German

Highfield 2018 – Full Review!

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Highfield festival takes place yearly by the Strömthaler Lake near Leipzig, in East Germany. It’s small (35,000 guests) with two stages (Green and Blue). Most notably, Highfield has a beach that is open to guests throughout the day. There’s a DJ stage on the beach along with drinks stands, so the festival vibe is guaranteed

As with most German festivals, the area in front of the stage is divided into waves by barriers. Only a limited number of people can be in the first wave as a measure against injuries from overcrowding. There is a one-way system in place, in one side, out the other so that numbers can be monitored. While this can be frustrating if you miss out on a spot for your favourite band, it does make it easier to move within the crowd.

Another difference that sets this festival apart is the German culture of “Pfand” which is a deposit you pay on bottles, cans and, at festivals, cups. This means every plastic cup is worth 2 euros that you get back when you return the cup, which helps make Highfield a green festival.

Friday

Arriving on Friday, the weather was very hot and very dry. Across the campsite, heated matches of flunkyball (Germany’s second national sport) were in full swing. It’s a classic game of ‘do well, get drunk’. Two teams stand across from each other, each with cans of beer at their feet. A ball is thrown at a half full bottle of water in the centre. If you hit, your team drinks as long as it takes the opposing team to rectify the bottle. First team to finish their drinks, wins.

Once a camping spot was found there was only time for rudimentary peg work, just enough to mark our camping territory. Before we headed straight to the lake. A good swim provided a much needed cool down and relaxed us, ready for the weekend ahead.

The tent was fastened down properl, the “HighViech” – a fish-like creature – and festival mascot welcomed us to the main site.

Appearing for the third time at Highfield, Gogol Bordello kicked things off with their trademark gypsy punk. It was early evening and the crowd still small. However, what they lacked in volume they made up for in enthusiasm; dancing, jumping, jigging. Lead singer Eugene Hütz, sporting the classic punk look “shirtless with blazer”, directed the crowd with his energy. Mixing it up from the usual beer on stage, Hütz opted for a classier bottle of red wine. That didn’t stop him pouring it all over stage and crowd throughout his set.  As the set went on, the New Yorker band drew a bigger and bigger crowd with their infectious tunes that you couldn’t help but dance to.

Infectious but in a different, more hip-hop way, the 257ers took the blue stage by storm. The queue for the first wave was mounting as fans were eager to get up close and personal in the mosh pits. The band, named after their home postcode, started off with a three horror clowns accompanied by whimsical circus music, setting the tone for the one-hour set. Notorious for their costume changes, the duo dressed as pirates, Dutch football shirts and Hawaiian shirts, each outfit referencing a different song in the set. They were also accompanied by at least three extras on stage, dressed up and firing up the crowd. Costume changes take time, so to keep the crowd entertained the DJ played everything from nursery rhymes to crazy frog. At one point he got the whole crowd to crouch down but instead of the anticipated beat drop, Whitney Houston’s I will always love you rang out, much to the amusement of everyone. Refreshments were kindly provided in the form of a giant tube pouring beer into the crowd and several foam cannons. The set was light-hearted and fun, asking the important in Warum (Why) including “why can’t we ride bears to work?” and an entire song about the benefits and uses of wood, which in German is entirely free of innuendo. After their performance last year got cut short due to extreme weather, they vowed that this time we would party to the absolute limit. And we did.

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fri - 257ers - watermark-18

As we headed to the Green Stage we were greeted with the complete opposite of the 257ers,with Clueso on the stage. As a much-needed calm after 257ers, the mix of pop, hip-hop and reggae got crowds singing and swaying. His performance of Zusammen (Together) was a surprise as it appears on the new album by Die Fantastischen Vier featuring Clueso. Considering that the former are due to play on Sunday I would have expected it in the headliners set. But Clueso made it a loving tribute by including verses from some of their best songs, and the crowd loved it.

A weather warning for the approaching storm had been in place from the start of the set. As the first notes of the final song –Verlierer (Loosers) – sounded, the stage and crowds were bathed in blue light, and the heavens opened.

The crowd, undeterred, turned into a sea of complementary, red ponchos and carried on. The Ferris wheel and giant wooden Jägermeister Stag with flaming antlers made an impressive backdrop for the Dropkick Murphys, made even more dramatic by the lightning storm in the background. Much in the vein of Gogol Bordello, the bands Celtic punk moved to crowds to dance the rain away.

