70,000 Tons of Metal (2012)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Logo of the 70000 Tons of Metal
The Majesty of the Seas

The 70,000 Tons of Metal Music Festival (short: 70,000 Tons ) was held for the second time in 2012. The venue was again the cruise ship Majesty of the Seas , which sailed from Miami ( Florida ) to George Town on Grand Cayman ( Cayman Islands ) and back between January 23 and 27, 2012 . A total of 42 different metal bands from different metal genres performed. As in 2011, including the crew, there were around 3,500 people on board.

For more information about the background of the festival, the price development and more see:

prehistory

As with other festivals, shortly after the 70000 Tons were hosted in 2011, the line-up for 2012 was gradually announced. On April 20, 2011, advance ticket sales started exclusively for all guests who had already participated in 2011 (via personally received access code). Public advance sales only began on May 31, 2011, with many cabins, especially the cheaper ones, already fully booked.

Itinerary 2012

Monday 23 January

Route of the Majesty of the Seas at the 70,000 Tons of Metal 2012

The ship's departure from port was scheduled for 5 p.m. local time. As in the previous year, there were again problems with setting up the pool stage, which ultimately led to a delay of around two hours in the festival schedule. The ship was able to leave at 5.15 p.m., as all the stage elements were brought on board. The construction of the stage took until about 7:00 p.m.

The reason for this delay was, on the one hand, that the Majesty of the Seas arrived in Miami later than planned on Monday morning and, on the other hand, instead of a crane that could lift up to 5 tons, only one with a maximum load of 2 , 5 tons brought to the ship. The performances of the first bands on the pool deck therefore had to be postponed or, as in the case of the US thrash metal band Overkill, even canceled.

The first band ever at the 70,000 Tons of Metal 2012 was Alestorm , who opened the festival at 6.30 p.m. local time, after a short safety briefing for everyone present, in the Spectrum Lounge. Distributed on the three stages, 13 other bands played during the evening. The program was rounded off by a karaoke night in the Moonlight Dining Room , which also took place in the same place on all other evenings.

Tuesday January 24th

The concert program opened at 10 a.m. with a performance by the US thrash metal band Whiplash . This unusually early beginning was u. a. also criticized by Metal Hammer. Just like in the previous year, another 26 bands followed on this year's "Day at Sea", spread over the whole day, and the official Meet & Greets with the bands again took place from 12 noon.

A press conference was held in the afternoon, at which senior officers answered questions from the journalists. The chief hotel manager of the ship, Erik Speekenbrink, mentioned in this connection that after the experiences of the previous year on the “Majesty Of The Seas” the festival is looking forward to the festival, which is especially due to the (compared to regular cruise guests) much friendlier audience lie.

Wednesday January 25th

On this day we went ashore on the Caribbean island of Grand Cayman . In the morning hours, Majesty of the Seas anchored off the capital, George Town ; from 9 o'clock you could then take a tender boat to the island. Once there, you could take part in sightseeing tours (including to the village of Hell, which is popular because of the limestone formations there and its name ), and explore the city and the surrounding area independently, e.g. B. Explore Seven Mile Beach .

The ship was supposed to leave again at 5.30 p.m. Due to difficulties in loading the alcohol that had been reordered in Georgetown, there was a delay of about an hour, so that the concert program was also delayed. The plan was for bands to perform again from 6 p.m. onwards - but Overkill didn't start on the pool deck until around 7 p.m. The Overkills performance represented the catch-up of their canceled performance on Monday. For this it was also necessary to swap the playing time with Tankard , which therefore only appeared at 4:00 in the morning.

Thursday January 26th

As on Tuesday, the focus on Thursday was on the bands' performances. A total of 28 bands performed that day. In addition, some special events took place. The game time was suspended on the pool deck between 2:00 am and 2:30 am and an official "belly-clap competition" with an award ceremony took place. Music fans could gather in the Boleros Lounge for lessons under the name "Drum & Bass Clinic" and "Guitar Clinic". Jörg Michael and Lauri Porra (both Stratovarius ) and then Jeff Waters ( Annihilator ) explained and showed various things on their respective instruments for 1.5 hours .

