Punk Rock Holiday was the best festival I ever attended!

Let me preface this by some background, I ran my own music business and worked managing artists and for record labels and what not for 15 years of my life. I have represented and worked with bands playing big shows like Ozzfest and Warped tour and I never liked outdoor festivals. But this line up was all main stage bands that I knew for a long time including home town heroes Pennywise and The Descedants as well as Good Riddance from Northern California who I did a tour in Europe with when managing Chaser. And favorites NOFX as well as Sickofitall, Ignite and others. So I jumped at the chance to go and had no clue what to expect. Normally at these festivals I am with the band and we play and go to the next destination and this was an entire week of camping in Slovenia a place I had never even been in. But I bought the tickets before I even departed on this long journey, I am on. I did not even know yet how I was getting there but I was going.

Fast forward I am in Germany and my friends are going and I am in the car with them. We drive caravan from Germany into Austria, thru a small part of Italy called Tarvisio and in to the most gorgeous of places Tolmin, Slovenia, a picturesque valley between a mountain range, Julijske  Alps, a crystal clear river, the Soča River, in what to be a perfect week of weather warm enough to sleep on top of the sleeping bag and to be forced out of your sleeping bag by 8am.

I went with 2 cars of 6 people 2 couples Mike/Julia and Shirin/Niko, and 1 obnoxious brother to Shirin. It is Mike from Noopinion and his newlywed wife Julia and their friends Shirin, a voluptuous, well dressed woman of Turkish descent and her husband Niko, a tall german guy with dredlocks that can pull off a weed suit and doesn’t smoke just wants to be sure you have the right to and Shirins brother. we had 4 tents and 2 10×10 easy ups for the living area. We arrived early and paid the early entry fee and parked with our cars in a section of the festival grounds close to the grocery store, adjacent to the port a potties (which they cleaned twice daily), we grabbed a site up against the bushes, at the entrance to the walking path into the camping without car area (they break up regular camping without car, RV, Electricity, and camping with car, which we did and I was very happy to have a safe place to lock my laptop up cus yes I still had to work. So down the path are the stages and beaches. My first walk thru I was lost and a bit overwhelmed with excitement. I haven’t even gone camping, well I did go to a festival in Thailand, Jhai Thep and it was pretty bad roughing it on hard ground. But here it was grass and softer. Down the path this place had a food court area, bars, vendors, beaches, a river, like it was a friggen Oasis surrounding by the beautiful mountains and you would see the occasional bright colored para gliders, sail down out of the sky as you stare at the back drop of the Alps. Bonus it was with exactly the music I would want to have play. Not shitty techno soulless shit. I mean this is going to a fun week. And damn its beautiful.

I let loose and had fun, I wont bore with the each days specifics but basically woke up and hung out at the campsite till I had to work, then I headed to the Comfort Area aka VIP aka Pressroom, which was a nice area to do my work from with power and AC, the whole place had wifi and I could have worked from camp but didn’t have the power add on, got off work and joined the rest of the gang at the river to cross the frozen part or to float down the warmer part or a bar in time to see the bands. I ate at lot of different places they offered, drank a lot, “danced” my ass off it in the pit for all the bands I loved to hear. Yes to all my hometown friends I made it on to stage for PW a couple songs before Bro Hymn for Ian and it was chaos. I felt totally comfortable, right at home and the energy from the festival and crowd was so different then that of the US festivals I have attended. Super safe and relaxing for the most part. Even the security was pretty awesome and always greeted me.

Remembering to save your cups as you get drunk is hard and I could tell many other people had the same problem as I saw many a squashed cup. By the 3rd day I think we got trained to stash the cups as you drank, to get your deposit back. I did good and had zero cups left on my deposit fees on the cashless card at the end of the week. The cashless system was quick and easy, my only suggestion is they use the bracelet ones, we had them in Thailand, much easier not to have a card that can be lost but the wristband they gave us just needed the barcodes like at Jai thep had.

There are tons of reviews and photos of the bands and location online and I really did not take many photos. The photos here are a combo of the camping group I was with. I decided to unplug the best I could when I wasn’t working and enjoy the week. I can say every band I saw and danced for was absolutely fantastic and I thank you.

I really needed some home town energy, it can get lonely as a solo world traveler. My one friend who was also traveling solo in the same areas as I am, also from my hometown, Ian Petersen, whom was guiding me thru my first 6 months of solo traveling died recently and I needed that Pennywise Bro Hymn for him. The last time I saw Pennywise the Bro Hymn was for my Husband. Music Therapy was exactly what the Dr ordered and I felt 16 again for an entire week. The Festival was by far the best I have attended and I heard that next years is the last one and that is sad. I look forward the seeing the line up for their final event.

I did not see the town or anything. Just the drive in and out and it was lovely. A beautiful location to have an outdoor events. It is a bit pricey, but the memories worth the trade and the group I traveled with, they made it so fun, I am indebted to you guys.