In an ambitious attempt to pull off a semi-acoustic set at 22:30, Alligatoah invited us down into the sewers with him via an impressive stage design. Sporting the appropriate blue overalls, flatcap and yellow wellies and accompanied by an electric organ he worked his way through funky versions of his discography. His songs dripping in irony about society including beauty standards (Du bist schön  (You are beautiful)), throw away culture (Lass liegen (Leave it)) and most ironic of all, the music industry Musik ist keine Lösung (Musik isn’t a solution). Being an acoustic set, he relied on the crowd to sing the electric guitar part of Willst du (Do you want to), and they were more than happy to comply. Help was again required for a verse of Trostpreis (Consolation Prize), sung by Timi Hendrix on the record, and the audience performed flawlessly.

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fri - alligatoah - watermark-07

Rounding off the first night, the Canadian Billy Talent took to the Green stage. A staple of the Festival circuit and currently touring their fifth studio album “Afraid of Heights”, the band returns to Highfield for a second year running as their set was cancelled due to heavy thunderstorms last year. Lead singer Benjamin Kowalewicz worked the crowd, who responded singing back at him. Finishing with Red Flag and Fallen leaves, the set was worth the one year wait for sure.

Saturday

The plan for Saturday morning was obvious. Get out of the boiling hot tent and go swim. By no means the first with the good idea, the beach was already filled at 9:30 in the morning. The air was a little cooler, but the water no less refreshing than yesterday. Some people were playing beach volleyball, some lying on beach towels playing cards. Crepes for breakfast (what else?) and we headed down to the main site.

We dipped into Swiss und die Anderen, heavy Antifa punk rap. Not our cup of tea, although the crowd was absolutely loving it. Mosh. Pits. Everywhere. Next up on our timetable was Sondaschule, the punk-ska band from the so called Ruhrgebiet, an area famous for its former coal industry. Whether it was the band itself or the following headliners was uncertain, but the crowd had definitely become more punk heavy. From colourful mohawks the leather jackets, the tone of the evening program of the Green stage was set. When the band dedicated a song to what they considered the most beautiful city in the world, the girls near the front holding a “Mühlheim Ruhr”, the home city of the band, sign got excited. But instead of the song of the same name, the chilled reggae beat of Amsterdam began to play. Showers of confetti exploded from the crowd. It’s quite common for German festival guests to bring bags of paper confetti. It makes for great atmosphere and is 100% biodegradable. A win – win. The band thanked everyone for the warm welcome for their first time here at Highfield. Towards the end of the set the band introduced a song from their new acoustic album, the song RIP Audio, which they recoded together with Ingo from the Donots, who had not arrived on site yet. Once again, the crowd stepped up and took over the guest vocals.

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sat - sondaschule - watermark-10

Lunchtime came around and it was finally time for the burger we had travelled over 700 miles for. The wild boar burger from the Hirsch&Eber stall. With onions cooked in port and a cranberry mayonnaise it is without a doubt one of the best burgers I have had to date. If you want to argue with me on that, you can come to Highfield next year and try one for yourself.

Bad Religion were meant to play Saturday afternoon but had to cancel at short notice due to a family emergency. Instead, German festival veterans the Donots stepped up and filled the slot. Undoubtedly leading to one of my personal highlights. The crowd welcomed them with open arms, chanting their name at every opportunity. Lead singer, Ingo Donot, told us they had struggled to get a bus in time and almost didn’t find a dog sitter in time leading to Wake the Dogs.

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sat - donots - watermark-11

Highfield festival had been working with Viva con Agua, a charity providing clean water across the world, for many years. Besides a stand where you can donate there are also people around the site with bins where you can donate your cups and corresponding Pfand. The band got circle pits forming around the bins encouraged everyone to donate their cups while playing Do what you want, a cover to console the Bad Religion fans in the crowd.

Ingo is everybody’s hype-man, excitedly announcing all their friends who were still to play this weekend. This included Flogging Molly whose bassist, Nathen Maxwell, joined them on stage for Kein Problem (No Problem). Finishing the set with So long, the crowds chanted the chorus long after the song had finished, moving the band to tears. It’s fair to say that no one regretted the substitution.

