MENUO JUODARAGIS takes place in Lithuania in the woods near small village Kernave. Kernave is pretty close to Vilnius, Lithuanian capital. It is said that the village is used to be the first Lithuanian capital centuries ago. Today it has 500 inhabitants, one bar/cafe, museum, church and some sites where ancient castles used to be. Take notice, that staff in local bar doesn’t speak English well, and their menus have no English translations as well. Lithuanian beer is one of the best in the world!
The festival has three stages: main, where all “stars” play; Witches’ Hut, where you can watch electronic bands and Fairy-tale Hut, where various goth DJs have their sets.
It was raining in Thursday, so forest and soil were wet – I was doomed to live in wet tent and wear wet clothes. Fuck!
Here are some bad moments about the event. Local guys may skip it. If you intend to spend 3-4 days in Lithuania and visit MJ festival please have in mind that it’s pretty extreme. Toilets are really bad there and girls may have troubles with them. Not everybody can take a shower with ice-cold water, so you are doomed to stay dirty and stinky… Kernave doesn’t have any public showers with hot water as well, at least as far as I know. Not good for people who travel from other countries, agree? You can buy some food during the festival, but please be ready to spend quite a time in line and don’t be surprised if you find that staff doesn’t talk English. The food is far from being tasty and it’s pretty expensive. I encourage you to take a walk to Kernave and eat at local bar – they got better cuisine. Another minus of the festival is the lack of lights – it’s really hard to find your way through hundreds of tents in the night…
Now let’s talk a bit about music. The idea of the festival is really interesting and it has very good potential, I wouldn’t be surprised if MJ will become Gothic Treffen of Eastern Europe. They just need to fix all above mentioned minuses. If you are ready to spend 3 days in Kernave on MJ you can watch movies, listen to music, dance and listen to various lectures about local history and pagan past of the country. The music varies from metal to gothic, neofolk, industrial and authentic ritual songs. Pick your own obsession. I preferred to stay near stage so don’t ask me about industrial and gothic components of the festival.
The real fun has begun in Friday. Local ritual band KULGRINDA performs authentic folk and ritual songs. They have released some CDs through Dangus Prods. I had to leave for a couple of beers and when I came back ANGIS was playing. To it looks and sounds like HIM. Go, go, love metal! The best performance of the day was done by Slovakian band LAHKA MUZA. They have released CD through Dangus Prods. The band reminds best moments of ATARAXIA, but it does have very original sound and extremely charming Gudrun Snake on vocals. Thumbs up if you are looking for great mix of goth, industrial and medieval music. I had very hard day so I have decided to go to my tent and sleep. Frankly, I wasn’t interested neither in local industrial bands no in goth DJs. Saturday was the main day. Bands have started to play in the evening. I skip all those local folk and ritual bands, who cares? CAWATANA from Hungary was playing great martial neofolk. Sometimes their songs remind me best moments of ACTUS, but still I was impressed by this Hungarian band. Good music, right messages about modern world, very talented singers… I like it. The next band I have checked out was SKYFORGER from Latvia. They play catchy pagan metal. Nice songs… unfortunately, I hate metal music! SUI GENERIS UMBRA is nothing like UMBRA from Poland. The band that has released it’s CDs through Fluttering Dragon. They have started from AGHAST-like tunes, but today they play very rhythmic electronic gothic music. Their live performance was the best on the festival. I like the band. Finally, ALLERSEELEN came to the stage. Kadmon was singing, two guys from CAWATANA were helping him with drums. Kadmon was playing his new songs. Personally I do not like his new direction, but it was really cool to see one of the main figures of the contemporary industrial and military pop scenes. Well, in Saturday I have missed local industrial bands as well. They play boring music, so why should I trade bad music for a good nap?
In summary, MJ is pretty interesting event. The music and atmosphere of the festival is really great, I wish they could pay more attention to people needs and fixed above mentioned problems with comfort.
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