Hellfest was such a unique and fucking awesome experience. I’ve never flown out of state to go to a music fest before. Meeting all of my friends and creating a lasting bond by going to this festival. When the announcement happened that Hellfest was back for the 25th anniversary, some of us were so hyped up, especially Oliver.
Road to New Jersey
The first talks of Hellfest started WAY back in January 2025, when Trustkill made a channel for the Trustkill Instagram and posted a poll that said “Who do you want to see at the 25th anniversary of Hellfest in New Jersey?” and that sent us into thinking, “Is this actually happening? Holy shit”. And once it was fully announced that Hellfest was happening, most of us were on board, and we were going to make this happen. Hellfest is considered THE iconic hardcore festival that happened in the late 90s and early 2000s.
I woke up at 1 AM early on July 4th to catch a 6 AM flight to my layover in Chicago, then sprinted across Midway airport to catch my 10 AM flight to Philly. I landed at around 12:45 PM. It was a little confusing to find where the pickup area was, but I found Oliver, and we ran back to the car.
It was my first time going up north, and being in Philly- seeing all the historic brick buildings and architecture of the city was amazing. Being with my friends in a city that I have never been to was special to me. We had a very late lunch and then went to some of the shops down in Philly. We then got to meet up with Sera and Possum, who drove 10 hours from Ohio to come to this fest. Also, Oliver and Sera are best friends and haven’t seen each other in over 8 months since Oliver moved out of Ohio, so the reunion was a very sweet moment. Afterwards, we went to a record shop that was near us and looked through the vinyls and CDs. The one thing that I didn’t get to try while in Philly was a truly real-deal Philly cheesesteak. A few of the crew got cheesesteaks, but since I was still full from earlier, I didn’t get one. I just asked Lizzie to get me some water. After going upstairs and sitting down, we all started yapping to each other about tomorrow…
The next morning, all of us got ready and prepared for the 2-hour drive up to New Jersey from Lizzie’s house. We picked up Rachel on the way since she lives not too far from the border of Philly, and stopped at a Wawa to get a quick breakfast. The most fascinating thing when pulling up to a gas pump in New Jersey is someone coming up to the window asking about how much gas to put in. Sera, Possum, Oliver, and I were in total shock because none of us had any idea that it was a real thing that happened in New Jersey. I always thought it was a joke. ANYWAY, back on the road to Rutherford, I got to show Joey the music video for the song Stickers of Brian by Hot Mulligan while sipping on a shitty Wawa iced coffee that was too sweet.
The Fest
Once we arrived at the venue, Lizzie dropped off Sera, Oliver, Possum, and me near the side of the venue. Right when we exited the car, we could already hear the first band playing, and we started walking around the side of the venue to find the line to get in, which was wrapped around the building. We stood in line for about 15 minutes, and we finally got up to the front of the venue. Since Oliver’s phone was broken the night before, he couldn’t scan his tickets and had to wait to get into the venue to look him up and get his & Sera’s wristbands. I kinda embarrassed myself since I was taking out my wallet and spilled everything onto the floor from my cross-body bag that I had with me. The kind security guard lady helped me pick everything up (I almost forgot my earplugs). Once I got my wristband, I was trying to find exactly where everything was and heard the music coming from inside one of the rooms.
When I entered, there were two stages, a big stage on the left and a smaller stage on the right. I learned pretty quickly that each of the bands set alternated between stages. This led to people quickly moving to the next stage, like in a wave. I saw the ending set of Start Today, and right when their set ended, Godskin Peeler started their set on the smaller stage. Their set was crazy, I left a little bit in the middle of the set to find the others. I was in and out during some of the sets.
The others were hanging out outside the venue where the vendor booths were. xSisterhoodx, Smartpunk Records, Madd Vintage, Violent Minded, and Moving Mountains. xSisterhoodx had a lot of free stuff, including bracelets. Smartpunk had vintage shirts and vinyl for sale at their booth. Madd Vintage had a lot of hardcore and punk shirts for sale. I had put X’s on my hands earlier in the day with the Sharpies, but they had been sweated off mostly, so I got re-X’d at the xSisterhoodx booth.