Later, the Swedish garage rock band The Hives took to the Green Stage. The most strikingly dressed of the weekend, everything was black and white. The suits, the guitars, the backdrop. They also had a crew of ninjas doing all the cable management and guitar swaps. The securities in the pit did their best to keep the crowds cool, throwing and handing out water. Lead singer, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, went straight into the crowd, wasting no time to get acquainted. The music was fantastic, raw guitar riffs and hoarse vocals. Everything between became a little tedious. Coming across somewhat arrogant, Howlin’ Pelle constantly demanded the crowds cheer, even starting his own encore chant. At some point the audience had had enough, not really responding anymore. A shame, since everyone still had a great time with the music.

This year’s Saturday headliners, the Broilers, can in many ways be considered the descendants of last year’s Saturday headliners Die Toten Hosen. They started out as their support act, being mentored by them and signed to the DTHs own record label. They had big boots to fill, with many people questioning if they were ready for the headline slot. But once they got started, all doubts subsided, and they stepped up flawlessly. Their horn section giving them their trademark ska-punk sound, the crowd was loving it from the get go. When you have a horn section, clearly the natural thing to do is cover the Ghostbuster theme tune. The Broilers are a band where dancing and moshing are equally valid ways to celebrate their music. Small moshpits here and there, but also a paramedic on a break dancing with his girlfriend. It felt like everyone was welcomed into the Broiler family that night. The mood then got more serious with the more recent song Keine Hymnen Heute (No hymns today), a song describing the prohibition of a lot of art during the second world war. The backdrop showed videos of Nazi soldiers burning books as a grim warning against populism and rising right wing sentiments. The pyrotechnics sounding like gunshots. What followed was undeniably one of the most emotional parts of the festival. During Ihr da oben (You up there) the screen showed a collage of photos the band had asked fans to send in for the music video. It showed loved ones that had passed away. The range of photos was particularly striking, as it included young children and babies alongside grandparents. It really drove home the momentous amount of loss and grief contained in all those images.

The tempo picked up again with Held in unserer Mitte (Hero in our midst), with circle pits forming around the bands handpicked audience members. The show finished with fireworks and I think everyone agreed, the Broilers are headliner material.

As is tradition at German festivals there was a general protest against the far right and populism. Whether its moshing against (and on) Nazis, the antifascist charity “Kein Bock auf Nazis” or anti-nazi chants. Many bands had banners saying “Refugees Welcome”. As people were chanting “Nazis out”, the Donots quite rightly pointed out that people needed to go shout these things at counter demonstrations, not just here, where there were no neo-nazis.

Sunday

Sunday started the way all festival Sundays start, the long arduous trek back to the car, laden with bags. The weather was even hotter than the past few days, making this by far the worst part of the experience. Oh the price you pay for camping close to the site and far away from the car park. Once that was over we could get back to the good bit.

Sunday afternoon was Brit indie-pop time on the Blue Stage. Maximo Park’s Paul Smith overdressed, as always, in a blue suit, hat and shades. Dancing enthusiastically through a set spanning all six studio albums, the band started on Girls who play guitar and finished with Apply some pressure. The crowd favourite was definitely Books from boxes. Throughout the set Smith addressed the crowd in broken but endearing German, making sure everyone drank enough water and were having a good time.

A black backdrop with a hypnotising wombat with rainbow eyes marked the next band. The Wombats started out with the lively Cheetah Tongue. The audience had a surprising knowledge of all the songs, singing along and dancing. The award for most crowd confetti thrown definitely goes to The Wombats, with the stuff flying left right and centre. We learnt intimate details, like the argument score between lead singer, Matthew Murphy, and his wife stands at roughly zero to three million. The band also introduced Steve, “The hardest working squirrel in Europe”, who was a plush sitting on the drum kit. Naturally met with chants of “STEVE, STEVE, STEVE”. The next album will be consisting of elevator music, the demo of which promptly turned into Moving to New York. The set peaked with Let’s Dance to Joy Division, causing the biggest explosion of crowd confetti yet. It was a perfect summer afternoon dance party.

By the time Madsen came onto the Green stage, everything was bathed in golden light from the setting sun. Their backdrop a space shuttle from their new album “Lichtjahre (Light years)”, the band celebrated the bassists birthday and started the first ever ladies only circle pit I’ve seen.

