Every June, a swarm of denim and leather can be found graduating towards Clisson on the west coast of France.
In comparison to some of the overcrowded and characterless UK metal festivals, Hellfest has a genuinely unique atmosphere, which can be mostly given to the fact that the attendance is much more intimate at only 20,000.
When I first stepped out into the main part of the festival I was quite honestly overwhelmed at the sea of black t-shirts in front of me. I've been to plenty of festivals in my time but this really felt like some sort of 'Metal Mecca'.
This is a place where dedicated metal fans (and a bunch of idiots from East London) can come to drink beer, headbang and shout/roar at each other for 3 days. There's no aggro, no over-zealous security, and importantly, no dickheads asking you for a free hug. To keep yourself alive over the festival there's also a giant supermarket just outside the site where you can load up on cheap beers, baguettes and 1 euro bottles of cava.
I'm not one to review bands, so I'll just let you check the line up out for yourself (http://www.hellfest.fr/artistes.php). Let's just say I saw three quarters of Kyuss get back on stage together and subsequently blow my mind on Sunday night... I won.
http://www.hellfest.fr/index.php
