Report

Mystic Festival 2023 (Gdansk, Poland) - Day One

The first full day of Mystic Festival was in full swing when I arrived today. I had some free time before my coverage started so I took advantage of it and explored the inside food court area. There were plenty of food and drink options at Mystic again this year. There are different pizzas, burgers, vegetarian/vegan options and even tacos to choose from. Whatever your dietary needs or drink preferences are, you are covered at this festival. There are also several food trucks and beer trailers located near the Park and Main stages so you don’t have to walk very far when your cravings start.

Did I mention that there is also a ton of open seating everywhere if you need to take a break? There are hammocks, beach loungers and picnic benches outside next to the food court area. Inside some of the venues there are even couches! Both of the large stage areas have picnic benches nearby as well. And, if you splurged on VIP tickets, you have pretty much luxury seating available in select areas.

Inside Food Court Seating Area

The only hiccup during the entire time of the festival occurred today. Due to safety concerns, the Park Stage was not available yet. There were some changes made to the running orders, but there were no band cancellations to my knowledge. One of the benefits of this last-minute change was that Testament was moved over to the Main Stage and they took full advantage of it.

Testament

Like seasoned veterans of the summer metal festival circuit, Testament took to the stage sporting their Ray Bans and ripped right into “Rise Up,” which the crowd did so immediately after the “Testament! Testament!” chants ceased. To my delight, and I’m sure for many in the crowd, they played many of their classic thrashers from their early catalog. The end of their set went from “Over The Wall” to “Into The Pit” as a closer. What a start to the day!

Next up was the hometown favorites of the festival, Behemoth. Nergal never could have imagined when the band first formed that he would eventually play a show at the shipyard where he grew up. The other peculiar thing was today’s date. Today in Poland, the country was celebrating “Corpus Christi”, the Solemn Holiday of the Body and Blood of Christ. How convenient that would be the day Behemoth played.

Behemoth

Behemoth’s set was full of fire, costume changes and Nergal’s witty banter. I would find out later that there were religious protestors outside of the festival grounds before their set. Guess who was there to film them and share it via his socials…you guessed it, Nergal himself! There are several videos online of him pestering the protestors at Behemoth shows, I really think he enjoys it more than being on stage at times.

One of the surprise bands of the day for me was a band from Iceland called Nyrst. Before I cover a festival, I usually listen to a few random bands that I’ve never heard of before and then decide if I’ll check them out if the schedule allows. I made my way to the Sabbath Stage and arrived to dark blue stage lighting and a smoke screen of fog. The black metal mood motif was in full effect. After a long and drawn-out intro, the band played an exceptional set of Nordic inspired black metal. Nyrst wasn’t the most original black metal band I’ve ever seen, but I enjoyed the costuming (druid like) and the vocalist’s mannerisms, it was almost zombie like.

Nyrst

The marquee and headlining band of the day on the Main Stage was Ghost. I remember seeing Ghost on their first U.S. headlining tour in Los Angeles about a decade ago. This band is nothing like the band I saw at the Whiskey a Go Go that night. I know that today this band is almost as popular as Taylor Swift, but I wasn’t expecting the crowd roars between songs to sound like I was at one of her concerts. I felt like I was in an alternate universe.

Ghost

Ghost used to remind me of cross between Mercyful Fate and Blue Oyster Cult. Now, it’s just pop music with a metal band setup. To each their own, but I couldn’t wait to leave the Main Stage area soon enough after I was allotted my 3-song limit for photographs. However, I will give them this though, Ghost had the coolest stage setup and costuming throughout the entire festival and it’s all about entertainment in the long run.