By the side of the first wave, two little girls in giant fluorescent headphones were dancing away when a security guard called them over to give them each a carton of water. They repaid him with a handful of confetti. A fair trade I’d say.

Halfway through the Madsen set on the Green stage, the Editors took to the Blue stage. Seeing the meager crowd they were about to go on stage for almost made you feel sorry for them. The backdrop, taken from the cover from their latest album “Violence”, was a dark picture of contorted bodies. Although mildly distressing, it does fit the general vibe of the band. They walked on in silence and started to play their first song. Afterwards the lead singer Tim Smith said a shy “dankeschön, guten abend” and carried on. As the set progressed he seemed to warm up to the crowd, addressing them more freely and encouraging them to put their hands up for songs. His motions across the stage were creeping and primal, almost mesmerising. The crowd had gathered as the set went on, so by the time Papillon started, there was enough of a crowd to properly welcome their favourite. Jumping, singing and waving hands in a butterfly like fashion as the sun set on the final festival day.

Which of the two stages hosted the true headliner is up for debate. The Blue Stage, pioneers of German rap, Die Fantastischen Vier were scheduled to play right up until the point that one of the biggest German rappers right now, Materia, was to take to the Green stage and give the festival the finale it deserves. It was clear the crowds were torn. Get a good spot for Materia and miss out on the band without which he wouldn’t even exist? See the undisputed bedrock of the genre and miss out on a spot in the midst of what promised to be the craziest party of the weekend?

Enough people decided on the latter, the first wave being packed like never before. A huge banner of the new album, “Captain Fantastic”, covered the stage. As the first beats of Tunnel boomed across the grounds, the banner came down to reveal the band, already hyping the crowd. The crowd were with them from the first song with more energy than I’d seen for anyone else this weekend. The backdrop was a rectangle of screens with a fabric banner in the middle, an unusual set up. The hype kept up for about ten songs, the group behind me insisting to express their excitement through five-man moshpit. The set slowed down in the middle with Tag am Meer (Day at the Seaside) which was a shame following the energetic start. Normally, a calm song or two gives to audience a chance to catch their breath. In this case, people started leaving to go to the other stage. As the show went on, the tempo picked up again. Zusammen (Together) was performed for the second time this weekend, this time with Clueso singing his part via video on the screens on stage.

The band left the stage before the three-song encore, at which point they started hemorrhaging audience members. At this point they were clearly going to run over and into the set time of Materia. The proximity of the sets split the audience and to me that was the biggest failure of the organisers. The remaining crowd went mental for the encore, more than making up for their decreased numbers with their energy. The set finished, and everyone rushed to the Green stage to hear the last lines of Materia’s Endboss.

 Even though only two songs had passed, the crowd was already warmed up and ready to riot. Bengalische Tiger (Bengal Tigers) caused red flares to erupt in the crowd and on stage, making for a spectacular view. The melancholic Tauchstation, which is an an idiom meaning secluding yourself, bringing everyone back down with its hypnotic, submarine-like sounds, followed by the ode to the Blue Marlin. The deep bass vibrating everything in reach.

At this point, Materia took a moment to thank Viva con Agua for their work and encouraged everyone to through their cups on stage on the count of three. This led to the bizzare spectacle of plastic cups flying through the crowd, rarely reaching the stage, instead being picked up and thrown further forwards. It looked like hundreds of tiny plastic dolphins, making their way to the stage. Given the value of 2 euros per cup it was likely 1000 euros worth of donations flying about. Talk about making it rain.

Materia is currently promoting his joint album with Casper, “1982”. Both were on site together earlier in the day giving autographs and taking selfies with fans. It therefore came as no surprise to suddenly see the two on stage together performing the first joint single Champion. None the less the crowd flipped, making it clear that this collaboration is hotly anticipated. The mood remained ecstatic as the duo performed their second single Supernova. As a crowning finale to the joint performance, they premiered their third song Adrenalin. On top of the first reveal, the two also announced they were filming the music video at the festival. Naturally, the crowd pulled out all the stops, no doubt providing a sensational backdrop.

