how did I buy my Hellfest 2014 tickets and the grumpiness that comes with it.

Macam biasa angan-angan Mat Jenin dulu..

I bought the festival 3 days pass, (at the bottom of this post I had type "how I bought my Hellfest ticket online" which can be distorting, and I was like kind of want to give up myself after trying the first few times to buy a ticket.
Its a E-Ticket and you need to print it out and its the barcode that allows you in. your name is found on this ticket too.

Anyway, Still long way to go, 7 months from now, anything and I mean ANYTHING can happened.
But if I am really able to make it to Clisson on 20th June 2014 I would be very thrilled.
- The gossips and rumours the past month were true.
- Iron Maiden is the main PULL for me and I will go thru hardship and sacrifices to see them play while I still got the chance now,
- At least 20 other bands in the list is a grand supreme awesome bonus for me, though there will be clashes I had on my previous blog post, enlarged and bold the fonts of bands I want to see.
- The majority of the other bands gives me a chance to discover great or good things about them, if I bother and not be lazy or worse still sleeping somewhere or sightseeing the nearby areas and only bothering to turn up late evening.
- and a few in number, some of them famous bands, I dont bother and I guess I will never will.
- Unfortunately those bands that play too early in the afternoon, sorry to myself, I will still be somewhere out there, being a traveller and taking photos of street scenes and discovering things about Nantes and Clisson as realistically I wont be back there again.

One of the poster has Maiden's logo above Black Sabbath. Its of course a no-brainer for me personally,

before i forget. TRY IMAGINE AEROSMITH PLAYING their love song sentimental hits "I DONT WANT TO MISS A THING" SONG AT HELLFEST.
Now, that is what will be awesome and mind-boggling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

continue about the each day headlining only poster, but still weird to see that. Black Sabbath is so much more superior in terms of commercial mass-appeal and attracting the mass-media , one of the reason is due to the Osbournes family CIRCUS.
I was lucky that the two times different eras and lineup of  Black Sabbath came to Singapore I had got a chance to see them play.
Thanks to my friend (dont know where he is now after many years), who won a contest on the radio or something, I got a chance at very very close view, to see the Forbidden/Headless Cross era. Though I remember I was a bit down that the drummer on stage was not Cozy Powell, (in fact it was Bobby Rodenelli - who just like in Sabbath, had replaced Cozy's position in Rainbow)
and one of my memories of those carefree young dayswas Toni Iommi standing a few metres from me, and they were playing Children Of The Grave and I was like having a lock-jaw moment staring at the magnificient sight of Iommi with THAT song riffs. I remember I blog maybe last year, recalling the time frightened about my ears suffering from severe tinnitus after that show. The other time I saw Sabbath is the one with the superior singer when Black Sabbath returns using the Heaven And Hell moniker.
So it would be nice to see finally Ozzy Osbourne fronting Black Sabbath with Geezer Butler and Toni Iommi. For me just like Metallica, Sabbath is now a three man band. I dont bother about their current fourth person. Iommi and Butler should have vote for Vinnie Appice if Bill Wards is not playing.

The other rock bands and metal bands, some of them I had seen before, and how many times have I seen Deep Purple but still so entertaining even at their current ages, would be nice to see.
I read a bit done a bit of research, and confirming Hellfest Mainstage 1 and 2 is side by side. Good news then.
So it means, when a band from mainstage 1 is playing, there wont be a band from stage 2 playing, only set-up. Thats nice, so I guess I will move around a bit to get a better view, except on day one Maiden where I will be trying to get a good spot an hour or two in advance, so I guess I will only hear Slayer, not see them with the current drummer. Seen 4/4 Slayer, and seen 3/4 Slayer, I was present in the crowd in 2011 if I am not mistaken on the very very first time Gary Holt and not Hannemahn was on stage, so the current lineup is something new to me.
(I remember Soundwave Brisbane 2011 where Dimmu Borgir was playing and a Mexican metal band or something was setting up and soundchecking and there was serious leakage obvious on the slower Dimmu Borgir moments. And some Dimmu Borgir fans throw bottles and stuffs on the other stage.)

I also read and surf the internet and found that The Temple and The Altar are sort of stages 3 and 4, and are in the same what will seems a huge tent?
I guess so. I think they are side by side so again no clashes between these two, but most horrendous they will still clash with stage 1 and 2. Seems the Temple and the Altar are more dedicated to the so-called black metal and death metal bands? or something like that? though some major ones will still be at the main stages, but whatever it is, as long as its a good band playing songs and music that I enjoy hearing, I dont care what kind of music genre they want to called themselves.

I have been checking out some bands attracting huge crowds on the Warzone stage footages on youtube, my reaction was "ok, I will be staying clear from everything" hahaha. But at least one or two bands that I want to see are playing on this stage, so I will politely stand somewhere safe to check them out live haha.

I repaste these from a post by a kind soul on the Maiden forum. These maps do help to identify with whatever footages I seen from youtube.

if you see MAIDEN had one slot below it not yet taken, OOO please let it be Alice In Chains as rumours go playing just before Maiden, so I would enjoy the time I will be standing there from early on.

