Since its first edition in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2015, Running Free Festival has grown from a one-day event into a meeting point for generations of metal fans from across the world. Organised by Metal Force HMC, the festival focuses on carefully selected underground bands, direct contact between artists and audiences, and a community that reunites year after year.
But what goes on behind the scenes of this festival? And what does it take to turn a fan-driven initiative into a festival with an international audience and a loyal following? These were just some of the questions on my mind when I invited Stoycho Dimitrov to join me for a conversation.
Official logo
© Running Free Festival
Running Free Festival began in 2015 as a one-day event in Sofia. What was happening in the underground metal scene at the time that you felt deserved a festival of its own?
Stoycho Dimitrov: At the time, there was a very strong underground scene, mainly centred around Sofia. It had grown thanks to regular underground gigs, a handful of bars and clubs, and, of course, the audience’s hunger for events like these.
It was in this environment that we founded Metal Force HMC in 2011. After four years of organising gigs, we decided to take the plunge and try something bigger.
The time had come to invite our favourite bands and find out what it was like to organise a festival from the perspective of fans who wanted to bring their own idea to life. We wanted to see whether this kind of undertaking was for us, or whether we were better off sticking to small gigs for up to 100 people, featuring bands whose names on a poster would mean something mainly to true devotees of the genre.
You came out of the gates with names such as Angel Witch and Cancer, alongside a strong selection of other bands. Looking back, what do you remember most vividly about that first edition?
Stoycho Dimitrov: The first edition of Running Free Festival took place in Sofia in late May 2015. It was a one-day event featuring Angel Witch, Cancer, Attic, Caronte, Bulldozing Bastard and Hyperborea.
I remember the challenge of dealing professionally with the artists and their management, carrying yourself like a proper organiser and keeping your cool while your blood was boiling with excitement because you were watching your favourite bands live and talking to the musicians face to face.
After the festival, we threw an awesome afterparty with most of the bands at a rock restaurant. Yes, Sofia actually has a place like that, where you can listen to hard & heavy music, snack on crispy chicken skins and wash them down with an ice-cold beer!
Around the same time, my girlfriend Adriana – who is now my wife – and another girl from the club were celebrating their high school proms. The celebrations overlapped, so we ended up combining two parties into one. The bands and the rest of us spent a wonderfully relaxed afternoon filled with cold drinks and good vibes.
After a short break, Running Free Festival returned in 2019 at Strinava Camping near Dryanovo, with Vulture, Heretic and Baphomet’s Blood among the names on the bill. How did it feel to start working on the event again?
Stoycho Dimitrov: We held the first two editions in Sofia, and we had already proved to ourselves that we could pull it off. Unfortunately, the numbers showed that our expenses exceeded our income, so we decided to take a more cautious approach and change both the location and our strategy.
We wanted to create a festival that we could control from top to bottom – the infrastructure, entrance, bar, kitchen, stage and everything else. So, in 2018, we rented Strinava Camping near Dryanovo for the first time and celebrated Metal Force HMC’s anniversary there with Terrörhammer, Zombie Attack, Boneyard and some other great bands.
Immediately after that event, we decided it was time to bring Running Free Festival back to life at the same location. The following year, we returned with Running Free Festival III.
We had never actually stopped organising events, but the feeling of continuing our original idea and taking it in a new direction filled everyone at Metal Force HMC with positive energy.
By 2019, the festival had grown into a three-day event, with a warm-up party followed by two days of live music. We really outdid ourselves that time, and it took a tremendous amount of effort, especially given our limited budget and the logistical challenges of running a festival so far from Sofia Airport. Still, we’re proud that we took that first big step and proved to ourselves that we could bring bands to a location well outside Sofia.
More editions followed, and this summer you welcomed Nasty Savage, Aura Noir, The Troops of Doom, Massacre and many other names, including Romania’s Diavol. How would you describe this year’s edition now that you have had some time to look back on it?
Stoycho Dimitrov: This year, everything went brilliantly – the bands, their crews, the whole organisation and even the weather were on our side.
Over time, you realise just how important experience is, especially when unexpected situations arise that cannot be postponed and require an immediate solution.
