Jahnke To Re-Work Red Light Fest

Although its debut proved to be a big hit with the media, Karsten Jahnke and his team are already looking to rework Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival.

“Everybody had great fun, but we did lose money,” he explained after the inaugural event (September 21-23) drew rave reviews from the Hamburg area papers and the national music press.

“We did it without a sponsor because we couldn’t get one in time, but I’m confident that we’ll have for one for next year. It may be that we’ll also move it from September because it came after the festival season and before the autumn touring really starts.”

He intends to meet everyone involved, which obviously includes festival co-producer Inferno Events, before the end of the month.

Pulling 3,000 payers per day was the only downside as 390 journalists, many from outside Germany, turned up to see 200 acts spread across the bars and clubs of one of the world’s most famous red light districts.

Jahnke said 6,000 per day would have been enough to break even, so a major sponsor wouldn’t need to dig to deep into its pockets.

Scottish singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini spread his ever-growing reputation as one of the U.K.’s most promising acts of 2006 by packing the 800-capacity Grunespan, while German indie darlings Tomte filled the huge open-air Spielbudenplatz for the free concert that opened proceedings.

Other acts on the bill included Arrested Development, Amusement Parks on Fire, The Rapture, Suberbutt, and Tocotronic.

– John Gammon