Review of Let It Roll Drum & Bass Festival

Festival Rating: 7/10. Let It Roll is the largest drum and bass festival in the world, with multiple stages each day featuring the best talents in drum & bass. It was really cool experiencing the drum & bass community of Europe! If you’re a fan of drum and bass, you should check this festival out as it is getting bigger and bigger each year.

If you’re wondering what it’s like at Let It Roll Festival, read on for my review!

Getting to Let It Roll

Let It Roll, the largest drum and bass festival in the world, is a 3-day festival that I had been wanting to go to since last year, and I bought tickets for myself for the festival back in February, when pre-sale came out for less than 50 euros for 3 days of the festival. Eastern European festivals are a lot cheaper than festivals in Western Europe and America! I had been wanting to go for more than a year, because I had seen a report from 2013 of the main stage turning into a robot, like Megatron in Transformers (!).

Of course, none of my friends were into drum & bass and I was to go solo to the festival. I almost gave up on going, because Let It Roll was a camping festival in the countryside of Prague. It seemed like a logistical nightmare to get to and I didn’t have a tent.

Note: You can book a travel/accommodation package through Festicket for a more hassle free experience. You can also buy the festival ticket there, which is much appreciated as it earns me a small commission at no extra cost to you.

The day before I was to go to the festival, I went on Couchsurfing onto the Prague page to see if I could tag team with any groups going. I found a British CS superuser, Joe, who encouraged me to go down to Prague on Thursday (instead of Friday) to join him and his Couchsurfer to Let It Roll. With newfound motivation, I booked a Blabla car to head to Prague from Berlin.

The Blabla car from Berlin to Prague only costed 20 euros, but the best part was that the whole Blabla car was headed to Let It Roll. The driver & his friend, plus the other Blabla passenger, were also drum and bass fanatics!

I LOVED meeting the driver Janko and his friend Cocny, because they were Berlin Punks. I really wish I got a picture with them, but I guess I just have to describe them. Janko had a messy mohawk that was patch dyed blue, with multiple piercings and a shirt that says “anarchy will never die.” Cocny had hair dyed three colors – pink, blue, and white, with multiple piercings and tattoos, and 6 layers of ripped tights (She also has a piercing “down there”). They chain smoked cigarettes in the whole 4-hour trip. And as soon as we crossed into the Czech border, Janko the driver cracked open a Czech beer.

A couple months ago, people like these might have scared me. But after a couple weeks in Berlin, I felt like nothing was strange anymore. In fact, Janko and Cocny were the NICEST and sweetest people. They were so nice to me, gave me tips to get into Berghain, and gave me huge hugs when I got off the car to meet Joe at the Prague central station. We wanted to party together at Let It Roll, but without a phone, I did not run into them. Such is the festival life!

Upon arriving at the Prague Central station, I tried to connect onto McDonald’s wifi to contact Joe, but naturally it wouldn’t work. Thankfully, the whole station was teeming with Let it Roll Festival-goers. I talked to an Italian guy who was also going there. He kindly lent me his phone to call. So far, the drum and bass crew seems sooo friendly and I was getting pretty pumped for the event. I finally got in touch with Joe and met his Couchsurfer Claudia from Germany. We bought some drinks and food, got on the train (cost less than 2 euros) to Milovice. 40 minutes later, we’re there, and got on the 1-euro shuttle to the festival grounds.

Arriving at Let it Roll

We arrived at the festival but the line to get the festival wristbands was like an hour long! Absolutely no organization whatsoever. There were only 4 employees checking tickets and passing out wristbands, who were taking their sweet time. On the positive side, I was in line with Claudia, so the wait didn’t feel so bad. And finally we got our wristbands!

We went into the camp area and set up camp. I didn’t plan on camping, but I bought a camping pass on the spot for about 16 euros, just to be able to chill at the area. We met Claudia’s other German friends and set up tent. The campsite was pretty standard. Definitely not as wild as the Airbeat One campsite I stayed at the week ago.

Finally, we are entering the festival!!!

The Stages & Music at Let it Roll

First stop was the Bass Drop stage which was closest to the entrance.

We saw an INCREDIBLY GORGEOUS sunset.

Some fellow festival-goers found a sweet spot to chill..

We then wandered over to the Factory stage, where the drum and bass label Eatbrain was hosting. It was the largest stage of the night, since the main stage was not open on the first night. Everyone was energetic as it was the first day, and “neurofunking” it out! I just love the Eatbrain logo!

We then checked out the Madhouse Stage, which was hosted by the label Metalheadz. It was in an enclosed stage area that smelled like sweat, alcohol, cigarettes, and weed. Ah, how I love the scent of raves!

This was my first time attending a 100% drum and bass party. Thus, I was able to draw some conclusions about the drum and bass look. I’d sum it up as a skaterboy look: A baseball cap, shades are a must, and so is a cool dark t-shirt.

Here’s the Shredder Stage, which was small and had old school jungle playing the whole night.

There was also a Techno stage. It might have been meant as a chill out stage, although towards the end of the night it played some pretty hard techno.

Even though the Main Stage was not open on Thursday night, Joe had “staff passes” due to his Prague connections, so we roamed freely through the grounds. We even climbed up the Main Stage! I present to you DJ Tendelle…

As you can see, the whole festival had a industrial and “Transformer”-like theme.

Drinks, Food, and “Natural Herbs”

Other curiosities at the festival included an official shop for “Natural Herbs”. It sold natural products that got you high like natural ecstasy and hallucinogens, but on the menu it said that you can also ask them for behind the counter secret stuff! Wow, Eastern Europe seems to have lax laws 🙂

Drinks and food at Let It Roll were relatively cheap – especially the beer. A half liter of beer was only one euro. Did you know that on average, a person in Czech Republic drinks even more beer than the Germans? A Bolognese spaghetti was about 3 euros. I got a red bull with a double shot of vodka for about 7 euros, which was not the cheapest especially since they were stingy about pouring vodka.

I didn’t fret as I habitually smuggle alcohol into festivals. It helped that the entrance security absolutely didn’t care past a certain hour. Since I had a bottle of vodka at the campsite, and I just smuggled it in by putting it in my back pocket in an aloe vera bottle, and filled up the reusable LiR beer cup in my had with RB vodka. Easy peasy!

I didn’t end up going back to Prague that night as I was beat. Claudia generously offered to share her tent with me so I crashed with her for the night/morning. I went to “sleep” at about 6am, though it was impossible to sleep as there was music playing the whole night. We woke up naturally at around 8-9am as the sun came up. Took some walks around the camp ground and got some food. Witnessed some amusing scenes like this:

In the afternoon I decided to go back to Prague in order to see the city a bit, before having to head back to Berlin the next day.

Concluding Thoughts

In summary, I loved meeting the drum & bass community of Europe! Everyone was really friendly and it is always great dancing with people that love the same music as me. I kind of wish I had stayed for the second night, because I didn’t end up liking Prague that much. I would go back another year, given the chance!

Oh and I brought a cool Eatbrain t-shirt that I’ll be rocking at Drum & Bass parties! A punk looking girl at Razzmatazz in Barcelona already came up to me on drum & bass night (with Camo & Krooked spinning) and gave me the two thumbs up. Drum and bass forever!

Did I convince you to go to Let it Roll? If you go, I’d appreciate you booking via my referral link on Festicket.

Do you love Drum & Bass? I never miss an event, either, especially when I travel! The best D&B club I’ve ever been to was Fabric in London, on their Friday night FABRICLIVE events. Check out my adventure!

As of now, Let It Roll is #10 on my list of favorite festivals, ever. Check out my Top 10 here.