You start thinking you’ve seen it all and nothing can surprise you anymore – until you get a phone call from Nasty Ronnie at one o’clock in the morning. He told us the band had been stuck in Zurich for eight hours and had no way of getting to Sofia. Eventually, their flights were being rerouted to Pristina, Kosovo.
It’s a long story, but the most important thing is that the band made it onto the stage on time the following day. It was a real adventure, and one my colleagues and I won’t forget anytime soon!
I also want to point out that every band arrived in good spirits and determined to give it their all – and that’s exactly what they did, as everyone saw. Sadly, Pyracanda had to drop out, while Flames faced a serious challenge of their own. Following Andy’s sudden illness, the band managed to get onstage at the last minute after making changes to the line-up.
A huge thank-you to every artist and every fan for helping make the festival so special and ensuring that everything went so well!
Apart from the situations you have already described, was there anything else that particularly surprised you or stayed with you?
Stoycho Dimitrov: When you’re working with more than 50 artists and their crews, there are always things that need to be sorted out at the last minute, no matter how well prepared you are. That’s simply part of organising an event.
Putting together Nasty Savage’s entire show and coordinating all the details of their stage performance was a major challenge for us. One of the televisions needed for the show came all the way from Kavala, Greece. Nikos from Filthy Ferret became so determined to make it happen that he hauled it all the way to the campsite. That’s what happens when everyone is willing to go the extra mile!
It was also an incredible surprise to see Frank Blackfire perform onstage with Cruel Force – exclusively at our festival. As a fan of both Sodom and Cruel Force, I’d say it felt like a personal gift I hadn’t even asked for.
Going back a few years, I also remember Coroner arriving in 2025. As a fan, I knew they were exceptionally precise musicians. Given the technical nature of their music, I’d always imagined people like them to be physicists – a little reserved and antisocial. But when we met backstage in person, they turned out to be fantastic, down-to-earth people with a great attitude and a wonderful sense of humour.
We had another interesting situation with Benediction in 2024. They had run out of gin backstage, and the same thing had happened to our bar stock. Deliveries out there in the woods can be tricky, so our only option was the last bottle of gin from the pink-label range. It turned out to be their favourite gin, and everyone got really excited when Dave Ingram presented it to the rest of the crew. What a relief!
Over the years, you have had the chance to watch several generations of metal fans pass through the festival. What changes have you noticed in the people who come to Running Free Festival?
Stoycho Dimitrov: Over the years, I’ve noticed a very interesting trend, and it’s a positive one. Our audience is growing while also becoming more focused – almost as if we’ve put it through a sieve. When I say the sieve is getting finer, I mean that people who come to Running Free Festival increasingly know exactly what they’re coming for. There are fewer curious visitors who simply want to see what’s going on. In their place, we’re seeing more and more people who love the niche bands we book and appreciate the festival’s concept, location and atmosphere – something we’ve been building year after year.
In the beginning, most of our audience came from the surrounding area, with a few people travelling from Sofia and other parts of Bulgaria. We also had a couple of dozen fans from Romania – our friends and members of the Romanian Thrash Metal Club. Today, we have regular visitors travelling from Austria, Germany, Greece, Belgium, Serbia, Argentina and Finland, along with, of course, our formidable Romanian contingent.
In short, our audience is becoming more loyal and more confident about what they’ll find at Running Free Festival. I can confidently say that at least three generations of metalheads come together at our festival – from teenage fanatics to 60-year-old veterans, die-hard heavy metal maniacs.
I’m delighted to see more and more young faces joining the ranks at Running Free Festival and bringing fresh energy to our community. It’s a great sign that the passion for this music is being passed on to the next generation and that the festival has a future.
The opinions of all our fans matter to us. We listen to their feedback and do our best to improve the infrastructure and facilities so everyone can enjoy a more comfortable stay. And we can see that it really makes a difference.
What do you think today’s younger fans are looking for in an underground metal festival?
Stoycho Dimitrov: I think they’re looking for authenticity. In a world where everything is available online and content is being produced constantly, the experience of seeing something live has a special value. They want to discover new music, see bands they don’t get the chance to watch every day, and meet people who share their interests. The atmosphere matters, too – being free to be yourself without having to fit into a particular image.
