I got home Sunday having spent the weekend at the Peace and Love Festival in Borlänge. Exhausted and dead tired after sleepless nights and lots of music. But that’s not why I’m writing this. The reason for these words and this initiative is that I am a heavy metal epileptic. A combination which is not really meant to be, but in my case is. I live for music, it is why I live and breathe and have fun. But HOW am I supposed to have fun at a concert when I have to hide to avoid all the flashing lights, especially strobe lights which are a popular recurring part of all concerts. How am I supposed to be able to go to concerts? I can go if I choose to go to cheesy indie pop gigs, but I do love metal so that’s not going to happen.

The past few concerts I’ve been to, I’ve tried talking to the light tech before the show and told them about my problem. Some have been very accommodating and understanding (a big thanks to the guy at Peace and Love who thought my problem was real enough, and helped me be able to see Deathstars), while others have been sceptical to say the least. At the festival, all the stages had the strobe lights facing directly towards the crowds, which only makes things worse. Most bands have the strobes facing in stage, mostly directed at the backdrop to silhouette the band better.

What’s the point of blinding the audience? We’ve bought the tickets and want to SEE the band, not flashes directly into our eyes.

About five out of a thousand people have epilepsy. That means that there are about 10,000 children and 50,000 adults in Sweden with active epilepsy. Anyone can get epilepsy later in life. In Sweden ca 1000 people under 17 and 3000 over 17 develop the disease per year. The risk of ever having an epileptic seizure is estimated at roughly five percent.

This might sound like a small risk to you, but it’s too many and it could still happen to you.

When determining whether a child has epilepsy, they look straight into a flashing stroboscope, which I think says it all about the effect they have.

And I can see it from another perspective: it’s cool with all these light effects, they enhance the music and the songs and the stage performance, but what about me? Or what about us? Because I can’t be the only heavy metal epileptic. I am a fan too, I support the bands by buying records, reading the lyrics and buying tickets for gigs. Don’t I have the same right to experience the music on the same terms as everyone else? Should I, as a writer, never be able to review a concert?

Because of my problem I refrained from seeing Thåström on the 22nd of July, since he loves using light effects. I had to look away during all his faster numbers at the gig in Borlänge, but I would like to able to go see Slayer and In Flames in November and be able to enjoy the concert just like everyone else.

The article was originally written in Swedish but has been translated by Martin Larsson.