Photo by Kevin Wilson for Magic Circle Entertainment - All rights reserved
Midalidare Rock In The Wine Valley Festival is a festival in the Mogilovo area in Bulgaria that is getting bigger and bigger with people visiting from all around the world. Once again the organization was amazing and could easily welcome the thousands of people that visit it. From the parking areas, to the entrance and from the cash exchange points to the numerous kiosks, is a festival that I highly recommend to all metalheads. For the area itself there are very few things that I could say. One of the best outdoors areas that I’ve been in the 24 years that I go to gigs and festivals.
This year’s edition featured Manowar, W.A.S.P and Alice Cooper as headliners and we also had the chance to watch bands like Doro, H.E.A.T., Michael Schenker and Floor Jansen among others.
DAY 1 – 11/07/2025
TUNGSTEN
Right on schedule Swedish power metallers Tungsten got on stage and in front of them there were already thousands of people which helped to create a really good vibe despite the heat. Anders Johansson (ex-HammerFall) alongside with his two sons on bass and guitar played for about 45 minutes and what made a really good impression on me was that so many people knew their songs. Great energy on stage, great vibe and what a better way to open this year’s edition.
Setlist: Anger / This Is War / Lullaby / Heart Of Rust / King Of Shadows / Blood Of The Kings / On The Sea / Vantablack / The Fairies Dance / We Will Rise
BRAINSTORM
Brainstorm hit the stage at 19:45 and for the next hour they really stormed the festival with their dark power metal. Formed back in 1989 the German veterans knew exactly what they had to do to make the crowd go crazy. Their presence on stage was really good and the size of it, didn’t seem to make them nervous at all. I think it was quite the opposite.
Their setlist was balanced between their latest releases and the classic ones like “Soul Temptation” and “Liquid Monster” in which the reaction of their fans was absolutely great.
Setlist: Worlds Are Comin’ Through / Devil’s Eye / Shiva’s Tears / The Shepherd Girl / Highs Without Lows / All Those Words / Glory Disappears / Garuda / Where Ravens Fly / Crawling / Ravenous Minds
ORDEN OGAN
It took Orden Ogan 29 years to come to Bulgaria so the enthusiasm and the anticipation of the crowd was really high. And the German power metallers didn’t fail to deliver! The setlist focused on their 2 latest releases “Final Days” and “The Order Of Fear” but we also listened to some of the classic songs like “We Are Pirates” and “Gunmen”.
Sebastian Levermann, founder and frontman of the band was in a really good spirit – as was the rest of the band – and “played” many times with the crowd creating a really good atmosphere and warming us up for the headliners of the night.
Setlist: F.E.V.E.R. / Conquest / Ravenhead / Inferno / Heart Of The Android / Come With Me To The Other Side / Moon Fire / We Are Pirates / The Order Of Fear / Gunman / Let The Fire Rain / The Things We Believe In
MANOWAR
Manowar is a band that I truly love, I admire and I try to watch them as many times as possible. They never ever disappoint me. So since the announcement of their headline show in the previous version of Midalidare Festival I was counting the days to see them again.
And finally the time has come. The lights go out, the intro plays on the speakers and the band gets on stage in front of around 20.000 people (if not more). And what a crowd. Singing every verse and every word on the top of their voices. Once again we could see the history of one of the greatest bands ever in front of us.
The band was in great form playing their classic songs one after one. Eric Adams who mid-concert turned 73 (!!!) was in an amazing shape, belting every note with such an ease while enjoying himself. You could see him smiling during the whole gig and it just made you enjoy the concert even more. I said it many times and I will say it again and again. Adams is in my humble opinion the best metal singer that ever existed and I feel blessed that I had to witness his greatness once again. Beside him, Joey DeMaio was leading the way, as a proud father watching has “child” delivering in front of a crazy crowd from all around the world. Michael Angelo Batio on the other side was killing solo after solo.
The setlist was magical. I never imagined that I would listen to “Mountains” and “Bridge Of Death” on the same night! Yes some other classics were missing but Manowar have so many great songs that it’s impossible to include all of them. We must consider ourselves lucky that we are able to still watch them doing gigs!
