The snow has melted and the flowers are blooming, just in time to kick-off the music festival season.

Lazerfest is a rock music show from the Des Moines radio station Lazer 103.3. The concert returned to the stages of the Central Iowa Expo in Boone, IA, and was held at the conclusion of Iowa State’s finals week, on Friday, May 10th.

Lazerfest 2013 was ISU student Rose Reuter’s first ever concert.

“The atmosphere is great,” said Reuter and friend Emily Halverson.

Halverson, Reuter and other fans agreed the entrance line was long for the festival. Lazerfest staff said more than 100,000 people have attended the concerts during the past years, and Friday’s show was no stranger to popularity.

The line-up this year featured 14 bands that alternated between two performance areas, called the Knoxville stage and the Meskwaki stage.

The event brought in an enthusiastic crowd, lining up in thousands to get the opportunity to see some of the most famous national and international rock bands. Groups such as Sick Puppies (Austrailia), Volbeat (Denmark), and Asking Alexandria (UK) were just a few overseas bands that took stage.

The line-up started at 1:30 p.m. with the winner of Lazer’s Battle of the Bands, Fatal Addiction, out of Oskaloosa, IA. Crowds were still gathering when the show kicked off, and lines did not cease for some time afterward.

Lines of viewers continued to pour in while Bloodnstuff, Thousand Foot Krutch, Killswitch Engage and Asking Alexandria played their sets throughout the night.

By 4 p.m. the crowd was in the venue and most of the audience was in attendance. With All That Remains, Young Guns, Halestorm, Device, Volbeat, Sick Puppies, Bush, Papa Roach and to top off the night, Alice in Chains, the night was far from over.

Tickets for Lazerfest were $60 at the gate. However, if ordered ahead of time, they started at $35.

Another option for the tickets was the VIP pass for $150. This package granted fans access to watch all the shows from risers, a steak dinner, multiple drink tickets, and entry to the VIP restrooms.

As the event went on, the bands got bigger and the fans got louder.

Once Volbeat came on stage, security got stricter in their response to fans. Crowd-surfers were constantly being pulled down to keep the event as safe as possible.

One lucky fan, Alex Arias, was the winner of a play-on-stage contest, where he had the opportunity to play the last song from All That Remains’ set.

Fans of Sick Puppies were not disappointed when they came out announcing their new album release. They even performed a new song that hasn’t officially aired yet, called “Dying to Save You.”

With a large lineup and a new date (Lazerfests of the past were held later into the weekends), the show once again signified the end of the school year and the proximity of summer.