MetalDays

MetalDays was the open-air metal week at Sotočje, Tolmin, in Slovenia, on the tongue of land between the rivers Tolminka and Soča. There were two beaches reserved for the gathering and a camp. From 2004 to 2012 the name was Metalcamp. From 2013 the name is MetalDays. An encyclopedia prints a cap of 12,000 tickets in 2010 and, later, a cap of 25,000. Those figures are sheet caps, not a turnstile. The same encyclopedia says it won an A Greener Festival award five years running.

The last gathering the sheets close is the one at Lake Velenje, from 31 July to 4 August 2023. The last day was cancelled because of the rain. A report of 17 July 2024 carries the organisers' words: severe floods on the local roads, many landslides, a state of emergency, and the rest of the gathering called off. They write that people were glad to get home alive and that the excitement about the new lake did not last. That summer's sheet offered camping, glamping and tents already pitched, and arrival by train, bus or car. RTV SLO explains the move: the Tolmin bypass and the municipality's decision not to allow large events in Tolmin.

The closing note, which they title as the end, gives the accounts in their figures. The first edition under the name MetalDays, they say, had 6,200 visitors and a loss of 1.2 million euros. The following years were profitable and the profit went into other gatherings of theirs: Winter Days of Metal, Headbanger's Holiday, Bluesland, Overjam Reggae between 2017 and 2019, and Punk Rock Holiday between 2013 and 2016. That is why, they write, there was no savings when covid arrived. For 2020 they say they sold more than 10,000 tickets and had no reserve. By the end of 2021 they were already thinking of bankruptcy. The year list prints a short 2021, from 29 July to 1 August, under the name Weekend of Solace. These sheets do not close those doors. The same list opens 2004 on 20 and 21 August, two days, and later prints full weeks. The 2022 sheet runs from 24 to 30 July. RTV says they handed drink sales to an outside firm, which put in cashless payment, kept a large share of the money and did not return the unused balance. They say that made them look unprofessional. The RTV thanks speak of ten years. The encyclopedia counts from 2004. The two counts do not measure the same stretch. In 2022 the gathering sold out, with prices calculated before March 2020, and some production costs had risen by 300 percent. Even sold out, it did not cover the costs. For 2023 they raised the price and sales looked like the first edition again. They write that without the flood the 2023 loss would not have been that one, and that afterwards few people bought for the summer after.

2024 was announced as a pause, with an eye on a gathering from 27 July to 2 August 2025. On 17 July 2024 they publish that this road ends. They offered the company and the brand to Live Nation, Festival Republic and Superstruct, and to other large festivals, to meet what was still owed. Nobody took it. They apologise for refunds that did not come back, for bands left unpaid and for production bills left open. They say they should have filed for bankruptcy when covid started and that pride made them wait. RTV SLO headlines that the organisers declared bankruptcy. In the same note they speak of a lawsuit against the cashless firm Amaia Esa d.o.o. RTV says they count two rulings in their favour and that they are waiting on the court's final word. The report adds that the note also names a lawsuit against another festival and the lack of support from the Slovenian government. Those sentences are theirs.

RTV records the thanks to the people who played, the partners, the press, Tolmin and Velenje, and the people of ten years of the gathering. They write that they saw couples who met and married on the grounds, and children who grew from one summer to the next. They say that for them a period of life closes. The July 2024 report says the social accounts were already deleted and that the page was still the place of the note. The address is kept.

People slept in a tent by the rivers, and in 2023 on the lake camp, in a tent already pitched or in glamping. These sheets close no lived day after 4 August 2023. The 2025 dates were a plan, and the note of 17 July 2024 leaves them without doors.