Forever young!
An really awesome Sunday afternoon festival in the middle of sunny Caldas Da Rainha with 6 Portuguese bands and two guest bands from the UK.
At 3 pm the sound pierced the calm afternoon for the first time as sXe hardcore gang xAIMx from Lisbon screamed out their first message about veganism and straight edge way of living. Band plays a nice mixture of very emotional guitars riffs, tempo changing from fast to slow and aggressive straight to the point vocals. Next ones were their fellow citizens Selfish who delivered more punk rock vibes with really killer and awesome sounding bass guitar. The crowd started a little slowly and even the locals Nasty World had some troubles to warm them up at the beginning, but by the end of the set everybody in room joined forces for the anti racism anthem "This Can't Be Real". Next ones were 74 who delivered a local raw punk vibe to the fest and brought with them a few friends who made sure nobody in the club was standing still. Challenge celebrated a release of their new CD called "CRHC" and they did it well. With the face expression ready to command and kill on Edgar's face, there was no excuse for the ones gathered in the club not to move and sing along with the band. I think they technically played one of the most smooth sets since I first seen them arriving in Portugal. Especially drums were really heavy and tight (thumbs up also for the updated audio system).
After the short break it was time for the UK sXe hardcore gangs Insist and Survival to tear up the place apart. As it turned down the crowd was really hungry for the UK acts and created a total mayhem in the club. Fast, short and straight to the point with a lot of the energy from both of the vocalists, despite other members being little bit more static they created a really nice flow of energy and aggression. As the sayings says "leave best for the last" Portuguese act For The Glory hit the place with their metallic version of Hardcore. If the crowd in Lisbon only four days ago, when I was photographing them supporting Sick Of It All, was a little static the crowd on Dirty Crown festival was the total opposite. From kids singing the lyrics to older members of the crowd getting into the mood for crowd surfing and moshing there was chaos! Big smiles for the older generation who got involved in the action and positive vibe from the band to the crowd and vice versa resulted in the perfect closing of the third edition of Dirty Crown festival.
The only let down was the absence of some members of the local crowd, but those who came came with the big heart and left with even bigger smile on their faces. Congrats to the Dirty Crown booking guys for building such a cool festival and community and keep the flame burning!

19.04.2015, Parque, Caldas Da Rainha
Photos & words by: Jaka Čurlič