Bråvalla festival 2013 - mud, party and concerts

Writer: Helena Bergström

Now Bråvalla festival 2013 is over. We have seen lots of good concerts, everything from Hoffmaestro and Green Day to Thåström and Armin van Buuren. Above all, we have had great fun. It has been sunny and muddy and a constant party for several days.

First day of the festival

We arrived at the start of the queue for the Bråvalla festival at half past ten the night before the festival started. At three in the morning we had to roll in and stand. The organisation at the entrance was deplorable. We heard rumours that there was a queue on the E4 motorway and that the campsites were full.

The campsite we are standing on now seems to be some new spot they invented last night. But eventually we woke up to the first day of the Bråvalla festival! The young people poured in in rubber boots, dragging sleeping bags and beer bottles. Time for festival!!!

When the festival opened, it was time to look around the area. A whole bunch of big stages, carnivals, bars, shops, food stalls ...

Sun and festival food at Bråvalla

The sun continued to shine and we enjoyed the weather at the campsite, where we could listen to Hoffmaestro on the nearest stage. We also wandered around the festival area for a while. We had intended to see some stand-up actually, but it was so crowded that we gave up trying to crowd to hear. Instead, we tried some more festival food, among the countless stalls.

We managed to try both super good chanterelle toast with Västerbotten cheese and Thai food. But there were also a lot of other interesting things to try, from langos to edible insects and kangaroo.

Mud and a Rammstein concert

After a while the rain came and turned the whole festival area into a muddy swamp. If you stood still in one place for too long, you would sink, and you had to pull yourself up to get out. Many of the small tents on the campsite were poorly set up and partially collapsed in the mud.

The night it was the muddiest, the rock hard German band Rammstein played. The concert may not have given us that strong feeling, but it was still a cool concert with a lot of fire and smoke and a lot of action on stage. Then you were glad that you had a comfortable motorhome to go home to!

On the penultimate night we listened to two good concerts: Green Day and Armin van Buuren. We haven't listened to Green Day much before, but it was really good. Armin gave a great laser show in the middle of the night. Then there were only a few hours of sleep. But to be honest, you don't get much sleep when you're at a festival ...

Final night at Bråvalla festival 2013

Last night we saw a whole bunch of gigs: Nicky Romero, Takida, Mando Diao, Lindsey Stirling and Thåström. Mando Diao was a disappointment for us, as we were hoping for some real action. Instead, they only played new quiet songs, which felt completely wrong on Saturday night at the festival. However, Thåström delivered a really cool show, with a lot of emotion!

On the last day of the festival, it felt like all 46,000 ticket holders were in the festival area at the same time. Unfortunately, the beer tents, food stalls and bathrooms didn't seem to be designed for that, resulting in huge queues everywhere. After even more rain, it was also muddier than ever.

However, the biggest mistake was our own. We gave the keys to the campervan to Robin and Alexandra in the evening's wild party. When we wanted to go home after the Thåström concert, there was a misunderstanding about the meeting place and time. Robin and Alexandra went to the final concert with Avicii, and in that crowd it was impossible to find anyone.

Nothing is made easier by the fact that mobile phones stop working in the chaos either. Peter and I ended the evening by sleeping for an hour in the chairs outside the motorhome. Good thing we had thick jackets!

Time to leave Bråvalla festival 2013

Finally, you woke up on the last day of the festival, and it was time to leave the Bråvalla festival. We took it easy and left the place after lunch. All in all, we can say that we had a lot of fun, met nice people and listened to good concerts. However, some parts of the logistics at this festival need to be improved!

A challenge when it was time to leave the festival was of course to get the campervan out of the mud. It went reasonably well for us. Others had to work a little more ...

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