No Terra Vibes

Although the Terra Vibe site may sound as if it could be the scene for some frightening goings on, the country’s Rockwave was a very peaceful event compared to the country’s earlier Ejeckt Festival.

The June 16 Ejeckt at the Olympic park site at Hellinicon, near Athens, ended when a riot left one security guard stabbed to death and two more in comas.

It still hasn’t been established if the rioters were hard-line anarchists protesting at the globalisation of such sponsor companies as Heineken or a rival security company.

Demetra Madzouka of Big Star Promotion, organiser of this year’s somewhat disjointed Rockwave, reported a relaxed atmosphere as more than 60,000 turned up over the three days.

The festival was split to enable Big Star to fit in with the availability of the acts.

The June 23 show, which opened proceedings, drew a 7,000 crowd to see Robert Plant, Chris Cornell and Europe, but then the audience grew along with the bill.

There were 18,000 for a July 1 lineup including Heaven And Hell, Dream Theater, Iced Earth and Anathema, and then 35,000 showed for the July 3 bill of Metallica, Mastodon, My Dying Bride, Dirt and Spawn Disease.

It was the first time the venue’s new 130-ton steel stage roof was used and Madzouka believes it will afford Big Star the opportunity to use the Terra Vibe site, which the company bought five years ago, on a more regular basis.

The next show there is the company’s Terra Vibe Festival on August 29, which has The Smashing Pumpkins, Manic Street Preachers and Kasabian at the top of the bill.