Right in between sets, we decided to go to a diner not far from the venue and get lunch. I got a turkey panini; most of us got some sort of brunch. Oliver ordered two plates of vegan breakfast and hounded down both of them; all of us were shocked by how fast he ate both of those plates of food. I did have a piece of Possum’s French toast, and it was so good. We talked briefly about some of the sets that we watched so far.
We headed back to the venue, and we looked around the Smartpunk booth for a bit. We were jokingly talking about Oliver fighting Josh, when one of the guys helping run the booth, Alex, overheard us and was confused. So we explained that it was a joking beef that Oliver had with Josh and that he was gonna fight him at Hellfest. Alex then proceeded to say, “Let’s do it right now. Let’s go talk to him.” All of us collectively went inside, and Alex started explaining the whole thing to Josh. I was the one to say, “This is Oliver, Weapon told you about him!” and it clicked in Josh’s brain who he was. It took him a second to figure out where he knew Oliver from. Once we mentioned Discord, it clicked.
Afterwards, one of the sets had just ended, and Azshara’s set was just starting. I went upstairs to view some of the merch before heading back downstairs. I went back inside and got to see the end of Azshara set. They played a 7 Angels 7 Plagues cover, which I didn’t catch at all until Oliver told me about it. The next set was onelinedrawing- a little bit slower in sound, but was a good breaker between sets.
While watching this set, we were waiting for our friend Weapon. He drove 3 hours from where he lives to come see us. We were given updates from one of our other friends as to where he was as well. While in the middle of watching the onelinedrawing set, Oliver came up to me to talk about Azshara’s set. Without my knowledge, Weapon had sneakily arrived and was standing next to me. It took me so long to notice he was there because Oliver was talking to me. I turned around to look for Sera and saw him, and screamed, “OH MY GOD!” and Weapon tried hiding behind Oliver jokingly. He laughed, and we hugged. I asked him how he was here earlier than expected, and he said he wanted to surprise us, so he gave our friend a fake time estimate of when he’d get there. I went and found Joey & Lizzie, who were downstairs, to let them know Weapon was here. They came up, and Weapon moved over to the Trustkill merch booth. I went back into the area where the stages were and saw Sera & Oliver were still there. I then walked out and went over to the Trustkill merch booth and saw that Joey had given Weapon our gifts that we made for him. He was very excited, and he loved what we gave him. I also gave him some friendship bracelets that I made MONTHS ago, leading up to Hellfest.
We talked for a bit with Weapon, he actually brought some iconic photos of Pete that were like THE photos that have been everywhere online for years. We were physically holding them in our hands. After talking for a bit, I went back into the room to see who was up next playing. It was Balmora. That set was also insane. I was only there at the beginning of the set before leaving. Minutes after I left, there was a clip posted onto the Hellfest Instagram of the Balmora set where someone jumped off the balcony during one of the songs.
Around this time, we got a group photo with Weapon, and right after, we went to see Final Resting Place. The room was so tightly packed, and the amount of body heat didn’t help at all. Sera was right behind me. Right after Final Resting Place set ended, her and I went downstairs to take a break. When we sat down to relax for a bit, Possum had asked in the group chat to help them get out of the room during Missing Link. So Sera and I went back upstairs to try to find Possum. We went to the very back, where the smaller stage was, and tried to see where they were. I saw Lizzie and Rachel outside the pit from where I was standing. I got a text that Joey found Possum and they had went downstairs. Sera was ready to head downstairs as well. We squeezed through people to get out of the room and headed downstairs to where the others were. Most of us wanted some food before heading back in. Sera and I got a pizza that we shared, Joey got French fries, and Possum got ice cream. Collectively, we all shared our food with each other.