From there on, the set escalated from song to song. One hit after another, culminating in Feuer – Fire, obvious pyrotechnics included. Materia’s alter ego Marsimoto made an appearance for a verse. Cloaked in bright green smoke and wearing his metallic green mask his arrival caused a brief change of pace before returning to the high-octane finale of Feuer.

Finally, Materia teased every last ounce of energy out of the crowd with his Letzte 20 Sekunden (Last 20 seconds). The audience jumped, waved and threw shirts, moshed and tore the place apart. At one point the show master himself descended from the stage to party with his fans, right in the centre of the first wave. It seemed neither crowd nor band wanted it to be over. Materia dancing with his band on stage, waving a Rostock football flag and hugging everyone. It was a night that no one wanted to end.

The Highfield festival is too small to draw an array of big international names, maybe getting one per year. Personally, I think the appeal lies in the atmosphere. The beach makes it feel more like a holiday and the line-up is one you can dip in and out of without the notorious fear of missing out that plagues big festivals. If you’re into German music then you’re guaranteed to find something, including high caliber performance. It’s a niche for international visitors, but definitely worth checking out if you fancy a chilled weekend by a lake with mostly great weather.

Deichbrand Festival 2018 – Full Review!

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Deichband festival is a festival with a bit of a twist. Located just a few km from the coast of the North Sea, Deichbrand has branded itself as the festival ‘on the North Sea’. And while this is not completely true, it does do hourly trips to the sea, where punters are offered the chance to try paddle boarding and surfing. In previous years there’ also been the opportunity to fly over the festival in a helicopter, though they’ve had to cancel it this year for various reasons. Though a lot of people were upset, most of the punters I spoke to say they were glad they weren’t going to have to deal with a helicopter over their campsite every twenty minutes.

There’s a huge variety of food a drink across the main site and throughout the fields with the smaller stages. The food ranges from typical German fast food dönner (similar to our donner kebabs) through to a Pakistani company serving tradition food, the noodle place and of course the German favourites of ‘pommes & wurst’ (sausage and chips), burgers (including wild boar and rib burgers) and ‘pommes am stiel’ – chips on a stick. There’s also vegetarian options, and what’s more, there’s variety in that as well. There’s your standard pasta – in this case gnocci – but there’s also vegetarian kebab wraps with halloumi or vegan ones with falafel.

As with every German festival, Deichbrand supports ¡Viva Con Auga! A charity that improves the drinking water and supply in developing counties such as Cuba, Kenya and Nepal. To help with this almost all German festivals have a ‘pfand’ (deposit) of €2 for all the cups bought at the bars onsite. You then have a choice to return the cups to the bar and get your ‘pfand’ back – in which case, well done on cutting down on waste – or, you can give it to one of the many volunteers onsite who will then recycle it for you and get the ‘pfand’ for their charity. So it’s really a win – win for the environment and the charity. It’s an excellent idea, and though I’ve said it before it’s worth mentioning again, it should be implemented at UK festival in order to cut down on the waste that festivals always cause.

As well as the music, Deichbrand offers a number of workshops, which though common in UK festivals isn’t something I’ve seen much of abroad. There’s the classics, masseuse training, morning yoga and circus school, as well as a few more unusual act ivies like  beer yoga (like normal yoga but you’ve got a cold beer in your hands and you can’t spill it) rock-climbing and parkour sessions.

Deichbrand is a small festival, with four stages, two big ones (fire and water). The first act of the afternoon is double act the 257ers. And when I say double act I mean it in the comedic sense. The band have produced five albums, which pretty solidly consist of comedy songs. Their last album ‘Mikrokosmos’ (Micro-cosmos) reach number one in the German charts, with songs such as ‘holz’ – an entire song dedicated to how much they love wood. Not the kind of wood you’re thinking off right now, just normal wood. From trees. I know, they are a bit weird. But that’s why we love them. Their performance is littered with costume changes, including going from their Adidas shirts into their captain kit for their Pirate song (a weird sea-shanty type song) and into orange (Dutch) football tops. The costume changes do take a minute or two, and while they get changed we were entertained by their DJ who played an interesting mix of songs, from Whitney Huston to Crazy Frog back to Papa Roach back through to Beyoncé. He then got out from behind his decks and gave one end of a massive tube to the crowd, while he poured beer down his end, creating a kind of oversized beer straw for the people in the crowd. During the next song, the 257ers got down from the stage and sprayed a foam cannon out to the crowd, who were going wild and feeding off the energy that was being thrown from the stage. During one of the mosh pits they’d encouraged the audience to create they spotted a man in a knitted octopus mask, and shouted ‘Zoidberg! Three years!’ – Apparently this guy always goes to festivals with this mask on, and it’s paid off. 257ers noticed him, and they’ve even made note of how many times they’ve seen him. I think it was pretty cool that not only did they notice him but they also made a point of pointing him out.  They’ve also got songs like ‘Holland’ which is an ode to the country of its namesake, with lines like ‘Nobody’s aggro, everyone’s tripping, Holland is the boss, I think windmills are cool’ which, I mean. They’re just such good fun, both to listen to and to watch up on stage.