The saddest news related to 70,000 Metal was that of the death of Riot guitarist Mark Reale, who died the day before . Riot had gone on board the ship without him at Real's father's request, as the guitarist could no longer accompany the band due to his poor health. Both Jeff Waters and the Swedish power metal band Hammerfall dedicated a song to Mark Reale during their appearances (Waters performed riot guitar riffs at the "Guitar Clinic").

It was also worth mentioning the strong wind that evening, which caused the organizers to end the Venom show on the pool deck prematurely due to the heavy load on the stage and to use deck 12 ("balcony" of the upper deck on which the stage was located) to be blocked. The Dutch death metal band God Dethroned held the very last concert in their band's history in the Spektrum Lounge , after they had split up on December 17th, 2011.

Friday January 27th

As in the previous year, the actual festival program lasted until the early morning hours of January 27th. In a final press conference on the morning of January 27, a positive conclusion was drawn for the 70,000 Tons and a new edition for 2013 was announced.

  • Program Monday

  • Tuesday program

  • Wednesday program

  • Thursday program

Line up

A total of 42 bands played over the four days, spread over three stages, with each band performing two times. The line-up consisted of the following bands:

Alestorm , Amorphis , Annihilator , Atheist , Candlemass , Cannibal Corpse , Channel Zero , Children of Bodom , Coroner , Crowbar , Dark Funeral , Diamond Plate , Edguy , Eluveitie , Exciter , God Dethroned , Grave Digger , Hammerfall , In Extremo , Kamelot , Kataklysm , Massacre , Megora , Moonsorrow , My Dying Bride , Nightwish (with Troy Donockley ), Orphaned Land , Overkill , Pestilence , Pretty Maids , Riot , Samael , Sapiency , Stratovarius , Suffocation , Tankard , Therion , Tristania , Venom , Vicious Rumors , Virgin Steele and Whiplash . On December 30, 2011 it was announced that Pentagram , one of the first confirmed bands, had to cancel their performance for family reasons, but a replacement was found.

The main stage was the ship theater “A Chorus Line” on decks 5–7. On deck 8 there was a smaller stage in the “Spectrum” lounge and on deck 12 with the “Poolside Stage” there was also an open air stage. Stage. For the latter, a pool will be drained and covered to make room for the audience. In 2012, the “Poolside Stage” was also much larger and more professional than the previous year.

Accommodation, visitors and statistics

Price list of the 70,000 tone 2012

2051 (13 more than 2011) visitors from a total of 55 countries took part in the festival. The percentage of people who already attended the 70,000 Tons in 2011 was 51%. The proportion of German citizens rose from 17% to 25%; that of the Americans fell from 30% to 25%, so that 50% of the guests came from these nations. The other visitors came from Andorra , Argentina , Australia , Egypt , Belgium , Bolivia , Brazil , Bulgaria , Chile , People's Republic of China , Costa Rica , Denmark , Ecuador , Finland , France , Greece , Great Britain , Hong Kong , Ireland , Iceland , Israel , Italy , Japan , Canada , Kyrgyzstan , Colombia , Cuba , Lebanon , Luxembourg , Mexico , Netherlands , New Zealand , Norway , Austria , Panama , Peru , Poland , Portugal , Romania , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Sierra Leone , Slovakia , Slovenia , South Africa , South Korea , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , Trinidad and Tobago , Czech Republic , Turkey, Ukraine , Hungary and Venezuela. The third largest number of visitors came from Canada, behind the Germans and the US. In fourth place, measured by the absolute number of visitors, was Switzerland; It was followed by the Netherlands, Finland, Australia, Sweden, Mexico and, in tenth place, Belgium. The age range of the guests ranged from 13 to 63 years (not including Anette Olzon's one-year-old child ).