The Oliver Incident
This is when everything got confusing and very scary. I was the one to see what was going on in the group chat. Lizzie asked if anyone had seen Oliver at all. I said the last time I saw him was when we took the group photo. Lizzie then proceeds to explain that she heard someone say over the loudspeaker, “Hey, your boy Oliver [Last name] from Ohio, he’s in the hospital!” We were extremely confused at first. Yes, he’s from Ohio, but he isn’t living there currently or licensed there. Also, it didn’t sound like his last name. After we wrapped up eating, we headed upstairs to see what was happening.
When we got upstairs, it was fucking PACKED, and going up the stairs, people were standing in the stairwell. I was close to the front, and from my view, I saw a girl lying on the floor with EMTs surrounding her. I couldn’t tell if she was passed out or had a broken leg, but security was yelling at the crowd to move away and to clear out. We moved over to where the Trustkill merch booth was and waited a bit for the crowd to clear. We still didn’t know where Oliver was, so Joey went up and asked someone at the Trustkill booth if they had seen Oliver, and they said to go check with the EMTs. I stayed with Rachel while Joey, Sera, and Possum went to where the EMTs were. Less than 2 minutes later, they came speed walking out of the EMT’s room and said, “Oliver is in the hospital.”
We immediately walked out of the venue and went over to the Preserving Hardcore booth, since earlier that day some of the group had bought CDs and Vinyls, and AJ was kind enough to keep them at the booth until it was time to leave. We figured it was a good meeting spot. I called Lizzie to explain, and she also had to let her friend who was working the festival know about what happened. Sera was very upset, and I was trying to reassure her that Oliver would be alright. Joey was also trying to comfort her.
So I went to my DMs to message Weapon about what happened. I had been able to send messages to him, but I was not getting his messages because of how bad the service was. As a last resort, I texted our friend Amal, who had his number, and said, “Hey, can you please text Weapon, tell him to meet us at the Preserving Hardcore booth?” I also said to call him if he didn’t text back. She texted back, concerned, “Uh, okay, what happened?” I couldn’t explain it at that moment, but once Weapon was at the booth, we told him what happened. We asked if he had any room in his car, and he said that he only had room for one person. Collectively, all of us said Sera should go with him, and they left for the hospital.
Lizzie’s friend got us back to her house, and we went upstairs to collect ourselves. I then called Amal, and we explained to her what had happened. Once we explained what happened, I told her to give my number to Weapon so he could text me updates about Oliver. Lizzie took Possum and me to the hotel to check in. We stopped at a Walmart that was nearby to get some snacks and a mini case of water to have in the room. While looking for snacks, I found plant-based Reese’s cups and grabbed those for Oliver. Possum got a pack of Heath bars, they got Sera a big pack of yogurt-covered pretzels, and I got a small bag of Dots pretzels.
Right in the middle of paying, I checked my phone and got a text from Joey and Weapon. He explained that Oliver had a minor brain bleed and that he needed a CT scan to see if it would spread or not. Other than that, Weapon said that he was very chipper and was really sad he lost his Ten Yard Fight hat. I finished paying, and we headed back to the hotel. I texted him back and thanked him for the update & to let me know when they get to the hotel.
We got back to the hotel and put our stuff down, we waited for Weapon and Sera to get here. About 20 minutes later, they were here, and Possum and I went down to the parking lot. We talked with Weapon for a few minutes. He told us he was going to sleep in his car, and that shocked me, but he said he was fine with it. He wasn’t originally planning on staying for day two of the festival.
We all said goodnight to Weapon and headed back up to the hotel room. Sera explained to Possum and I what went down at the hospital. The first thing that Oliver said to Sera when he saw her was, “Do I have hardcore cred now?” and proceeded to ramble on about hockey. I asked Sera, “Why did they say he was from Ohio?” Apparently, Oliver kept his old ID with him for some reason, and that was what they used as a reference for who he was.
We then got on a call with the other to figure out a plan for the next day, and we all went to bed.
