Rock for Tolerance was my first festival in 2024. After seeing Oceans twice this year already, I was a bit in an Oceans-phase. When I read that they would headline Rock for Tolerance, which meant a longer set than we’d ever seen of them, and that the festival was only about 2-2.5 hours away, I bought tickets without thinking too much about it.
Thankfully I was also allowed to take photos, lots of love to the RfT-staff.
However, I only went there on Friday. The line-up on Saturday wasn’t my cup of tea and I felt a little ill anyway, so I really needed to rest and we didn’t go back on Saturday (although we would’ve had time after the Bad Omens shows in Europe were cancelled).
And as another small addition, we arrived fairly late since my girlfriend had to work on Friday and we could only leave in the afternoon. Which meant that we unfortunately missed the show of Heavysaurus, which would’ve been quite a fun experience I guess.
But altogether, here’s my little report on Rock for Tolerance (horribly late because I was either busy or unwell)
General info on the festival
Rock for Tolerance is a very small festival located in Hannoversch Münden, close to Kassel. The festival is organized by a small incorporated association (Rock for Tolerance e.V.) with focus on strengthening democracy, inclusion and diversity. Basically the background of the festival is combining a charity event with live music and show the work of (local) groups that fight against discrimination. It’s a two-day festival and really small in size.
The charity background is already shown in the ticketing. You get to decide how much you can or want to pay for your festival ticket. The minimum price this year was 15€, but you had the option to give a bit more to include a donation (which would then also be rewarded e.g. with a t-shirt). The price was more than fair, given that you get two days of great fun and entertainment on two stages.
According to the organisers, this year’s festival was the biggest so far. The acts are from a wide range of heavier music and they usually reflect the idea / concept of the festival, so a lot of the acts are very political in some sense. There was a lot of metal / metalcore as well as punk featured in the line-up. With Heavysaurus being one of the headliners this year, the festival was also showing its family friendliness (not only musically, there were also offers on the festival ground for kids like glitter tattoos and face painting, you could buy or rent noise cancelling headphones for children at the merch table and the overall atmosphere was super friendly).
The festival is in some kind of park (I guess it is a park). The parking situation was okay, there’s a big parking lot next to the festival ground and it was also possible to use some of the parking spots of a neighbouring restaurant / hotel. The festival staff was very friendly and helpful when we weren’t sure about where to park our car.
Speaking of the staff, the overall idea of the festival is obviously creating a tolerant, inclusive festival where everyone can feel safe and welcome and I personally think that they achieved it. There was a very big awareness team that was easily identifiable by their rainbow armbands. They were always present on the festival grounds, so if you felt unsafe or needed help, it was very easy to find someone to address. Other staff members were also clearly visible and available to talk to if you needed any kind of assistance. The people we talked to throughout the evening were super friendly, welcoming and open.
I saw wheelchair users on the festival ground who, quite often, were in the front row. I could imagine that moving could be difficult at times, since the largest part of the festival was on a meadow. The ground was uneven and especially after the rain, the pit in front of the stage was very muddy. I assume that the awareness team would’ve helped in case of issues. I don’t know about the situation of toilets for wheelchair users, though.
I didn’t notice any other inclusive features but my impression of the festival tells me that the staff would’ve done their best to accommodate everyone and cater everyone’s needs as best as possible.
A big plus were proper toilet containers with running water instead of portable toilets that are still typical at a lot of summer festivals. They were as clean as possible at an open air festival with muddy ground.
Concerning food and drink, you paid with cash and there was a nice selection of food with usually allergens marked clearly. Also there were options for vegetarians / vegans. Everything was reasonably priced. I don’t remember much of the offer though. I somehow remember that there were burgers and fries and I personally got tarte flambée. Also there were of course regular drinks like beer, coke or water, but they also had a cocktail bar on the ground.
There were a few other stalls, for example one from a book shop (and their offer was very diverse in e.g. race, sexual identity, books about disability or mental health etc), as mentioned before you could get glitter tattoos and there was a stall run by the German organisation “Kein Bock auf Nazis”. So all in all the offer fit the overall vibe of the festival.
There was also a long merch table where you could get both festival merch as well as merch from the bands. I regret not buying any festival merch because in the end, the overall experience was absolutely pleasing and if their line-up is convincing, I would definitely go back! Super cozy, sympathetic festival that gave me an overall good feeling. I think the festival merch could be paid both by cash and via PayPal? But I’m not sure. With the band merch it obviously depended on the band.
The weather that day was tricky. First there was a lot of sun and it was really warm, but there were shadowy spots to retreat and chill at. Also there was a lot of space to sit down in general. Later, shortly before Oceans, there was heavy rain. As in almost flood-like. That was a bit harder to work with because there weren’t that many options to seek shelter, but I guess that’s a general open air festival problem.
