German Festivals: One Threatened, One Banned

Hurricane Festival Declares Its Love To Fans

– Hurricane Festival 2017

The peaceful and understanding behavior of Hurricane festivalgoers, whose weekend was threatened for a second year in a row, prompted a heartfelt declaration of love from the German festival’s organizers.

Germany was hit by a couple of thunderstorms before the June 22-25 festival weekend, which affected a couple of events apart from Hurricane Festival.

Weather conditions caused trains in the region to interrupt their service between Thursday and Friday. Promoter FKP Scorpio constantly informed festivalgoers via social media about the traffic conditions and urged them to delay their journey to Scheessel, where Hurricane takes place, to Friday, if possible. Weather conditions caused the camping sites to open later than expected.

Just as in 2016, when both Hurricane and its twin Southside festival were hit by storms, revelers were asked to wait in their cars where they could tune into Camp FM, the festival’s own radio station, to be kept up to date on the latest developments.

The exemplary behavior of festivalgoers prompted organizers to post a heartfelt message on Facebook after the weather conditions had calmed down again and gave way to a stunning sunset: “Dear Hurricane fans, here comes a declaration of love: to you, the best party community a festival could wish for, [a community] that won’t be thrown off course by any kind of thunder-storm.

“We’re impressed at how peaceful and understanding you reacted to the difficult circumstances, and we do not want to miss any of you as part of our festival family!”

The statement goes on to thank the authorities and crews who spent several hours removing trees that had fallen over and broken branches from train tracks and roads to facilitate traffic. No one was injured. Hurricane’s program continued as planned just in time for the warmup party on Thursday night, when the first acts took the stage.

Weather forecasts for the remaining weekend – when Green Day, Imagine Dragons, Linkin Park, Die Antwoord, Callejon, Casper and many more are going to take the stage – are promising.

With Full Force festival, which takes place on Ferropolis Island in Gräfenhainichen around 220 miles southeast from Hurricane, was affected by weather as well. The metal extravaganza had to be temporarily suspended June 22. No one got hurt, but some technical equipment was damaged in the storm. At around noon on Friday, Jun 23, the festival grounds were opened to revelers again. In Flames, Dropkick Murphys, Kreator, Apocalyptica and many more will take the stage over the weekend.

A Facebook message from the With Full Force team reads: “Thank you very much for your understanding and your considerate behavior while clearing the site yesterday. Your are truly magnificent.”

Fans Forced To Leave Second Horizon

https://second-horizon.berlin/ – Second Horizon Festival

A local court prohibited Germany’s Second Horizon Festival from going ahead on the first day of the event, June 23, saying the festival lacked the proper permits.

Promoters asked some 2,000 people, many of who had already set up their tents, to leave in peace. The festival was supposed to take place June 23-26 in Kiekebusch, Germany, close to Berlin, expecting some 4,000 visitors to see EDM acts including Vini Vici, Avalon, Bubble, Blastoyz, Captain Hook, and Mandragora. 

The local court in charge prohibited the event on the day it was supposed to officially launch, stating that the promoter Bert Greif, the head of Kiekebusch Open Air, lacked a “multitude of required permits.”

These included permits regarding a few structures on site, sound emissions and fire safety. Local police had warned festivalgoers as early as June 21 not to make the journey.

The promoter, however, had constantly been raising visitors’ hopes by making it sound as if the event was still good to go.

A statement published on the festival’s Facebook page stated as late as Thursday evening: “We thank you for your support. You’re the best guests we could wish for. We’re bravely standing our ground and are looking forward to a magnificent festival.”

People were admitted onto the festival site on Thursday and allowed to set up tents. On Friday early afternoon the promoter released the following statement: “We lost in front of the administrative court and will now head to the administrative appeals tribunal Berlin Brandenburg.” A few hours later a new Facebook post stated that organizers had been prompted by authorities to clear the festival site. Some Facebook users claimed by that point that people were still admitted onto the site, others claimed tickets were still being sold.

Since police didn’t want to leave arrivals on the Thursday stranded, and because it was raining, it allowed them to stay for the night. But people were asked to leave on Friday, which posed a problem as many were not in a condition to drive anymore.

Greif told bz-berlin.de that “the whole municipality wants to finish me personally,” and called the mayor a “liar.”

Greif has been promoting open-air events in the region for several years now, which reportedly caused noise complaints. One of last year’s events was canceled for that reason, although he promoter maintains that he has been operating within the legal regulations at all times, at least as far as the noise levels are concerned.

He did not comment on the other permits that the court claims were lacking for Second Horizon Festival, nor why the lack of them and a potential cancellation of the event wasn’t communicated to the audience way in advance. The office of Second Horizon Festival didn’t return a call for comment by Pollstar.