I woke up pretty early the next morning, around 6 AM. I got dressed and ready for the day, and I waited for Possum and Sera to wake up around 7:30 AM. Possum was up and got ready, and we went down for a quick breakfast from the mini breakfast bar that the hotel had. We came back to the room and ate our breakfast. Sera was up and got dressed, but was still kinda tired from yesterday and took a nap after eating. I got a text from Weapon around 8 AM. He said that he got a call from the hospital, but missed it since his phone was on silent, and tried calling back. It was most likely Oliver trying to call him, but Joey was the second person that Oliver called, and Joey picked up.
Weapon explained that he was done in the city running his errand and was able to head back to the hospital. He stayed with Oliver the whole time. I explained to him that we were doing okay and that Sera was taking a nap from being worn out yesterday. Around 10:30 AM, I got a FaceTime call from Weapon, and he explained what was happening and showed me Oliver. I waved at him, and we talked for a bit.
After that, we waited for Lizzie’s friend to come get us from the hotel and head over to the straight edge hangout that was run by xSisterhoodx and Smartpunk Records. They had kickball, a raffle to be able to win some vinyls and CDs, a keg of root beer, and were blasting iconic straight edge songs. We met some cool people while there, and we got to interview Josh, AJ from Preserving Hardcore, and Alex also joined in on the conversation. We learned a lot more about the New Jersey Hardcore scene, and some connections to other bands as well.
When it was around 1:30 PM, the group split up; some went to the hospital to see Oliver, and some went to Lizzie’s friend’s house. I was in the ladder group. Lizzie’s friend was happy enough to grab us a late lunch before we headed out to go back to the fest. While waiting for them to get back, I FaceTimed Joey and got to see everyone, including Oliver. By the time we hung up the call, our food was served. Possum and I munched down on chicken nuggets with sweet chili sauce, which were really good. Right around 2:45 PM, we headed back to the venue just in time for the show to start.
I texted the group chat saying we were at the venue, and we chilled around outside for a bit, waiting for them to get there. We went downstairs, where the ice cream parlor was, to cool off for a bit. After a while, we went back outside and actually found Weapon hanging near the booths. We went over to him and talked for a bit. I was confused where the others were, but we kept talking until I looked in the group chat that they were here. I looked around and didn’t see them. I told them I was with Weapon.
After a few more minutes, I walked around the corner and found them, and to my surprise, Oliver was there! Weapon came over and told us that he was good enough to be discharged from the hospital, which was great to hear, but all of us had to keep an eye on him. I was with Sera and Oliver most of the time; at one point, Weapon took them both upstairs to the balcony to watch the few sets they wanted to see, and watched with them.
Towards the end of the night, most of us were hanging out downstairs, eating ice cream. A big culture shock for a lot of the attendees was that in Rutherford, on Sundays, most of the restaurants and shops are closed by 3 PM. So people scrambled for food once they realized. Weapon found a place and got a veggie burrito bowl. He ate about half of it and gave the rest to Oliver. Oliver scarfed it down so fast, I was in shock a little bit.
The last set for the second day was Eighteen Visions. They played the entirety of Until The Ink Runs Out front to back. Oliver and Sera went back up onto the balcony to watch the set. There was a funny thing that happened right before Eighteen Visions started; the set before was Disembodied, and almost everyone was in that room for Disembodied. Right after that set ended, everyone in that room left to catch their breath. Mind you, there was no re-entry after 9 PM. I think everybody forgot and got locked out. We got lucky because of that; the room was really empty, so it wasn’t as sweaty and hot. I texted Weapon asking where he was, and he was over on the smaller stage. Lizzie, Rachel, Possum, Joey, and I went over and climbed up onto the smaller stage and had a great view of the set. Sadly, we got kicked off the stage right before Eighteen Visions started, but standing wasn’t too bad.
The best thing that happened was watching Eighteen Visions with Weapon; their set was an amazing ending set for the return of Hellfest in 2025. After the set ended, we all went outside and said goodbye to Weapon. He drove back the three hours to his home right after we said goodbye, even though it was like 11 PM by this time. He pulled off the road and took a nap at some point, but still, crazy.
Overall, I can’t wait for Hellfest next year and to do this all again (minus any one of us ending up in the hospital!)