OK ENOUGH OF BULLSHIT, YES I HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE, BUT SHARING WHAT I DISCOVERED DOING SOME RESEARCH. MAYBE YOU WILL FIND IT INFORMATIVE AND BENEFICIAL TOO.

ok transport, most will be camping at the camp sites. I dont think I want to camp.
Another choice that may be the one I will opt for is to travel from Nantes daily. This will be tough. Donington Park Download Festival was not much hassle to travel back to one of the nearest city Derby.
I think Nantes will be a bit tougher. There will be shuttles to and from Nantes, but seems from my reading on the internet, it will be tough and competitive especially when huge crowds are attending to head the same direction.
Remember this is France. So majority of the informations and discussions are in French. As Alien As It Possibly Can For Me. Fortunately, a lot of English speaking fans do attend Hellfest from all over Europe so you can go some disccusion forums on the internet where they discuss about travelling to Hellfest in English language.

Now something I had confirmed done - BUYING myself A HELLFEST TICKET online from a .fr webpage which is in French.. 
This is from me who's severely pathetic understanding of French is bonjour, and had come across viva la France,  and VaVaVroom Theiry Henry and of course bootlegs of Maiden playing France when Bruce Dickinson speak to the audience in French , "nouveor album", ok I know that stands for new album. I always love to hear Arsene Wenger speaks though, with his French accent, ooo and the lady from Mind Your Language, the French lady haha. 

So I go to the official website, I choose buying of tickets which is still clearly understood. I choose the UNION JACK FLAG at the top right hand corner for the page to turn to English, though I still panicked when some words in the text still retained in French haha.

Then I choose 3 days pass, I think you still cant choose one day pass yet.
Then they will ask you for a handphone number, a mobile number.
Dont worry dont panic. I had thought I must have a smartphone with a internet data connection ready, but its just for "username" purpose.
I put a Singapore mobile number beginining with "9xxxxxxx" and it accepts fine.
Dont need to put a country prefix in front, because anyway, they will ask for your country next.
Unless you put a random number and it match a number from the country you choose from.
So if you try with numbers beginning from 012/014/016 or want to put a +60 or +65 in front and its not succesful, just play the numbers in front around a bit.

Then it will be easy, although I see a paypal icon, but the option did not turn up during payment, then they will ask for your email account to confirm the purchase.
Once your payment gets through, you will come to page where you can print out your ticket, with a few choices of PDF, JPEG or I believe Mobile number download.
So all you need to do is press print.
If you do not have a printer, just save the PDF or JPEG of the file into your thumbdrive or computer and print it next time you can get a printer.
Anyway, since your mobile number is registered as sort of username, so you can always log in again to Hellfest website next time to check your details or get your tickets printed from there again if you have not printed it out earlier, or had bother to save the tickets details that need to be printed out on your computer earlier.
The ticket must be printed out and present it there. I think this is whats is called E-TICKET.

Seeing Maiden playing their self indoor stadiums/arena shows in Australia or headlining Soundwave Festival, the tickets purchased are HARD-COPY. So you have the worries of the tickets lost during delivery to you, or you have to go the box-office to collect it when you are there, or get someone to buy it for you and post to you.
Seeing Maiden in Germany is the best. The ticket is HARD COPY. But its immediately posted to you with courier ASAP, within a few days. So thats the best, you got the Maiden tickets for GERMANY six months in advance in your hands, so it gives you confidence to make efforts to begin planing your backpack travel on a tiny string budget.

Buying the tickets for Seeing Maiden headlining Donington Park Download Festival with some other awesome bands and Bon Jovi playing the huge full Villa Park Stadium for near 3 hours, is stressful. I purchased online the tickets from the official websites about 6-7 months before and the HARD COPY ticket was only posted and arrive to me just a few days before I take my flight.
This is stressful because, yes, there is a guideline and instruction that if you are from a foreign land, and you did not recieve the ticket, you can go to the box-office when you arrive there, but I dont like it, its going to be a lot of panicking, and stress. I rather have a physical HARD COPY of ticket with me, 6-7 months in advance before I plan anything as its costly to do these travels just to see Maiden and other bands play in different countries, different places, with lots of different style of people, yet all sharing the same passion.

This Hellfest ticket is the best, I have got the ticket, I had printed it out. So I have much more confidence, though there are always problems that can happen, for example your barcode is rejected? I hope not.
Anyway, FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL. 
- Its fate if I will be there or not there, but I will try my best. 
If I do go, experience it, and come back safely, I will be happy, 
if I cannot go, then just too bad, I'll keep the ticket as a memory of what could have been, and maybe try again next time.




Love this artwork...


and the Rock Hard magazine would be nice, though its in French language I guess.

Ok, got to go to work...today I work Saturday evening till next morning...sigh..hahaha. A bit of Overtime in there. ok, to pay back my Hellfest ticket bit by bit haha.
Back to reality, away from the internet...a part of my real life responsibility.

Maiden and all these bands in Hellfest, are just my passion, a part of me which remains young,  always be a primary school boy listening to Iron Maiden for the first time.
And I was a kampung boy (village boy) and there was nothing then, and I really believe it when I was told lies that Iron Maiden is just two boys and two girls singing group, just like ABBA.

hahaha.


Anyway, I am a bit panicking on travelling across France from Paris CDG airport to Hellfest which nearest city is Nantes.
I googled a bit and I got confused badly haha....French language...luckily its in alphabets still haha.

ok its time to visit the library, borrow and reborrow and re-borrow the "how to speak french, french english translator book".