Setlist: Manowar / Kings Of Metal / Fighting The World / Brothers Of Metal (Part 1) / Army Of The Immortals / Blood Of My Enemies / Kill With Power / Mountains / All Men Play On 10 / Thor (The Powerhead) / Sign Of The Hammer / Bridge Of Death / Sons Of Odin / House Of Death / King Of Kings / Fight Until We Die
Encore: Mila Rodino / Warriors Of The World / Hail And Kill / Black Wind, Fire And Steel
Photo by Kevin Wilson for Magic Circle Entertainment - All rights reserved
DAY 2 – 12/07/2025
TRIUMPHER
There is no chance that I have the possibility to watch Triumpher and I’ll miss it. It’s a band that is absolutely sure that it will make your time watching them worthy. With their epic songs infused with black metal elements and a performance that certainly fits a really great band, the Greek metallers in my opinion were way too good to be the opening band of the second day of the festival. I don’t know if there was some scheduling conflict or something like this, but I would love to see them just before Manowar the day before.
In general their appearance was triumphant (see what I did there?) with the crowd being carried away by the band and it just made me realize once again how much I love this band and their gigs.
ELVENKING
The great melodies the lyrics about fantasy worlds and the energy of the Italian folk metallers Elvenking, took us to a trip through mythical worlds with Damna’s voice being from really intense to melodic with such an ease.
With a discography of 12 albums it’s really hard to pick the songs of a 45 minutes set, but I think Elvenking did a great job choosing the right ones of the festival and I believe the crowd that was singing all the time agrees with me.
Setlist: Throes Of Atonement / Pagan Revolution / Silverseal / Moonbeam Stone Circle / The Ghosting / Neverending Nights / The Divided Heart / Elvenlegions
H.E.A.T.
If there was a band – from the ones that I’ve never seen before – that I was really eager to see in this year’s festival, that was H.E.A.T. Known for their great performances, the Swedish band came like a steam roller to Midalidare Festival. Unbelievable energy from the band and especially their frontman Kenny Leckremo who probably had everyone in the valley on their feet.
It’s really rare nowadays to see a band playing like all the great ones back in the 80’s. And I’m sure H.E.A.T. would be one of them. They have everything a rock band needs to make it. Excellent stage presence, great energy and songs that stick in your mind. I was expecting a lot from them, I got even more!
Setlist: Disaster / Emergency / Dangerous Ground / Hollywood / Rise / Cry / Beg Beg Beg / Back To The Rhythm / Bad Time For Love / 1000 Miles / One By One / Living On The Run
MICHAEL SCHENKER
Having seen the legendary guitarist just a couple of weeks ago in Greece I knew exactly what to wait. An absolutely great performance by one of the greatest guitarists and musicians in history. Schenker’s current tour is a celebration of his UFO years. This tour reminds to everyone that sometime in the early 70’s there was a German kid who at just 16 years old, recorded the debut album of Scorpions and then moved to UFO to write and record 5 albums full of classic songs that influenced thousands of musicians. And these classing songs we had the chance to listen to, played in perfection by the band.
Schenker instead of being the center of the band as someone would expect, did his part “quietly” leaving the role of the frontman to RD Liapakis who fits so well to the songs.
Setlist: Natural Thing / Only You Can Rock Me / Hot ‘N’ Ready / Doctor Doctor / Mother Mary / I’m A Loser / This Kid’s / Lights Out / Love To Love / Let It Roll / Can You Roll Her / Rock Bottom / Shoot Shoot / Too Hot To Handle
W.A.S.P.
W.A.S.P. is one of my favorite bands and I haven’t seen them for almost 15 years. So probably it was the band that I was more eager to see. I certainly didn’t know what to expect after Blackie Lawless’ health issues but who cares when you know that they are going to play their debut album “W.A.S.P.” in its entirety with some more classic songs? After all in my mind going to these concerts feels like honoring the bands with whom we grew up and is a chance to see them before the inevitable happens and the retire. So performance was not a thing for me.
That being said I was pleasantly surprised by the band, who really blew my mind. Blackie was in excellent shape and in between songs he was telling to the crowd how this tour came to life and various stories.
Personal highlights of the night for me were the ballads “Sleeping (In The Fire)” and “Forever Free” and the closing of the concert with the classics “Wild Child” (I think everybody – including the staff – were singing) and “Blind In Texas”.
