Alberto Ferreras |
Zamora (EFE).- Australia, United States, Brazil, Finland, England, Germany. In none of these countries has hard rock died and, of course, it hasn’t done so in Spain either, not even in a small provincial city like Zamora, which for three days becomes a temple of heavy metal that moves some four million euros with performances by renowned national and international groups.
Legendary bands like Helloween, Barón Rojo or the guitarist of the Scorpions Michael Schenker, who have forty or fifty years of experience behind them, demonstrate at the “Z! Live Rock Fest” in Zamora that heavy, more than music, is a religion with followers for life.
The Zamora festival has also been attended by bands from the new century and from the antipodes such as the Australians Airbourne, who this Friday night saw their concert frustrated by the rain but who are “called to be the heirs of AC/DC”, he assures the organizer of the event, Andrés Cid.
The scheduled 13 hours of live music a day have been marred by sudden downpours that have forced the cancellation of some performances, which has not prevented “Z! Live Rock” is consolidated as one of the leading festivals specialized in its genre in Spain.
Not surprisingly, he attracts followers from all over the peninsula with his long hair and his particular habit of worn-out jeans, leather jackets and black T-shirts from his favorite groups.
This year it has been outside the Ifeza fairgrounds where, as altars, two large 15-meter-high stages have been installed which, in addition to thousands of watts of sound power, have left between 3.5 and 4 million euros of economic power in the province of Zamora, according to the organization.
The festival brings together some seven thousand attendees every day, 95% of them coming from abroad, figures that have been somewhat diminished by the rain but have kept the accommodations full and the streets of the city with a predominance of heavy aesthetics.
Why do the heavy metal gods come to Zamora?
“It is a very important economic engine”, highlights Andrés Cid, who also answers the question of how a city of less than 60,000 inhabitants has managed to bring heavy metal gods like Helloween, a reference to power metal that has sold more than ten million of records, or the ex-guitarist of Scorpions, a group that totals one hundred million copies.
The secret has been in believing that it was possible to “make a really big festival and not settle for it”, confesses Cid, who admits that in the seven editions of the event they have shown that “putting effort and effort is possible”.
The average age of the attendees ranges from 35 to 50 years, although there are also children and retirees because the heavies “are forever, and generally the children too”, since “when you start to like it, not only the music, the rock lifestyle is forever, you can listen to it at 15 and at 70 and you’re going to have just as good a time”, underlines the organizer.
The Sevillian in love with rock at the age of 70
This is corroborated by Pedro, a Sevillian with a long white beard who has come to Zamora on a motorcycle because he feels a passion for rock in general, not just hard rock, and he goes to a rockabilly concert as well as a rave.
“Here I am, at seventy years old I have to hurry because if not this is over,” he declares with humor and an Andalusian accent, to also confess that what he likes is to dance and “like those of my time Jimi Hendrix and all Those have died, we have to adapt to what is there”.
Although this Saturday the weather is ideal for the performances that take place from half past three in the afternoon to half past four in the morning, on Thursday and Friday the weather was not good.
“They are working hard but it seems that there is a black hand on top of them,” says Ricardo Yáñez “Balas” from Salamanca, who recalls that last year some performances had to be suspended, such as the group from his land Altar del Holocaust , which he was able to play this Friday just before the Finns Insomnium were left without turning on their buses because of the downpour.
And after the storm there is no calm. This Saturday metal sounds again in Zamora.