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fri - 257ers - watermark-13_1

Friday evening was officially started by Scottish singer Amy Macdonald, who played a fantastic set. Though many of her songs are sung with an American accent, as soon as she spoke to the audience it was clear that she is Scottish through and through. The audience knew this, which was evident from the amount of St. Andrews’ crosses strewn across the crowd. Macdonald commented on the weather (and the dust) and how she couldn’t cope Scottish skin. During her set she tried to read a few signs in the audience, a classic ‘we love you’ sign that she comment on and thanked the people that wrote it, saying it ‘looked like it’d taken them ages to make’ and she saw a sign further back that she commented on but couldn’t read. Later in her set she spotted someone holding a sign and asked them ‘you’re asking to sing someone else’s song on stage? What would I get out of it? It’s not in my setlist’ – someone in the crowd had made a sign asking if they could sing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in The Dark’. Macdonald then conceded, saying ‘alright then, get up here’ and this guy was brought up onto the stage. He was completely star struck, as you would be, Macdonald kept asking him his name and all he could do was gasp. Eventually, with some whispered encouragement from the guitarist, this guy manage to speak into the mic and tell us his name was Patrick. Macdonald then said they couldn’t do the whole song, but they could do a verse and a chorus. So, they started singing as Macdonald played along with her guitar, and it turned out that Patrick could sing. And I mean *sing*. He had an absolutely amazing voice, and what’s more is that it

harmonised perfectly with MacDonald’s. It’s not hard to imagine how WILD the crowd were going as soon they realised he could sing. It was evident he was still star struck, but the fact that he managed to not only sing, but sing well in front of an audience easily 5,000 strong. After they sang together Patrick was quickly ushered off the stage beaming and passed onto security backstage, where he was greeted with high-fives. Macdonald resumed the show and finished off her set with her chart topping single ‘This is the Life’.

 

Casper headlined on Friday night, and, unusually for him he came on stage full of colour. He was wearing a yellow jacket and seemed a bit livelier than in previous times. Whether this is a move away from his generally darker rap or just a blip, is still undecided. The amazing light show was the perfect ending for the energetic day that had been Friday.

Saturday

Saturday afternoon started off with London shanty punk band Skinny Lister jumping on to the stage and immediately energising everyone in the area. Skinny Lister have the ability to turn a gig, no matter the size, into a party where it feels like everyone’s been invited. A lot of the crowd clapped and swayed along in time to the music, but part of the crowd (arguably the better part) started dancing, jigging and stomping along to their hearts content. The jumping/dancing/jigging caused all the dust in on the ground (which I have decided is probably at least half of the entire world’s supply of dust) went up into the air, obscuring the band and pretty much everything else. They did comment on it, vocalist/guitarist/stomp-boxist Dan Heptinstall saying ‘we’re in the Deichbrand Dustbowl’ and vocalist Lorna Thomas later commented that they’ll be touring (though probably not until the new year when the next album is due to be released) and we could go and see them in a less dusty setting. As always, Skinny Lister provided the audience with refreshments in the form of a jug with a mysterious mixture of what one can only assume is just alcohol. The Jug (affectionately referred to as the 7th member of Skinny Lister) was passed around the audience as everyone took a sip on it, before being passed back up to the stage – now empty. The free alcohol is one of the bonuses of seeing Skinny Lister live, though the main draw is the amount of positive energy that comes pouring off the stage when the play. It’s also worth going just to watch double bassist Scott Milsom lift his double bass over his WHILE playing it. It’s a pretty amazing thing to watch.

