Five days of exceptional circumstances. The sun beat down relentlessly on the fields and meadows, which had long since dried up. Dust hung constantly in the air, stirred up by thousands of metalheads. That was the Summer Breeze Openair in Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria, Germany.
A festival during a historic heatwave is—at least until the sun begins to set—a physical ordeal. Every evening, it felt as though you were blowing a whole sandpit’s worth of dust into your handkerchief; by morning, you could feel the dust in your lungs.
Unfortunately, the brutal heat meant that one or two acts on my list fell victim to it. I couldn’t bring myself to leave the shade of the pavilion. And yet I still find it hard to pick the ultimate highlight of last week. Virtually every band I saw after sunset was outstanding. The anarchic punk of Blood Command, the theatrical 80s fever dream of Castle Rat, the pitch-black storm of Groza, or the unbridled passion with which Slomosa roared.
The 2026 festival season isn’t over yet. Nor is the ongoing drought. But you won’t find the same conditions as at Summer Breeze at the Between Mountains Festival from 4 to 6 September.
And rather than all the facets of heavy guitar music, Between Mountains sits at the exact opposite end of the sonic spectrum: an exciting melting pot of classical, electronica and ambient. Admittedly, this experimental mix is just as unlikely to be to everyone’s taste as metal, but it promises a gripping shift in perspective on what music can be. Between Mountains creates a space for the brave and the curious.
If you’d like to find out more about Between Mountains, you can read our preview. And, with a bit of luck, you might even win 2x2 tickets for this year’s festival.
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What I enjoyed
How Social Media Makes Our Lives Smaller. A curious podcast about how social media went from this exciting place to connect and discover to a draining and divisive experience.
Four corporations control Europe’s festivals—and hardly anyone realises it. An insightful short documentary on the European festival landscape and how private equity is taking over. In German.
