Greeting Curby! How are you doing my friend, busy and tired?)

Haha…yeah, a few weeks before the festival, it’s always terrible, mate! Totally busy, changes every day, always something with some band and so on! I don`t want to cry, I am happy I can do it! As the Mandalorian says: „This is the way”, ha!
I really love when the first band grab their strings and the first tone is on!!! It`s the best feeling after the last weeks before the fest.

In just a few weeks and the gates to the Battlefield will be opened. How do you feel about it, do you think the festival still growing and improving?

I can’t wait for a full edition! As you know we had no festival in 2020 and a smaller, but a great version last year so this is what I have been waiting for several years!!! Maybe I will cray ha! And absolutely yes…we always want to improve the festival! It’s important to move on with little details…those small things fulfil the whole picture! This year we will bring back the vegan zone with a relaxing tent and …also just for this year we brewed our own EVER FLOWING STREAM beer and also roasted our very own coffee COFFIN GRINDER!!! We always want to improve but we want to have fun doing it and that’s important as well! And for next year I already have some more plans for NAPALM pub!!! 😉

The covid is almost defeated, and it’s become easier to travel for both the bands and fans. I think it`s important to ask about the measures against virus, do visitors need to be vaccinated, and so on?

Well, this is everyone’s responsibility!!! And always was actually! The Czech Republic dropped off all covid restrictions and it’s surely a good step! We need to think how to live with covid as this virus probably won’t disappear!

So how many people do you expect to welcome this year? Did you order enough toy-toy and beer?)

It`s TOI TOI mate! Listen to some GUTALAX songs to know how to write it haha! I expect really a lot of fans as the lineup is surely one of the best in history!!! Mixing all extreme styles, legends of the genres and also new promising bands…actually as every year!!! But as ticket presale goes, it should be a massive volume for sure!!! I am really happy that our loyal fans show us their eternal support!!!

Talking about the beer. Which brewery will present their products this year? I saw that there will be a special edition of OEFs beer in cans, that is a very lovely touch.

Well, our BEER REVOLUTION was BIG thing back in 2019 and we would like to repeat it but so far for logistic problems we can`t do that, so this time we co-operate with Pilsner Urquell brewery and their microbrewery Proud (Stream in English). We will have lots of different beers on tap – Pilsner Urquell, Velkopopovicky Kozel, also Kozel dark, Radegast Ratar and 10, Ziwell (that’s special beer for this summer from Pilsner Urquell) and almost a complete offer from Proud and they have some really interesting beers!
Ventill 11°, Cotel 14°, Kisseláč Švestka (Plum) 8°, Yuzu Ale 10°, Raise Your Glass  12° APA and Wit 13°, see their website for more info or check out the website when we will reveal a BEER map, probably next week!

Our own beer Ever Flowing Stream is our very own tribute to one of the best death metal albums in history as you can see from the name. Watch the video, my friend Adolf was the brewer for a day and he loved it ha! This beer will be available only at the fest in cans and on tap as well!

 

Details –
Name: Ever Flowing Stream
Beer style: India Pale Lager
Gravity: 11°
ABV: 4,8 %
Bitterness: 45 IBU (international bitterness unit)
Color: 12 EBC (světlé/pale)
Malt: plzeňský, čokoládový / pilsner, chocolate
Hops: Willamette, Citra, Cascade

You also started a t-shirt production, tell us a bit about it. Is it fun to do it or has it become a routine already?

Yes, I simply didn`t know what to do with my time during covid…and also I had ideas for really perfect PRINT ON DEMAND STORE with old OEF designs, with cool band’s artworks, etc.! Of course, before OEF it is really difficult to run this but since November we have made a big step and this fall we will announce some killer news and bands we will work with!!!

What are the main problems with the organization of this year’s festival?

Everything is more expensive, sometimes double in comparison to 2019, so it`s very difficult to have a balanced budget as we sold most of the presale tickets in 2019 and 2020 back then…so this will be really tough to make it through this! Another unpleasant thing is that everything changes so quickly…it`s just unbelievable…also the last-minute cancellations are something that hurt me a lot as I always wanted to bring all the confirmed bands we were in contact with during the covid years and now a month before the festival they just cancel it with a short email…shame…

A short time ago you had a trip to the US. So how was the trip to the Maryland Deathfest? Did you make a deal with new bands? 😉

Oh man, traveling is such a great thing and I missed it a lot!!! It was a great trip! When I heard this should be the last year when Ryan and Evan do this, I had no choice and had to go!!! I had so much fun! Bands were total killers, I met a lot of friends and I just hung out without purpose haha!

Traditional question, which 10 bands do you want to see the most?

Ha! So hard to make a choice!!! Surely DISMEMBER! Just the other day it was 30 years when I saw them for the first time in Prague’s ice hockey hall! Can you believe it? MACABRE is such a unique band and such cool people to hang out! GODFLESH on Wednesday, I am not a super fan but this might work greatly at the Battlefield!!! Of course, mighty SKITSYSTEM, almighty PIG DESTROYER, MOB 47, FEASTEM, GATECREEPER are very solid death metal soldiers and also bands that are not so well-known but great anyway like ONA SNOP, HETZE, DECULTIVATE, VOLE and more…plus I am very curious and grateful that we can have bands from really exotic places like VISCERAL VOMIT from Bolivia or DEZAZTRE NATURAL from Chile or SxFxCx from Peru!!! Actually, I will try to see as much as I can!

Thank you so much for your time amigo, I have no doubt that this episode will be epic! Any words for the OEF family and our readers?

As always thank you all for your support and see you this year or the next!!! And peace to your country that’s the thing that matters most now!!!

Contacts: Official page/tickets    Facebook page