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sat - skinny lister - watermark-10

The next act of the afternoon are indie pop band Von Wegen Lisbeth from Berlin. Von Wegen Lisbeth are a quirky pop act, using steel drums and xylophones in their music as well as the standard keyboards, guitars bass’ and drums. They had the stage covered in greenery, plastic leaves, vines and branches littered the set.  Behind them they had the letters ‘V’ ‘W’ and ‘L’ lit up on big squares – you’ve got to admit that’s a lot easier than spelling out their lengthy name.

As we wander towards the end of the evening the Fire Stage is hosting Brummie indie-rockers, The Editors. Their dark, synth-y sound and ambiguous lyrics do feel slightly out of place in the afternoon sun, it’s still 24℃. What’s more, is that they came on stage to Abba’s ‘gimme gimme gimme (a man after midnight)’ – again, a stark contrast from the broody and moody set they are known for. They opened their set with the first track of their new album ‘cold’. In fact, a lot of their set was taken from their new album, ‘violence’ as was the back-drop for the show, three naked and dirty people wrapped around each other. It’s very…Hannibal-esque, actually. But I guess that does fit with their image. They did of course play crowd favourites, including ‘Sugar’, ‘Munich’ and ‘Papillion’. They ended their set with Magazine, another one from their new album. It was a really good set, overall. It would have been nice to have a little bit more interaction with the crowd, but apart from that it was a nice, standard Editors show.

As the sun had finally set the crowd gathered around the fire stage for the final act of the night. The Killers. The band coming towards the end of their European tour – which this time around has included the festival circuit, playing at the Isle of Wight Festival as well as TRNSMT in Glasgow and Summer in the City in Dublin.

They opened with their newest track ‘The Man’ and the crowd due fully danced along, but once they’d finished, lead singer Brandon Flowers asked the audience if they were ready to party with the killers – all in German, which was pretty impressive. After the resounding ‘JA’ from the audience they went straight into ‘Somebody told me’ which had the entire crowd going absolutely mad. They followed it with ‘Space man’ and Flowers’ was dancing across the stage, in full glory with his gold and black shiny jacket. Clean shaven and boy-faced, he looks decades younger than his bandmates, all of whom are bearded and looking somewhat grizzled. As he danced around the stage the dust had been blown onto the stage and by the third song – – Midnight Show – (a throwback from the 2004 album Hot Fuss) Flowers’ had a facemask made entirely of dust and dirt. The set list was a good mix from all their albums, though after his attempt at German Flowers’ was lacking on the audience interaction. However, this was probably because he didn’t have much breath left what with all the singing and jumping and running the entire length of the stage for each song. Something should also be said for the visuals, the lights were great, as most big production shows are, with enough lasers and strobes to fill a boat. But what was really nice was the attention to detail. The confetti shot out of the cannons the second time round was in the German colours, which I thought was a nice touch. The first lot of confetti was pink, and I think it surprised everyone when it came out at the start of ‘somebody told me’. I don’t know what it is, but we in the crowd never seem to expect confetti at the start of a show. In the middle of the set they played ‘Runaways’ which bled seamlessly into ‘Read my mind’ which then again blended into ‘All these things that I’ve done’ which was not only incredibly interesting and pleasing to listen to, but also really quite impressive.

As well as the band on stage, they had three women doing the backing vocals, all of whom had absolutely stunning voices and really gave some depth to the whole show. They finished their set with ‘When you were young’ to 50,000 voices singing along, and fireworks coming down from the top of the stage. They thanked the audience as they walked off stage. No one left the arena, we all knew what we were waiting for. We couldn’t see The Killers and have them NOT play it. We waited, anticipation building, cries of ‘encore’ and ‘one more song’ erupting now and again from various pockets in the crowd. The screen on the stage went black. The large, orange words appeared on it. Three words. Are. We. Human? They came back on to cries and cheers and woops, as we knew they would. The first few notes were played, and though it wasn’t the song we’d waited for, the crowd still went mad, dancing and moshing and singing along. Once it was over there was barely a pause before Flowers’ started singing – with heavy auto-tune – ‘coming out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine…’ and the this was it. This is what almost everyone there had come to see. The first verse was done with heavy auto-tune – it was a remix, what this effectively meant was that we got an extra verse. Once the auto-tune verse had finished, Flowers’ started singing without it, and ended the night in a spectacular way.  

