Opening the final and lightest day off with a bang were Eclipse. I saw them at a tiny venue in the UK a few years ago, so seeing them on a massive stage was pretty cool. They owned it too, playing a short but great set of glammy, AOR rock. ‘Runaways’ is my favourite track by them so I was made up when they played it, but closer ‘Viva La Victoria’ was also a big highlight!

We kinda floated about for a while afterwards, seeing bits and pieces of sets of bands we were curious about. As such, I can’t talk about them in too much length but:

Kissin’ Dynamite were alright. A bit more glam than Eclipse and a little less my sort of thing. They were good live, though!

Elegant Weapons, despite the start studded line-up, weren’t my thing. I just found them a little boring.

Stand Atlantic were a lot of fun. We stood and watched most of these, a good pop rock/pop punk band with a lot of energy on stage. The songs were catchy and she was good frontwoman. Honestly turned out to be one of the highlights of the day!

Controversial one, I don’t think Erik Grönwall is a good fit for Skid Row. He was amazing in H.E.A.T and is a cracking vocalist and frontman, but his voice sounds a little too polished for Skid Row. I honestly thought ZP was the perfect fit, too. The band put on a good show and were tight, but yeah, that little nag put me off.

Bloodywood packed out Jupiler stage. The Indian sensations have taken off the last couple of years and a lot of people, including myself, were excited to see them. They put on a good show, too. For some reason they were a lot quiter than everyone else on the stage that weekend. Whether there were issues or it was the weather, it did take a bit of the impact off. They’re also up there alongside Brent Smith for most emotional, long-winded speeches between tracks. I get that songs have important messages behind them but you don’t have to beat the crowd over the head with it every few minutes! Still, their sound translated well to the crowd and I think they’ll be firm festival favourite in the coming years.

Sunday’s highlight comes curtesy of those kooky Swedes, Avatar. Few put on a better show than Johannes Eckerström and co in 2023. No matter the size of the stage or the length of the set, they give it their all. Graspop was no exception. From Johannes magically rising out of a present box to the band marching to the front of the stage in unison for ‘Colossus’, there were plenty of cool moments. Then there was the beautiful piano ballad that is ‘Tower’ and the fact that I FINALLY got to see ‘Bloody Angel’ live, and it was a damn good setlist. Johannes is the most captivating frontman around today and his character on stage is so damn interesting. I could watch them for hours, and I would recommend them to anyone, not just metal fans!

We took a bit of a break before heading back in for Cooper, Perry and Depp. I really didn’t have much expectation headed into Hollywood Vampires after seeing videos and setlists from the last few years. However, they blew me away. Seeing them live I get the gimmick now and why they do the covers and stuff. Plus, between doing their own music and some of Depp’s stuff he wrote with Jeff Beck and all the covers, it was a varied, interesting and very fun set.

Alice Cooper is forever an entertaining frontman no matter what he’s singing, and the others put on a good show too. Depp was surprisingly reserved, though that may have been his injured foot. I would recommend them to anyone; they’re a lot of fun and will probably play something you know as well as a bunch of other great tracks!

*sigh*, now we reach the fun. Motley Crue. I’m not gonna lie, they were one of the ones I was excited to see, despite the videos and reports of recent shows. A morbid curiosity, I guess.

Firstly the positives. The girls they brought on were definitely entertaining and also provided some great backing vocals. John 5 was, well, John 5. One of the most reliably entertaining and talented guitarists around. The songs that were written were of course good. And the tracks that Vince mimed for sounded even better…

But yeah, the elephant in the room, Vince wasn’t good. We all knew that heading in, and at least I wasn’t surprised. What did surprise me, was that Tommy, Nikki and the stage show as a whole were also pretty boring. For the most part they just showed up and played. They had some big inflatable women for the last couple of songs, and I think some fire once(?). However, I was expecting a big show. There was no upside down stuff from Tommy, no epic pyro or really any banter at all on stage. It’s a shame as stuff like that may have made up for the sound. A bit of a let down, but not too much as I didn’t go in with many expectations!

I felt a little bad for headliners Def Leppard as Crue had driven some of the crowd away. It also didn’t help that it was the last night, it was raining, and they were one of the lightest on the bill. However, they still gave it their all and put on a fantastic show. It’s hard to fault Leppard, they’ve always been solid. Their albums sound exactly like their live shows anyway so it’s pretty easy to be satisfied. They rattled through their greatest hits catalogue and even had time to throw in a couple of tracks off their 2022 album. Yeah, it was a good set, and a great way to close out the festival!

And there we have it, folks. Four days of awesome music, drinking and a lot of singing and dancing! I’m still worn out now and it’s been days, but it was so worth it! I cannot recommend the festival enough to anyone, it needs experiencing at least once! Same again next year, Graspop…?