Our pioneers joined 80.000 fans other fans for the most spectacular show that the Serbian capital has ever seen. The Rammstein concert was a surprise stop on the Ultimate Yugoslavia Tour, taking in all seven countries of the former Yugoslavia.
One of the reasons our tours are popular with “people who hate group tours”, as our motto says, is that we take any opportunity to make them better, during the day and the night. If a cool event is happening nearby, from the World Nomad Games in Astana to the Guerewol Festival in Niger. That’s why when a Rammstein concert was announced in Belgrade, right in the middle of our Ultimate Yugoslavia Tour, we made sure to grab tickets so that we could offer it as an option.
So after a day of visiting Belgrade, country 5 of 7 on our epic journey, our group joined visitors from all around Europe converging to the Usce Park. The city was full of fans, to the point that it is was impossible to find accommodation weeks in advance (but we were prepared!) despite the prices having reached astronomical levels.
Rachel, a YPT regular, stopped by the merchandising booth
For those who do not know, Rammstein is an industrial metal band founded in 1994 in Berlin. They rapidly reached cult status with songs like Du hast, Engel, Sonne and Ich will, and became the best-selling German band in the world (we like The Scorpions too, though!). Part of their popularity come from their spectacular shows, full of theatrical and pyrotechnic elements.
Some numbers to show you the scale of a Rammstein concert: the sound system can deliver up to 2 million watts, the stage weights 1350 tons and fits in 77 trucks and it takes 7 days to build it. More than 1,200 litres of gasoline are burned each show to light up the massive structure, coming straight from a Fritz Lang movie.
Living a Rammstein concert from the inside
As we got to the Feuerzone (the “Fire Zone”), the area closest to the stage, our guests were dwarfed by the sheer size of the structure. “That’s the most incredible live setup I’ve ever seen”, said Rachel, from Manchester, who joined us for her third YPT trip in one year (Northern Cyprus, Alternative Egypt and this one). “I loved every part of the trip so far, but that Rammstein concert will be a highlight of the tour, I can’t wait to tell my friends about it”, concurred Grant, who travelled all the way from Connecticut.
And a highlight it was! It is already said this is the biggest spectacle that the Serbian capital has ever seen. Rammstein delivered an incredible performance, closer to a metal-opera than a simple concert.
After coming down from the top of the stage in an open-elevator, the band started to play their opener Ramm4, before continuing with classics such as Links 2 3 4, Keine Lust or the banger Asche zu Asche, still as heavy as when it was released 30 years ago. During Mein Teil, the singer Till Lindemann pretended to cook the keyboardist Flake with a giant flamethrower; then he carried a flame-throwing backpack during Rammstein; while the guitarists sported flame-throwing guitars. Getting too hot? During Pussy, Till Lindemann straddle a giant cannon in the shape of you-know-what to throw foam at the crowd. “What the hell is happening”, somebody screamed.
“I went to 16 Rammstein concerts around Europe in the last few years, but I wasn’t planning to attend the Belgrade on my own: seeing that there was a YPT tour at the same time convinced me to come, so that I could discover former-Yugoslavia and see my favourite band”, says Eleonore, from France, on her first YPT trip.
We don’t have another Rammstein concert planned yet -but who would be up for a Taylor Swift show?-, but we’ll be back in Yugoslavia this winter on our Tito’s Winter tour.
Morgan officially works for a consumer organisation, but he travels so much – especially in countries his mother doesn’t want him to go to – that his friends think he’s actually a spy or a Rammstein roadie. His love for polar regions (favourite thing in the Arctic: Northern lights; in Antarctica: penguins) brought him to Antarctica as a guide for YPT in 2022.
