By this point Tuhdimmat Tahdit is pretty much a certain annual event in my calendar. This cosy medium-sized festival has captured my heart right from the start (well, the restart after their long hiatus) and I’m excited to keep growing alongside them.

This year they had to move the festival again, as at Ratinanniemi the preparations for Guns N’ Roses were already in full force. So this year the festival was moved to the few hundred meters away in Eteläpuisto, where many other festivals had been held in the past. I must say though, I’m happy Tuhdimmat Tahdit that it seems like it’ll be back in its usual place next year, somehow I didn’t really like the layout all that much. Aside from that though, the festival was as nice as it had been the last few years. Even with the weather not really playing along I don’t really have any big complaints. The wristband exchange was fast and uncomplicated, and so was the security check at the entrance. You can also easily find all important information on their homepage in Finnish as well as English, with I really appreciate.

On Friday the festival started with Finntroll and due to the fact that nowadays there’s only one stage at Tuhdimmat Thadit they had to start really early. I was honestly a bit worried how many people would be able to show up for their show at 13:30. Luckily their crowd was still surprisingly plentiful.
The next band, Kilpi, was a totally new find for me, but I’ve been told that they are “absolutely legendary” and one of Finland’s “must see” heavy metal bands. I’m wondering a bit how a band like that could have stayed completely under my radar for so long, but they were indeed quite entertaining.

The first foreign band of the day is Mustasch from Sweden, who since I last saw them have turned into a totally different band. Well music wise they still sound the same, but 3 of the 4 members changed, with only singer Ralf Gyllenhammar staying the same.
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus is one of those bands whose popularity I don’t really understand, to me the just feel kinda basic. If someone wants to enlighten me though I’m all ears.

Lordi is always a lot of fun to see on festivals. Somehow their excentric performance just works great on those big outdoor stages. All their silly little antics combined with their nostalgic and well crafted sound just make for a perfect combo. Technically, I guess Amaranthe wasn’t the headliner on Friday, but judging by the amount of people that showed up for them, they were still the crowd favourite. People are standing all the way back to the little beach bar to enjoy the very energetic show that Elize Ryd, Nils Molin, Mikael Sehlin and the rest brought on stage.

Surprisingly, a lot of people didn’t stick around for HammerFall’s show. Maybe it was because of the weather, after the sun had set it was surprisingly chilly that evening. I’m at least sure it had nothing to do with the quality of their show. While I don’t think they will ever become one of my favourites, they played a fun show that included many of their most iconic songs.