Myfriends and I walked to the entrance to be searched for weapons and soda. When atlast we made it in, we were greeted by a blast of white noise and knew for surewe had arrived at Ozzfest. After purchasing a small bottle of water for fourdollars, we made our way past a couple of men bleeding from head wounds caused byexcessive moshing.

As soon as we had seated ourselves, the first band ranonto the main stage and prepared for their slot. Band after band played, fromZakk Wylde's Black Label Society to Rob Zombie four hours later. When Rob Zombietook his guitarists, drummer, large golden gong and mounted deer head offstage, Iknew things would soon get even more interesting.

Sure enough, System of aDown - my favorite band and the main reason I went to Ozzfest - ran on stage andstarted plucking chords and smashing cymbals. Everyone rose and got into therhythm, moving heads, bodies and metallic accessories to the nearly deafeningbeat. People got so caught up in the music that they forgot about everyone aroundthem; the lead guitarist even threw himself off the stage into the crowd,perfectly pulling off his guitar solo as he surfed on the moving bodies. Whenthey played their last song and walked off the stage, we screamed for an encorebut, alas, never got one.

All of a sudden, we saw one of the scariestthings on the planet. The image of Ozzy Osbourne, the fabled Prince of Darkness,was projected on the screen. He was in drag. After our initial horror, theaudience started laughing as he pulled off a hilarious imitation of psychic MissCleo, whose ads run on television all too often. Then the screens went black.People whispered for a moment, then shouted until Ozzy ran onstage and launchedinto what I believe was "Iron Man." Three songs into his nearlytwo-hour slot, we realized he was getting a little old and, wondering how he everachieved the title of Prince of Darkness, we left. The tour met our expectationsin every way, and exceeded them in the case of System of a Down. I can't wait forthe next Ozzfest.