Eläkeläiset who have brightened the world with their humppa versions of famous songs since 1993 were a fun, easy and unserious start to the Festival. Unfortunately the crowd was still a little light that early during a work day, but at least the people that were already there seemed to enjoy themselves. Before long a long conga line formed and danced through the crowd.

Singer/Frontman Jouni Hynynen made sure to engage and joke around with the crowd as well as his bandmates which definitely helped the crowd warm up. You can never really go wrong with Kotiteollisuus, they are always enjoyable.

After a small little delay of approximately 15 minutes it was time for the only foreign band of the day, H.E.A.T, which were an absolute blast. They were overflowing with contagious energy that certainly got the party going and although the band would have fitted even better a little later in the day their showtime had to be this early as they were playing another gig later that same day at Kuopiorock.

They also paid tribute to the legendary Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away just a bit over a year ago, by enmeshing their song ‘Beg Beg Begin‘ with a bit of Black Sabbath‘s ‘War Pigs‘.

Poets of the Fall have been very quite the last few years but returned to the stage this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ‘Carnival of Rust‘, because of which the setlist also included two songs from that album that haven’t been played in a long time, ‘Fire‘ and ‘All the Way / 4U‘.

Their set was hot, in the literal sense, as they had, like singer Marko Saaresto said, “more than enough sun” right in their faces.

Klamydia passed by pretty much in a blink and so I regrettably don’t have all too much to say about their fast paced performance.

Sonata Arctica is always one of my highlights. Singer Tony Kakko has a way to direct the crowd’s (and my) attention however he wants, he’s not only a talented singer, he’s a full-on showman. The set didn’t really include any surprises, but luckily I don’t think I will ever grow tired of songs like ‘FullMoon‘ or ‘San Sebastian‘ especially when the whole crowd is singing along to them.

I don’t exactly click with Stratovarius‘ music, but the show was still very enjoyable and energetic. The final ‘Hunting High and Low’ earned the probably loudest sing-along moment of the whole festival but also for the rest of the set the crowd seemed to vibe well with Timo Kotipelto and happily followed his instructions to sing along, clap or scream.

The first day was wrapped up with a fantastic performance of Amorphis. The stage is drenched in golden light and I can feel my heart beating just a little fast as soon as the familiar sounds of ‘Bones‘ blast from the stage. I don’t have any notes, it’s just absolute perfection in my opinion. Tomi Joutsens powerful vocals resonate deep within my soul.