4. Metallica played Kill Em All in its entirety

This past year’s Orion Fest, while still exciting, initially lacked the “oh shit!” factor of the first one. With Metallica relegated to one night instead of both, and not playing any of their albums (they’d played Ride the Lightning and The Black Album in year one), it wasn’t quite as compelling. Then, James Hetfield tweeted about Dehaan, a band he was excited to see on Day One, and people (including us) put together that Dane Dehaan was one of the actors (really the only actor) in the band’s Through The Never movie, and made our way over to the small stage. It turned out to be Metallica, playing Kill Em All unannounced and in its entirety. Watching the looks on peoples’ faces as they realized what was happening, and nearly being crushed by an onslaught of elated concertgoers was an instant highlight of the festival, and we’re super thankful we were there to see it.