Heineken Jammin' Festival 2010

Written by Ilaria Rebecchi

Sunday, 18 July 2010 00:00

Day 1: July, 3rd 2010
Parco San Giuliano, Venezia - Italy

The line-up for this summer’s HJF in Venice was announced some months ago, and included some of the most important names in rock, electro and hip-hop from around the world. The line-up included both young, upcoming bands and some older classics, such as Aerosmith, Pearl Jam and Massive Attack.
Are these good enough reasons to come to one of the prettiest parks in Italy, not far one of the most beautiful cities in the world to see these musical heroes?
We think so.

Here’s what the first day of the Italian Heineken Jammin’ Festival 2010, at Parco San Giuliano near Venice, looked like.

This is the most important music event of the year in Italy, celebrated from 3rd to 6th July. No less than 90 000 tickets were sold for the four-day event, most people coming to catch their favorite international bands such as Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Massive Attack, Black Eyed Peas, Editors, N*E*R*D, Cypress Hill, 30 Seconds To Mars, Skunk Anansie, Cranberries, Stereophonics, Gossip, Gomez and Ben Harper.

Along with these big names, there were also a great many bands from the Italian independent and alternative music scene - from Plan De Fuga to Pan Del Diavolo, hip-hop group Club Dogo and The Bastard Sons Of Dioniso). On one hot afternoon near the Venetian lagoon, the first day’s entertainment kicked off, with performances from Plan De Fuga (on form with their alternative rock music), and La Fame di Camilla (coming directly from the Sanremo Festival 2010, and the only real surprise of the whole festival) both opening for the Welsh Stereophonics, who perfectly mixed their pop and rock, giving us an hour and half of magical guitars and hard drumming – with even more oomph than in their recordings.

After the Stereophonics came the Cranberries, with distorsions full of adrenaline. Front-woman Dolores O’Riordan’s voice was unfortunately a little weak – it failed to punctuate the songs as it should – and wasn’t this always her best feature?

And then history was made. Aerosmith, those hard and heavy heroes, who have been making music since the seventies, causing havoc on stages around the world began with an explosion of energy and power with the masterpiece Love in an Elevator. Led by that man of eternal youth, Steven Tyler, dressed in a showy tabby hat and seventies pants, lots of chains and sunglasses, and joined by his histrionic bandmate Joe Perry, they continued with Pink, Living On The Edge, I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing and Walk This Way.

It was a first day full of great music and history, and there was still room for the young band finalists of the HJF Contest 2010 – with NoSpeech, Loren, Garner, Lomè and Margot all performing.

Put all of this great music together, add some food stalls, entertainment and sports areas, art and relaxation and the natural beauty of the park near Venice, and you’ll have some good reasons to partake in one of the most important summer festivals of the year.
If you’re addicted to good quality music, it’s definitely the place to be.

Report by Ilaria Rebecchi

Photo courtesy of Alessandra Di Gregorio

Part Two