Furthermore, around 100 journalists, 452 people who belonged to bands or their technical crews, as well as the 879-strong ship's crew were on board, so that the total person capacity amounted to around 3500 participants.

Compared to 2011, the prices in 2012 increased slightly in some cases. Again, it was only necessary to book a cabin. The price already included food, non-alcoholic and non-carbonated drinks and admission to all performances. The cheapest tickets (4-person inside cabin, deck 2) were available for $ 666 per person, the most expensive (2-person grand suit with large balcony, deck 10) for $ 3333, also per person. In addition, there was an additional $ 289 per passenger for taxes, port fees and other administrative costs. In addition to the concerts, there was also a fitness studio, casino , basketball court and climbing wall available for leisure activities .

reception

As in 2011, numerous journalists, both from the trade press and from the general press, attended the 70,000 Tons of Metal in 2012 to report on it. The most important formats this year were Aardschok , CNN , 1 Live , Het Laatste Nieuws , iMusic1 , Kieler Nachrichten , Metal Hammer , Rock Hard and Sat.1 . Some of these reports were printed or video reports were published.

Documentation

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Volker, Ulrike: "70,000 Tons of Metal 2012" , lalasreisen.de, accessed on March 1, 2012
  2. ↑ Information on checking in and out 2012 ( Memento from March 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , 70000tons.com, accessed on March 1, 2012 (English)
  3. ↑ a b c d Laetitia, Michael & Ingrid: "70,000 Tons of Metal 2012" ( Memento from September 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , metal-exposure.com, accessed on March 1, 2012 (English)
  4. ↑ Frank, Noa, Rob: "The 70,000 Tons Of Metal Cruise 2012 Liveblog" , Live-Blogging, metalinjection.net, accessed on March 1, 2012 (English)
  5. ↑ a b Christof Leim: "70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise: Music! Music! Music!" , Live blogging, blog.metal-hammer.de, accessed on March 1, 2012
  6. ↑ Christof Leim: "70,000 Tons Of Metal-Cruise: The ship casts off!" , Live blogging, blog.metal-hammer.de, accessed on March 1, 2012
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Christof Leim: "70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise: The Day at Sea" , live blogging, blog.metal-hammer.de, accessed on March 1, 2012
  8. ↑ a b c Christof Leim: "70000 Tons Of Metal - Landgang!" , Live blogging, blog.metal-hammer.de, accessed on March 1, 2012
  9. ↑ Chris A .: "LIVE! | 70,000 Tons of Metal: Day 3" ( Memento from February 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , hardrockhaven.net, accessed on March 1, 2012 (English)
  10. ↑ a b c d e Christof Leim: "70000 Tons Of Metal Cruise: Full Speed ​​Ahead - Back to Miami!" , Live blogging, blog.metal-hammer.de, accessed on March 1, 2012
  11. ↑ Anka: "70,000 TONS OF METAL CRUISE 2012" ( Memento from November 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , metaltitans.com, accessed on March 1, 2012 (English)
  12. ↑ a b c d sam: "Tweede metalcruise start met valse noot (en veel bier)" hln.be, accessed on March 1, 2012 (Dutch)
  13. ↑ a b c Kay "goatlady" Smoljak: "70,000 Tons of Metal 2012 Day 1 Report: Ahoy there sailor!" metalunderground.com, accessed March 1, 2012
  14. ↑ News archive of the festival ( Memento of February 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , 70000tons.com, accessed on March 1, 2012 (English)
  15. ↑ a b Cabin prices of the 70,000 Tons of Metal 2012 ( Memento from May 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) , 70000tons.com, accessed on March 1, 2012 (English)
  16. ↑ All reports in the formats mentioned and others can be viewed here free of charge and in full: Press Features 2012 ( Memento of February 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , 70000tons.com, accessed on March 1, 2012