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Summer Breeze 2003 Somewhere in the hills of southern Germany lies the village of Abtsgemund. Once a year this village is crowded with black, drunken, fun loving loud music fans from all over Europe. Even though a couple of the villagers don’t really dig it, others rearrange their stores to facilitate their one-weekend customers. I don’t know if it’s the atmosphere of this sloping landscape, the pinewoods around us, the small scale of this fest or the nature of this particular festival ground. For me, however this is one of the coolest festivals of the season. Makes you wonder how it’s possible to create such a good vibe on an asphalt parking lot between the village and the banks of the river Kocher. The festival organisation has chosen this particular weekend because for the last few centuries it has had the best weather. But what can be better then good weather? The festival ground, without a doubt related to all the songs about fire, hell and hot asphalt is not really the most comfortable environment in 32 degrees Celsius. So because of the drought, the campsite was one dusty mess. Wherever a car was driving or even people walking, you could see a trail of dust in the air. Not very nice for all the lacy and trendy goth girls, who had a hard time keeping their outfit slick. But for those of us festival die-hards it only empowered the fun, just like mud does after pouring rain. This year the campsite is closer to the festival ground, so you could walk there. This location also made it possible to have one big campsite, something that certainly enhanced the atmosphere. Also a big improvement where the bigger number of toilets, showers and fresh water, just as the bigger choice of food. The reunion with last year’s neighbours on the campsite made this long weekend even more special for us. After a 700 kilometre drive and a queue for over an hour, their yellow truck was the first thing we spotted. Good to see the guys from Günzburg again. Let’s get the party started. With a bigger group, more beer and more loud music. Why waste your time sleeping, when there are so many nice people to meet, so much fine music to discover and fun times to experience? The music at Summer Breeze is a variety of loud music: from doom to goth, from emo-core to true metal. Non stop from the Main Stage to the Pain Stage and back again. Some bands you love and some you don’t. A concept that creates the opportunity to relax, have a snack or a stroll on the market. Due to the large amount of Scandinavian bands, the backstage bar was constantly crowded and fun to hang around. Good to see the people again we hung out with on Wacken. And a lot of nice calendar material! Wow, am I glad we Rockezine girls invented this Male Pin-Up calendar! My Belgian photo sister was also glad to be of assistance. Like a kid in the candy-store. But I’m lucky if I just got a small percentage of needled skin in front of my camera. By the time I have the nerve to approach them with my indecent question, they’re often to drunk to pose. Or my head is to cloudy to look straight through the lens. So in the end, sitting in the back of a police car, I tried to explain the cops the magic of a rock festival. While just in front of us, Scottish quilts raced down the steep road on shopping carts and drunken retards in stupid but funny shirts, tiredly placed their ass on the hood of this undercover car, I just had to laugh. Deep in their heart these law enforcers had to understand how good it must be to break away from the system for a few days, spend your time with creative games and expression, but most of all connect with people from different cultures and nationalities. The collective consciousness, being totally relaxed, not being at all rational and sociable, but just do what you feel. Stunned that it was not all about Satan worshipping and rebellion, but actually about positive stuff, they let me go. And as I shook their hands and apologised for the trouble I caused, I already felt the excitement in my chest to be part of this festival energy again. Due to circumstance, we do not have a written festival review. However, we tried our best to let the photos do the talking. |
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