreciate Dead Kennedys’ covers but I don’t like all the rest of the tracks. However, I’m happy to see this living legend on stage, full of energy as a little boy.

After the concerts, we drink again to forget that tomorrow we must go home and miss the last day of the festival with Millencolin, our friends Slander and many others.
We wake up, have breakfast in the village with pizza and beer, say goodbye to many friends and start our trip back.

What can I say about this adventure and this festival? I came home restored, such as my friends and all the people there.
The PRH leaves an incomparable energy inside you. The smiles, the old and new friends, the bands, the landscapes, the atmosphere from morning to night, the 24h punk rock that keeps you alive. I see this also as a stimulus to the growth in the Italian scene and festivals. Last but not least, all that I wrote and we lived must teach us that without the things we love and we believe in, we wouldn’t be what we are, dreamers. Shame we haven’t seen all the bands, but it was almost impossible. Greetings to all the bands!

Thank you Punk Rock Holiday, thank you Tolmin and thank you punk hardcore.
P.S.: See you in 2017, dear PRH. We already miss you a lot!

Live Report by Francesco Monta Montanari
Translation by E.C.