Lieberberg: Lightning Struck Ground And Spread

It is easy to recount how it all unfolded, since Rock am Ring’s organizers maintained constant communication with festivalgoers via their social media channels; and because Marek Lieberberg, the festival’s founder, took the time amid the turmoil to speak to Pollstar. The first two festival days were characterized by unpredictable weather swings. What looked like bright sunny skies could swing to a full-fledged cloudburst within minutes.

Rock am Ring’s organizers were in constant consultation with meteorologists to inform fans of the latest weather developments. It was an almost impossible task: one Facebook post giving the all-clear signal was shortly followed by a thunderstorm warning. Lightning strikes injured more than 80 festivalgoers on the first two days. None of the festival crew and helpers were affected.

All casualties were taken to the hospital, one of them – a 19-year-old man – was still in critical condition at the time of writing. According to Lieberberg, lightning did not strike near the stage or other superstructures, but went straight “into the ground and spread from there. The strikes occurred in the rear of the festival area on relatively open spaces.”

Rock am Ring was temporarily suspended on Saturday (June 4) but resumed at around 9:30 p.m. with an amended stage plan.

It was right after the Red Hot Chili Peppers took the stage that Marek Lieberberg informed Pollstar about the decision he was forced to make heavy-heartedly: Rock am Ring had to be aborted. The festival was temporarily suspended in the past, as its organizers were faced with “lightning strikes, hailstorms, sudden snow onsets, drops in temperature and also continuous rainfalls, but never like this: thunderstorms developing out of the blue and potentially endangering human lives,” Lieberberg said in one of the many news updates he was putting out to fans.

The promoter emphasized that fans were understanding of the situation. He would have preferred to make decisions situationally and in cooperation with festivalgoers, who were attuned to what could happen at a festival after all. But Mendig municipality first insisted on the suspension, and finally on the termination of Rock am Ring 2016. Scrolling through the Facebook comments, most fans seemed to make the best of the situation, wishing the injured well and cracking flood jokes. Some complained about how slow evacuation was proceeding on Sunday, June 5.

Weather was extremely choppy that day, too, which didn’t make coordinating a mass departure any easier. Thirty famers provided tractors to tow cars that got stuck in mud. Warnings of thunderstorms and lighting strikes remained in place until evening.

Lieberberg told Pollstar he was sure that the way Rock am Ring 2016 played out would trigger broader industry discussions about how to manage such extraordinary weather conditions.

Rock am Ring moved to Mendig airfield last year, because of a legal dispute between Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur and the owners of the festival’s longstanding site, the Nürburgring.

The 2015 edition experienced some bad weather too, with 33 people injured after lightning strikes, although no one was badly hurt. During last year’s edition, lightning erupted backstage on Friday night, striking eight members of staff and injuring another 25 on the camping site, swr.de reported.

To put this into perspective: only half a day earlier in the afternoon, at least 50 people were hospitalized due to heat. The contract to host the festival in Mendig is valid for another three years.