Setlist: I Wanna Be Somebody / L.O.V.E. Machine / The Flame / B.A.D. / School Daze / Hellion / Sleeping (In The Fire) / On Your Knees / Tormentor / The Torture Never Ends / Inside The Electric Circus – I Don’t Need No Doctor – Scream Until You Like It (medley) / The Real Me – Forever Free – The Headless Children (medley) / Wild Child / Blind In Texas
DAY 3 – 13/07/2025
TWILIGHT FORCE
The third and last day of 5th edition of Midalidare Festival started with another journey through the magical world of the Twilight Kingdoms created by the Swedish power metallers Twilight Force. It’s obvious that the band members, who are greatly influenced by fantasy books and games, really enjoy what they do and with their presence on stage with the costumes, the story telling and of course the songs themselves, capture the audience from the first to the last minute.
Setlist: Dawn Of The Dragonstar / Twilight Force / Dragonborn / Flight Of The Sapphire Dragon / Battle Of Arcane Magic / The Power Of The Ancient Force
KISSIN’ DYNAMITE
80’s hard rock music is one of the most fun genres and listen to. It’s guaranteed that you’ll have a good time. And that’s exactly what Kissin’ Dynamite did. They threw a great 80’s party right in the middle of the summer. Really good and catchy songs, great energy by the band and lots of beer. That’s what I call a great concert.
The band focused more on the latest material which is absolutely normal considering that their two last albums “Not The End Of The Road” and “Back With A Bang” reached No. 2 and No. 1 in German Charts respectively.
Setlist: Back With A Bang / DNA / No One Dies A Virgin / I’ve Got The Fire / My Monster / Not The End Of The Road / You’re Not Alone / Raise Your Glass
FLOOR JANSEN
I am not the greatest fan of symphonic metal bands and music. But I have to admit that Floor Jansen’s appearance in Midalidare Festival was one of the most captivating and emotional appearances of the whole festival.
Although her personal material is more melodic, Jansen and her band managed to combine them perfectly with the Nightwish songs. The one-hour setlist included songs from Jansen’s solo career, from After Forever, ReVamp and of course some of the Nightwish fan favorites as “Noise”, “Amaranth” and “Nemo”.
Setlist: Wolf And Dog / Noise / Invincible / Storm / Amaranth / Storm In A Glass / Spider Silk / Fire / 7 Days To The Wolves / While Love Died / Energize Me / Nemo / Daydream
DORO
The Metal Queen herself graced the stage of Midalidare Festival for some oldschool heavy metal, the one that I personally grew up with. Starting the set with the classic Warlock songs “I Rule The Ruins” and “Burning The Witches” it was more than sure that we were going to have a great gig!
With more than 40 years in the music business, Doro knows exactly what she has to do to make the crowd go wild. Passion, energy, and making people feel welcomed under the banner of heavy metal. And this became even more obvious towards the end of the set, when the metal anthems “Breaking The Law” by Judas Priest and Warlock’s “All We Are”, were sung by 20.000 people!
Setlist: I Rule The Ruins / Burning The Witches / Time For Justice / Metal Racer / Raise Your Fist In The Air / Für Immer / Warriors Of The Sea / Hellbound / Fire In The Sky / Breaking The Law / All We Are
ALICE COOPER
The time for the legendary Alice Cooper had come. The Godfather of shock rock was there to show us how you put up a great theatrical show. Anyone who has seen Cooper perform or saw videos of his concerts know that his performances is completely balanced between music and theatrics. You can’t have a complete show without both of them. And the 77-year-old musician gave us exactly that. A show where himself, all the musicians on stage and some of the crew backstage, were part of a great play with its last act being the “decapitation” of Alice Cooper.
The band was amazing with guitar solos “flying” all over the stage by the three guitar players (Ryan Roxy, Tommy Henriksen and Nita Strauss) backed up by the great rhythm section with Chuck Garrick on bass and Glenn Sobel on drums.
With the iconic “School’s Out” and the classic “Feed My Frankenstein” Midalidare Rock In The Wine Valley Festival 2025 reached to an end and now we just wait for the next one on 10-12th July 2026.
Setlist: Lock Me Up / Welcome To The Show / No More Mr. Nice Guy / I’m Eighteen / Under My Wheels / Bed Of Nails / Billion Dollar Babies / Be My Lover / Lost In America / He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask) / Hey Stoopid / Welcome To My Nightmare / Cold Ethyl / Go To Hell / Poison / The Black Widow / Ballad Of Dwight Fry / Killer / I Love The Dead / School’s Out
Encore: Feed My Frankestein
For Rockoverdose: Apostolos “Astaldo” Pantazoglou
Photos: Dimitris “Photoshooter” Karageorgiou
Manowar photos: Kevin Wilson for Magic Circle Entertainment - All rights reserved
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