We were young fans once, too. By the time we founded Metal Force HMC in 2011, we already had years of experience attending events at home and abroad. We’d been to dozens of concerts and festivals all over the world, and some of us had also played in underground metal bands. We knew what was missing and had a clear vision of what we wanted to change in the Bulgarian scene.
We wanted to change the way promoters treated both fans and bands. When it comes to the artists, we don’t treat them merely as fellow fans, even though we’re often fans of theirs ourselves. We treat them as artists we’ve chosen to invite and for whom we’re responsible as organisers. We want them to feel welcome and know that their efforts are appreciated.
I believe this behind-the-scenes attitude – something the audience doesn’t necessarily get to see – is one of the reasons more and more young people are discovering Running Free Festival. Authenticity isn’t just about the music you choose; it’s also about how you treat the people who create it.
Running Free Festival has grown considerably since that first one-day edition in Sofia. What can you tell our readers about the next chapter of the festival?
Stoycho Dimitrov: We want to keep developing the festival without forgetting why we started it in the first place. Growth for its own sake isn’t the goal. What matters most is preserving the character of Running Free Festival – an experience that brings friends together from all over the world.
The truth is, the atmosphere feels like a birthday party or a big gathering of friends – that time of year so many people can’t wait to arrive. Everyone comes back, claims their familiar, well-trodden camping spot or returns to the same room they’ve stayed in before, and the celebration of true metal begins all over again!
That’s exactly what we want to preserve. We want to keep building on what we’ve created, invite interesting bands and improve the facilities without losing the sense of community we’ve developed over the years. Running Free Festival is now much more than a concert programme. For many people, it’s an annual reunion with friends who may live in different corners of the world but come together here because of their shared passion for metal.
I believe that’s what makes Running Free Festival unique, not just in Bulgaria but throughout the region. We want every new edition to give people one more reason to come back.
Is there anything you are already working towards that you can reveal?
Stoycho Dimitrov: The tenth edition of Running Free Festival is coming up, and it’s definitely going to be special! We’ll reveal the details very soon, but I can let you in on one thing: the headliner will be the biggest name we’ve ever had on the festival bill, backed by plenty of other legendary bands.
We’re also exploring the possibility of adding a warm-up day on Thursday, so the festival experience can begin a little earlier.
There’s a lot of interest in Running Free Festival from booking agencies and the bands themselves. We receive offers and enquiries from some fantastic acts, which makes me confident in saying that we’ve made our mark on the global niche-festival scene.
But development isn’t just about the music. We want to make even better use of the festival grounds and offer more things to enjoy – from the bar and kitchen to merchandise and a more spacious area for the afterparties.
Our goal is to make the tenth edition special not only because of the bands taking the stage, but also because of the overall experience we offer everyone who comes to share those days with us.
How much of the line-up is built around bands you personally want to see, and how much comes from what you think the audience needs to discover?
Stoycho Dimitrov: Metal Force HMC decides which bands will play Running Free Festival. Our choices are based on our personal tastes, careful selection and the discussions we have among ourselves as a team.
We often invite bands simply because we want to see them perform live ourselves. Sometimes, we’re particularly keen to have them headline one of our editions. There have even been cases where bands chose to kick off their tours at Running Free Festival because we invited them. That makes us feel special and shows that the festival has a place and a certain significance for the musicians themselves, too.
Ultimately, every band on the bill is our personal choice. We don’t follow trends, fashions or outside influences. We have our own vision of the music we want to present and the character we want the festival to have. We believe that when you’re consistent in your choices and stand by them, the audience can feel it. That’s how you build an identity instead of simply following established patterns.
I think we’re on the right track because our fans trust us, and we receive a lot of positive feedback about the bands we announce. Some people tell us they haven’t heard of certain bands before but are curious to see them live. Others start exploring their music as soon as the line-up is announced and actually arrive prepared for the shows.
For me, that’s one of the best indicators that we’re doing things right: when you’re not just gathering a crowd in front of the stage, but also sparking people’s interest in the music and encouraging them to discover new musical heroes.
Have there been any bands you were particularly determined to bring to Running Free Festival but had to wait years before making it happen?
Stoycho Dimitrov: Absolutely! And the headliner for our tenth edition is one of those bands, but I’ll keep their name under wraps for now.
Cruel Force were a similar case. The wait was worth it, as we managed to book them just after the release of their latest album. On top of that, they performed with Frank Blackfire, which made it a particularly special moment for us.
