Over in  a land called Belgium lies a small but beautiful town that was technically built not long after WWI seeing as it was completely leveled during the battle. This town is known as Ypres (Ieper in ‘murcan). Beyond the city limits of this town lies many farms and there you will behold a monumental dual sound stage festival in the late summers. This darling little festival unleashes many bands from several different styles of metal and hardcore and even some of their close friends.

One of the most important things about this festival is that it has an ethical message. A lot of what the festival and its bands are about is a forward thinking lifestyle so it heavily promotes things such as recycling, tolerance, and veganism. I only felt like I was being preached to about veganism once and it was only because a band was buying time because another was late and it was otherwise just the occasional quip about how racism is not all that cool and neither is riddling the farmland we were on with toxic green radiation left from empty pop bottles. That may be all fine and dandy, but the most important thing to us is the music and how much fun can be had at such a place.

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