Nummirock and Elks
I’ve been to quite some heavy metal festivals in recent years and many of them are off the beaten track so as to not disturb the neighborhood. Nummirock resembles Wacken in terms of remoteness, however, Nummirock is even more remote. In Wacken you at least have Hamburg a hundred kilometers away, which is a two million people city and which has a real international airport. Nummirock is the remotest thing I’ve been to so far. Brutal Assault in the Czech Republic is also pretty much nowhere, but at least it’s only twenty kilometers from a train station that has a direct link to Prague some 90 minutes away. Further, Assault is laid out for international fans and they have a bus service to a contracted hotel at that train station, which brings you back and forth for free every day. Brutal Assault remains the best organized and most non-camper friendly festival I have yet been to. Nummirock is a truly local festival and you can only get there by car, period. I heard two three words of English but the international fans at the festival were few.
Arriving there at 12:30 was shocking. There was nobody there! If they have one thing in abundance it’s space and there are a staggering four stages. One amateur stage where local bands play and also cover bands, and three professional stages, the Main stage, the Inferno stage and the Chaos stage. It’s next to the beautiful lake Nummi and the weather was gorgeous.
Luckily there was no need for rubber boots, the ground was astonishingly dry. Well, the water flows down softly to the lake. I estimate the total number of visitors at below 10.000, was it even only 5000? It was hard to tell since there was a lot of coming and going between the festival ground and the camping ground across the street.
The festival grounds are lovely, trees here and there that give shadow, since even in Finland it can be too hot when the sun shines end of June, and plenty of tree trunks to sit down on. Further some bars with sofa areas. While there is no sitting down in Wacken anywhere inside the stage area, Nummirock offers plenty such opportunities.
The first band that played on the Chaos stage at 13:00 or so had seven customers? Poor guys!
Everything was super laid back and it was even kinda weird if you were eager to see your favorite band. Never has getting into the first row been so easy as at Nummirock. I was prepared to wait for 90 min in the first row but nobody stayed there and I could wander off again seeing something else and half an hour before the gig, the first few fans strolled to the front row of the next gig, lol. In the central area were a few food and goods stalls. The food was the crappiest I have yet eaten at a festival 