We also waited a long time for Tankard. There was a period when the band wasn’t particularly active on the live circuit, but then things suddenly picked up, and we managed to catch them at just the right moment, so to speak.
It took us years to bring over both Deströyer 666 and Desaster, but we finally made it happen!
Sometimes you just need patience, you have to keep an eye on how things develop, and you need to be ready to act when the right opportunity comes along. And when you finally manage to bring a band you’ve wanted to see at Running Free Festival for years, the satisfaction is even greater.
What is the most rewarding reaction you can get from a band after they have played the festival?
Stoycho Dimitrov: It’s when musicians tell you they felt welcome, that the crowd was fantastic and that they’d love to come back. To me, that means much more than formal words of thanks. Bands travel a lot, play on all kinds of stages and have plenty of experiences to compare. When they leave Running Free Festival with great memories and tell other musicians about their experience, that’s the best publicity we could ask for.
I remember Kam Lee from Massacre sharing the festival poster on social media after we announced the band as a headliner. Musicians from Benediction commented on the post, saying how good our festival was. That genuinely warmed my heart! When people from bands we respect speak so highly of Running Free Festival, you feel that your efforts are being noticed and appreciated not only by the audience but by the musicians themselves.
Another example is Cruel Force. In an interview, Slaughter explained that there was a good reason they had chosen to play our festival, especially considering how rarely they accept live bookings. They’d heard nothing but good things about Running Free Festival and trusted the organisers. That kind of recognition means a lot to me because it shows we’ve built a name and reputation that speak for themselves.
Ultimately, that’s one of the most rewarding things about what we do: when trust in the festival spreads naturally, through word of mouth, among the very people who make up the metal scene.
A glimpse of the festival
© Running Free Festival
After so many years of organising Running Free Festival, what is something the event has taught you about organising concerts?
Stoycho Dimitrov: They’ve taught me that a love of music is essential, but it isn’t enough on its own. You also need consistency, patience, good organisation and the willingness to deal with problems the audience never sees. I’ve also learned that you can’t control everything. You can plan carefully, but unexpected situations will always arise. The important thing is to stay calm, find a solution and keep moving forward. And perhaps most importantly, never forget why you started.
A look back at the festival
© Running Free Festival
When I look back 11 years, I see a fired-up group of young people with blood running hot, determined to do whatever it took to bring their favourite artists to Bulgaria. Today, we’re a little more settled and mature – a bunch of guys in our forties – but we still fearlessly take on every new challenge with each edition.
Over the years, we’ve earned respect, made countless friends and turned an idea into an eagerly anticipated event for hundreds of metal fans from all over the world. If I had to sum up the most important lesson, it would be this: when you do something with consistency, conviction and genuine passion, it gradually becomes something much bigger than you originally imagined.
What is the one thing about Running Free Festival that you would never want to change, no matter how much the festival grows?
Stoycho Dimitrov: I want us to preserve that feeling of friends gathering under the banner of the bands we love. I want to keep that close connection between fans and artists, because that’s where the magic of Running Free Festival lies.
We value feedback from every single fan. It helps us improve the organisation and facilities every year, making things run more smoothly and creating a better experience for everyone.
It’s important to us that the festival continues to develop without ever losing that sense of closeness and informality. No matter how big Running Free Festival gets, we want people to keep feeling part of a community where they know one another, share the same passion and can meet their favourite musicians not just from the crowd in front of the stage, but in person, face to face.
And finally, for someone who has only just discovered Running Free Festival, what would you tell them about what awaits them if they decide to make the journey to Dryanovo for the next edition?
Stoycho Dimitrov: Be ready for a boutique festival made by fans, for fans! A place where you can feel free – running free, be yourself and enjoy the music in a relaxed atmosphere, surrounded by people who share your passion.
Sadly, those few days always fly by in the blink of an eye. But they leave you with enough memories and energy to start looking forward to the next edition before you’ve even made it home.
I’d advise anyone planning to attend for the first time to look into accommodation options in the area and plan their trip in advance. And if they have any questions or need a hand with anything, they can always get in touch with us directly. We’ll be happy to help!
Ultimately, Running Free Festival is something you have to experience for yourself. See you in the front row!