Sunday

I wasn’t sure why Alligatoah was playing early on the Sunday morning. Well, early in the festival bubble, he was onstage at 12pm, and the first act of the day. I knew a couple of songs from him, and though he was performing an acoustic set, I still wasn’t convinced that he was the right person to start off Sunday afternoon. However, any doubts I had were quickly put to rest. He had an extensive set for an early afternoon act. The stage was set up like a building site and Alligatoah was wearing blue overalls and a builder’s hat. Throughout his set he clambered up and down the ladders and across his ‘building site’ and when he started singing ‘Willst Du’ – one of his more famous songs – he was singing it to a traffic cone in a very loving manner. His set was full of character in a very gentle way. He was friendly to the audience throughout his set, and the lazy Sunday morning vibe was helped by the fact the crowd in the first wave were all sitting on chairs that had been set up for them – presumably by the festival rather than the artist. Alligatoah also explained that he should have had a red balloon at the top of his building site set so it looked like something out of Stephen King’s IT, but it had blown away. Halfway through the set Alligatoah revealed that one of the bin bags that had been put on the stage around the building site set had been hiding a piano, which was actually a pretty cool reveal. I was impressed with the set and thought it was the perfect kick-off for the last day of the festival.

sun - alligatoah - watermark-27

sun - alligatoah - watermark-27

Not knowing any songs from Bosse, I was unsure what to expect from the singer. I’d heard that he was really good and was surprised at the range of people in the audience that came to see him. It seemed as if Bosse ws something that everyone was excited for. The crowd was a mixture of all ages and people from all walk of life. The sizable band came on stage, followed shortly by Axel Bosse, running onto stage. Wearing a ‘Refugee’s Welcome’ Shirt, he danced around on stage like a man possessed. He didn’t seem phased by the heat which I can only imagine was even more intense on the stage that it was off it, he ran from each side of the stage and onto the catwalk, all the time dancing and singing and not pausing to take a breath.     

SDP are a two-man band (not including the drummer and a dj of course) who have an astounding amount of energy on stage. The lyrics to the songs range from the heartfelt (Candlelight dönner) to the ridiculous (deine freundin) to the absurd (ne leiche). And of course no SDP set would be complete without stage antics, blow up sex dolls and fireworks and pyrotechnics. Honestly, it’s like giving over-grown children full control over their own birthday party.  Halfway through the set they brought out their sex doll (see what I mean) and tried (and failed) to perform CPR on it, before launching in to ‘Ne Leiche’ (literally – ‘a corpse’).  

Final act of the evening – and the weekend – were German super band – Die Toten Hosen. Everyone in Germany (and Argentina for some reason) knows about Die Toten Hosen. Toten Hosen have been around for over 36 years, one of the bands that started the punk movement in Germany in the 80s during the latter years of the cold war. The band have been prolific since their creation in Düsseldorf, releasing albums every few years which means their back catalogue is impressively huge. Their set included the best songs from their discography, including old favourites like ‘Bonnie & Clyde’, ‘Pushed Again’ and ‘Paradies’ as well as classics from their early, un-polished days, like the show opener ‘Opel Gang’ and of course songs from their new album. They also played a number of covers that are new for this tour, most notably ACDC’s ‘T.N.T’ as well as Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’. Toten Hosen frontman Campino has boundless energy – especially for a man his age – and routinely got up close and personal with the crowd. As you would expect with a band that size there was of course two encores, and the night was ended with two classic Toten Hosen songs, ‘Tage wie deise’ (this is the day) and a cover of the Liverpool FC anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, which might seem a bit odd to people not familiar with band, but there is a reason for this strange choice of song to finish off a weekend in Germany. Campino is and has always been a big fan of Liverpool FC, and they’ve been including it in their set for at least the last 20 years. It was a perfect ending to the festival, the entire crowd was singing along and we all got swept up in the moment as they finished the show and the festival.

Deichbrand is a great little festival that’s had a solid line up since it was founded in 2005, and this year didn’t disappoint. Everyone is so friendly during the festival and it is a festival that holds itself to an extremely high standard. I would recommend anyone that’s into rock, rap and pop should go and experience the only festival on the North Sea.