Concerning the programme, there were two stages that took turns with being played on, so basically there was a constant programme with short breaks to get from one stage to the other, except that there was a bit of a break before Oceans started their set. The distance between both stages wasn’t that big since the overall area was kinda small, so you could easily see all the acts that played there.
All in all, as I have already stated a bit earlier, this festival left a super good impression. Given that it was fairly small and (I think) mostly run by volunteers, it seemed well organised, well thought through and they definitely stuck to their name. I felt safe and welcome. The overall audience also seemed nice and chill and people basically went there to have a good time. I’ll definitely keep an eye on Rock for Tolerance in the following years.
The music
I’ve only seen three bands there because we arrived so late, then had food between Noise for the Voiceless and About Monsters and then decided to stick to the front row (then quickly hid from the rain before we returned to the front row) for Oceans.
Noise for the Voiceless
Noise for the Voiceless were already on stage when we arrived. I hadn’t heard of them before, but overall I liked their vibe. Their music is rapcore with very political messages, so they definitely fit into the line-up of the festival very well. Nice performance, nice energy. I needed a moment to get into their music, mostly because we had only arrived and I was still a little stressed, but ended up following them on Instagram, which is usually a good sign.
I remember in particular that I really liked the powerful voice of their shouter Anny, who was very energetic in general. Basically that’s the only thing I remember about their music though. The crowd was fairly small at that time, but there were some people really picking up the energy. So all in all it was a good performance and I’ll keep an eye on them.
About Monsters
Next on the main stage were About Monsters, who I thought I had never heard of before … only to notice a few days later that they were featured in a song by Maelføy. And damn, they left an impression. They classify their own music as Alternative Rock or Post Hardcore, which I’m an absolute sucker for, so generally speaking, I loved their sound.
During their performance, the area was already a lot more crowded than when we arrived and there was a lot happening in the pit. They also made sure to activate and include the crowd by motivating them to start moshpits, to jump and to dance. Their guitarist climbed from stage not only once but twice if I remember correctly to initiate a pit.
Their overall sound and energy was amazing and I really enjoyed their performance a lot. Another band I started following on IG that day 😀 I don’t remember specific songs though because I didn’t have the time to check out their music afterwards, but absolute recommendation. They all have such a great energy on stage and I loved every single moment of their performance.
Oceans
And we’re back at a band that I love dearly and the reason why I went to that festival in the first place. As one of the headliners that day, they had a one-hour-slot which was the longest set of Oceans that I’ve seen so far and besides the usual bangers they used it to play some songs they most likely haven’t played in a while.
Luckily, the pouring rain that happened between About Monsters and the beginning of Oceans‘ set was gone when they started (and there were just tiny bits of rain throughout their set), because with that amount of water coming from the sky we would’ve been soaked within minutes. I didn’t pay attention to the moshpit during their set though, so I can’t tell if anything happened, but if so it surely was a big mud race.
After their tour with Our Mirage, I halfway expected them to open with Slaves to the Feed again, but this time their opener was Sulfur, so they really started with a bang. Another nice surprise setlist-wise was If There’s A God She Has Abandoned Us, which we hadn’t heard since their tour with Blind Channel and Lost Society. I absolutely love that song, it has a great atmosphere. Otherwise, as mentioned before, the set included a lot of all-time favourites like The Awakening, Home, Icarus, Shark Tooth and We Are Nøt Økay, as well as their latest releases Slaves to the Feed and Breed, Consume, Die. Their set ended with The Sound Of Your Voice, which was another unexpected one. So all in all I was very pleased with their set.
I didn’t pick up much from the crowd – at first I was in the photo pit, then I shuffled back into the front row (I was honestly a little surprised to find my spot still free when I returned lol), so I’m not sure how the crowd responded to their show. Somehow Oceans seemed a tiny bit like an outsider in the line-up and I felt like there were more punks than metalheads in the crowd that day, so I’m almost a little sad that I didn’t really get a proper crowd impression. But I was too focused on having fun myself 😂 (Actually the guy next to me seemed a little annoyed/weirded out by my loud singing, but excuse me, don’t stand next to the fangirl in a bandshirt in the front row that stood there as soon as the rain stopped and expect her to shut up :P)
Every Oceans-show strengthens my love for them a little more. I love their stage energy and their overall performance and to be honest I’m also a fan of Timo passing the guitar on to Christian (still wondering if he’ll be announced as a fix member one day or if Timo will go back to shredding the guitar himself) because it’s great fun to watch him move more freely on stage.
Once again I can’t wait to see them again later this year as support for Septicflesh.