The fourth annual Skogsröjet Festival took place on August 29th, in Rejmyre (Sweden). Rejmyre is a small village located about a two-hour drive south of Stockholm. The previous editions of this open-air festival featured among others: HARDCORE SUPERSTAR, SAHARA HOTNIGHTS, CRASHDIET, BACKYARD BABIES, SABATON & CRAZY LIXX. This year over twenty bands were on the bill, which was headlined by SAXON.

All the bands I talked to were happy about the organization of this one-day event. H.E.A.T was even greeted with a crayfish party in their dressing-room. The entire backstage area was located in a school. The weather was sunny all day, though a little chilly in the late hours.

Most of the bands sounded great and showed lots of energy. The audience seemed to fully enjoy the gigs. Though unfortunately, the bands playing on the smallest stage (there were 3 ones) didn’t get many people listening to them. The lights on this small stage were also rather awful and difficult to capture.

H.E.A.T, BULLET and HARDCORE SUPERSTAR were particularly supported by enthusiastic fans. It was the last show of the summer season for BULLLET, and they celebrated it by pouring champagne over the audience. It was also the very first gig of GEMINI FIVE with their new guitar player, Tom Wouda.

HARDCORE SUPERSTAR had to cope with a few technical problems in the beginning of their set, when the power for the amps went out. Though frontman Jocke Berg had a bad cold, he managed to hit the high notes perfectly, and one could barely notice he was a bit under the weather. When they played their last song (“We Don’t Celebrate Sundays”), members of GEMINI FIVE, LILLASYSTER, BABY JANE and possibly others joined the band for a crazy and friendly ending.

The last bands that played this night, LILLASYSTER and SAXON, ran about an hour late. Unfortunately, this made me miss these two acts.

Everything went smoothly except for three arrests for drunkenness. Two of which occurred during the H.E.A.T set, when a fistfight broke out in the crowd just in front of stunned guitar player Dave Dalone.

On the whole, fun and good music were the keywords of Skogsröjet Festival 2009. It gathered 4,500 rock fans, which means this edition was the most successful since the start in 2005.