Hurricane and Soaked Side

It may have been what the local wheat and maize growers were praying for, but it wasn’t the sort of weather to please the crowd at Southside Festival in Germany.

It made no difference to the numbers because the event sold out its 50,000 capacity, as did its twin sister Hurricane Festival, but when it wasn’t raining it was threatening to.

The fact that Southside was such a success was due to the way the organisers dealt with the weather problems and a testament to the hardiness of the crowd, which finished the weekend muddied but unbowed.

“If you need some water, then just give us a call,” said local Neuhausen ob Eck Mayor Hans-Jürgen Osswald during the final day’s press conference.

Up until the first day of the festival, the Baden-Württemberg region of southwest Germany, very close to the Swiss border, hadn’t seen a drop of rain for weeks.

The weather at Scheeßel in northern Germany was kinder to the crowd and Hurricane sold out its 70,000-capacity, raising FKP Scorpio’s weekend festival sales to 120,000.

The acts helping both events sell every ticket June 17-19 included Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, Kaiser Chiefs, The Chemical Brothers, Suede, Arctic Monkeys, The Hives, Portishead, Kasabian, and Gogol Bordello.