TUBORG GREEN FEST / SONISPHERE FESTIVAL
Bucharest, Romania
June 26, 2010

The Big Four is probably the most important Metal event of 2010.
And in 2010 there were a lot of important shows: KISS Sonic boom over Europe, AC/DC’s farewell tour, the first leg of Iron Maiden’s The Final Frontier tour, Accept’s reunion, tours by Aerosmith, Slash, Guns n’Roses, Alice Cooper, Mötley Crüe… Yes, 2010 is an amazing year but the Big Four was probably the most awaited tour.
Why? Because it was the first time Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax were touring together!
Metalheads have been expecting this for more than 20 years.

I’m glad they made this in Europe, but I think they might continue this in other countries.

There were only a handful of dates schedules, and they were all far from home.
I had to choose a concert on Saturday, so I only had two choices: Prague or Bucharest.
As the concert in Prague was the same day of the Hellfest, I decided to go to Bucharest for this event!

I found a cheap ticket with Lufthansa from my hometown to Bucharest via Germany. I had booked a hostel (Happy Hostel, booked through Hostelworld) but I headed straight from the airport to the festival. A couple of friends of mine arrived earlier and were waiting for me at the venue. Romexpo is where International Fairs are held in Bucharest. But the concert was held outdoors. The small Bucharest World Trade Center is just beside.

The day of the festival there were no more tickets available so officially it was sold out, but they day before one could still buy Golden Circle and Normal Circle tickets on the official website.

As usual at this kind of festivals there were people coming from everywhere: Bulgaria, Brazil, Israel, France, Italy, Germany and more.

But I saw Four flags that I had never seen before at a Festival. One was an European Union Flag, I guess it belonged to a Romanian happy to be part of the EU now.
The second was a flag from Armenia. Even further away, there were fans from Guatemala!
The fourth was a flag from Lebanon, and that’s something amazing! Why those guys chose to see the Big Four in Romania rather than in Istanbul the next day, I don’t know. Maybe they live in Romania.
I think it’s admirable to see Metal Travellers from these places where very few metal concerts are held, if any.

The festival name was Tuborg Green Fest presented by Sonisphere Festivals.
First impressions before getting there, is that it was bad organized:
First: the website was only on Romanian! Don’t they know that some metal fans would like to travel to see such an exceptional event?
Second: it was a 3 day festival, but the headliner of the first night was only known a week before (It was Accept! If I have known, I would have been there too!).

Third: The running order was posted on Sonisphere’s website only the day before the festival! Fourth: there were 3 kinds of tickets (VIP on the side with good view, Golden Circle on the front pit, and Normal Circle on the back of the pit).

I hate festivals with a divided pit. Wacken, Hellfest, Bang Your Head, Gods Of Metal, Graspop… they only have only one pit so why the hell would Sonisphere have two? That’s something I don’t approve, two tickets (VIP and pit) would have been enough.

Also, a friend of mine went to the Big Four show at Switzerland’s Sonisphere and it was very very bad organized.
Besides the bands, I don’t think anyone would say anything good about the Swiss version of the festival.

Finally the festival in Romania was quite well organized: bands were on time, there were several toilets available, beer and food were abundant and cheap, and the bands had a very good sound.
But they opened the doors too late, so many people missed Anthrax.

Before reading the reviews of each band, I'll tell you how I felt about this Big Four thing.

The organizers announced the festival as something unique. And indeed, it was unique and historic.
But instead of making a festival where each band would have excellent conditions, I almost felt like going to a Metallica concert with 3 luxury opening bands.

On a Big Four festival as I conceived it, unquestionably Metallica would have been the last band to play and the band to play longer. They’re one of the biggest Rock bands ever.
But the 3 other bands should have better conditions concerning lights, production and time.

The festival had the potential of being a co-headlining show, and it would have been way better.

I know that not every band can have Metallica’s production, but I’ve seen Slayer and Megadeth with a big production. Why they couldn’t use it here? The 3 first bands were playing in festival conditions, not in headlining conditions, as this should have been the case, like in the co-headliner tours.

The organizers could at least have the same allowed time, for example 1,5 hours each band, and 2 hours for Metallica.
This is not feasible in indoors arenas, but it’s feasible in festivals.

For example, at the Sweden Rock Festival, even the first bands of the afternoon perform for about an hour and can play real concerts. I think something like this should have been done here.
That would have put some equity to the bill, because all these bands are very important, even if some are better known than the others.  

Seeing this Festival was very special and of course I'll keep a great memory of this day. But Maybe I was expecting too much... Maybe it was too much to ask that all bands should be treated equally.

Click Here for Anthrax pictures, setlist and review
Click Here for Megadeth pictures, setlist and review
Click Here for Slayer pictures, setlist and review
Click Here for Metallica pictures, setlist and review