Heaven and Hell Open Air 2023

 


Just imagine my joy when I stumbled upon the dates for Hell and Heaven Open Air 2023 (Mexico's biggest metal festival) and realised it fell during our time in Mexico 🙌

Then in August, I can hardly even describe Griffin's joy when it was announced that his favourite band - the mighty Guns n Roses - were headlining. Along with Slipknot (a steady fave in our house with the adults) and Muse (not so bothered, but a massive band nonetheless). 


Hell and Heaven Open Air takes place just outside Toluca, which is about an hour on the bus from Mexico City. 

We booked ourselves a room via Airbnb which had a lovely little rooftop terrace/kitchen space with views over the mountains (great spot for a bit of homeschooling between the heavy metal!).


I hadn't quite taken in to account the altitude before we arrived - Mexico City sits at 2400m above sea level (just below the 2500m threshold that usually triggers altitude sickness) and I'd kind of just assumed that Toluca would be similar, but at 2660m you could definitely feel the thinness of the air. This made the mosh pits more challenging for Steve for a start!

I'd read really mixed reviews about the festival online, but as the boys both got free entry we thought it was worth a shot. 



I'll say right out that this was easily the worst organised festival we've ever been to! We've been to quite a few UK festivals over the years, as well as a few in Europe (and one in Australia) and have seen our fair share of problems (often relating to terrible weather in the UK) but this was in a league of it's own. They were still building one of the stages on the Friday when the gates opened.  


I think in the end around 20 bands cancelled - most of them stating that this was due to contracts/payments not being completed in time. And the festival didn't say anything online about this - there were just long gaps on the stages when bands didn't turn up, or you'd be waiting in front of a stage for a specific band and then a completely different band/artist would come on (which is baffling and hilarious at times too). The electricity on site, mainly around the stalls, seemed to go off and on, and even when it was on, there was almost no lighting anywhere so once it got dark it was a real mission to see anything other than the stages! Even the sign in the pic above ('Welcome to Hell' didn't get switched on until a couple of days in to the festival. 

HOWEVER, I'd had a bit of an inkling about this before we arrived, and we'd talked about it and agreed that as long as Guns and Roses and Slipknot came on the stage and played, it would still be worth it. 



And in the end, it was. We watched a few bands on the Friday - mostly smaller punk bands on one of the smaller stages, and then we managed about 2/3 of Slipknot before we had to take the boys home (it was 1230am by this point). Slipknot were, as ever, pretty good. 



I think we've seen them 15+ times now and they are always pretty solid, even if that exciting edge has gone a bit these days. 

Steve went in on the Saturday to have a bit of time to himself (mainly doing what he loves most - hanging out in the middle of the mosh pit) and I stayed home with the boys to give them some recovery time (and to try to make sure that they would last the distance on Sunday for GnR). 


And apart from the fact that GnR came on an hour late (which, as we've seen them four times over the last few years and they've always been meticulously on time, I'm going to guess was something to do with the festival) they were fab - Griffin absolutely loved it, Angus managed to last until about midnight before he fell asleep on the floor wrapped in towels. 



There was then a long wait for an Uber which meant that the boys got their latest bedtime ever at 3am.


Probably the highlight of the weekend though for us was Machine Head - they played a fab hits set and the boys (who have never seen them before) loved it. Steve got his proud Dad moment of headbanging along with both of them. Also a mention for Amon Amarth, who Angus loved (think the viking props and all the fire were a winner for the kids). I'd never seen Billy Idol live before and thought he put on a really good show; Steve got to see Suicidal Tendencies too which he'd waited a long time for.



One of things that was pretty cool was the sheer amount of merch for sale outside the festival from rows and rows of little stalls - we got some pretty cool t shirts and keyrings etc from these. The boys also really liked the ferris wheel and the giant pirate ship ride (although they were pretty costly so they only got one go on each!). 


The dual stage thing I also quite liked, especially with the boys. In theory, it meant that there was very little waiting around between bands and we didn't have to hike across the site to get between stages. In practice it didn't work so well, partly because of all the gaps due to cancellations.

All in all, I'm pleased we went as it was pretty cool to experience another festival overseas and to be able to take the boys along - and both boys were pretty excited to be able to see GnR. I wouldn't rush back though if we ever found ourselves back here at this time of year again (unless, of course, Rammstein are on the bill!).


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