Xpat Report: Samhainfest in Budapest (September 29, 2012)

  • 6 Oct 2012 5:00 AM
Xpat Report: Samhainfest in Budapest (September 29, 2012)
With events like Samhainfest it is practically impossible to complain about the metal scene in Budapest. While assembling nine bands, Samhainfest brought together fans from all over Hungary, but the neighboring countries, too. The festival also meant one of the biggest gatherings of Hungarian folk metal bands, since more than half of them don't usually reside in Budapest.

The evening started quite early, already at 3 pm, with a young band called Ankh. Already then, one could have seen that the club was getting more people by the second. Starting with them, the first few bands played for approximately 45 minutes, while the headliners played longer than an hour. An exception was Dalriada, the most prominent Hungarian folk metal band, who had to cut their evening short due to their late start and the singer being pregnant. Nevertheless, they amazed the whole audience with their set of nine people with different instruments on the stage, plus two guests, which also resulted in having the biggest crowd on Saturday.

Niburta, Kerecsensólyom and Virrasztók have already proved their worthiness in the past years, so they didn’t need any special introduction. Actually, a huge group of fans mainly did come only because of these bands. Tales of Evening, however, was new to many, but the diversity in their style of music didn’t lessen the experience.

Apart from Hungarian bands, Samhainfest hosted three foreign bands as well. They are Darkest Era from Northern Ireland, Arkona from Russia, and Silent Stream of Godless Elegy, hailing from Czech Republic. Even though each of them had their own fans supporting them, their music had such impact that it fired up the rest of the people in the club, making them scream, sing, do mosh-pits, and a 'Wall of Death' during Arkona's most popular song 'Stenka na Stenku'.

By Marina Kompar for XpatLoop.com

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