Offering two stages, over two days and over twenty bands offering a wide variety of tribute acts to some of rock and metal’s most popular artists, WV1 Fest has been on the scene for the last decade.
Remarkably I hadn’t heard of it until about two years ago, by that time, tickets had sold out but I made it my intention to attend the following year.
Saturday the 10th of August marks the second year that I’ve attended and I wasn’t disappointed. Located in West Park, Wolverhampton the location offers a number of facilities to keep you entertained, fed and watered throughout the day; both stages are easily accessible for all attendees, open spaces offer more than enough room for your own chairs as well as some well spaced picnic tables, a few fairground rides offer a different sort of entertainment and for those looking for a bit of shopping there are a few tents offering clothes, temporary tattoos and the like.
Opening the festival was Sack Sabbath, who do a great job of not only sounding like Black Sabbath but also looking like them as Ozzy and Iommi’s impersonation is on point, both in mannerisms and appearance, tracks from the (original) bands back catalogue are played out under a suitably grey sky; including Fairies Wear Boots, Symptom Of The Universe as well as the obvious choices of Iron Man and Paranoid but for me the inclusion of Children Of The Grave was a personal highlight.
We stick around the main stage for Faith No Man and whilst my knowledge of Faith No More’s material is extremely limited, recognising only a few tracks including We Care A Lot and Epic, plus the Commodores cover, Easy.
Hi On Maiden were next on the Rabbit Hole Stage, but it was the draw of Ghost tribute act Popestars that took us to the Hangar Stage and some much needed relief from the sun, I caught Popestars at last years fest and thoroughly enjoyed the performance, the interaction between the band and the audience was fantastic and this year they didn’t disappoint; tracks from Ghost’s catalogue such as Rats, Absolution, Mary On A Cross, Spillways and Square Hammer to name a few are lapped up by an eager audience.
Heading back to the main stage after a great set by Popestars, we are greeted with technical difficulties as Stiff Bizkit have taken to the stage, they battle on regardless and impress with their performance.
There’s a delay in proceedings as PA issues are attended to before Metal Militia take to the stage, another act that was at last year’s event and the fact that they’ve returned this year is proof of their talent and dedication to their craft. They thrash through the Metallica covers, old school hits from Master Of Puppets and Ride The Lightning garner mass appeal from the audience, the classics are greatly received, they throw out Lux Aeterna and The Memory Remains, the latter from a very much divisive time in Metallica history.
With two bands left to play, a Guns N Roses tribute followed by a Rammstein tribute.. I leave.. begrudgingly… but I’ve other arrangements elsewhere, a showing of The Lost Boys at an outdoor cinema.
Apart from the aforementioned PA issues, WV1Fest has yet again, done a great job of providing good quality entertainment for a reasonable price, something which is in short demand these days.
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