Германиядағы музыка фестивалі

German music festival

The Hurricane Festival, also just Hurricane, is a music festival that has taken place at the Eichenring, a speedway race track, in Scheeßel, Germany, since 1997. With more than 80,000 attendees (2022) it is one of the largest music festivals in Germany. Southside Festival, often referred to as Hurricane's "sister" festival, takes place on the same three days and has largely the same line up. Alongside Southside Festival, Hurricane festival is organised by FKP Konzertproduktionen, MCT Agentur and KoKo Konstanz and takes place every June. Like many other large festivals Hurricane Festival plays a mix of rock, alternative, pop and electro music from established as well as emerging artists. Arrival begins at midday on the Thursday.

The first festival in Scheeßel took place on 8 and 9 September 1973 and was called "Es rockt in der Heide" (English: It's rocking in the heath). The festival hosted many of the big names in rock music at the time (Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chicago, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Lou Reed) and carried on through Monday night thanks to the enthusiasm of the bands. The 1977 festival, this time called First Rider Open Air, which took place on 3 and 4 September incurred damage costs of 1.5 Million when the organiser who realised during the planning stages that it wouldn't be possible to pay the bands, ran off with the rest of the money. The name "First Rider Open Air" is a reference to the packaging for Rider in Blue Jeans rolling tobacco which was new at the time. The Dutch tobacco manufacturer Douwe Egberts sponsored the festival DM140.000 under the condition that the name of the tobacco was used. Some of the bands that had been announced including Nektar and The Byrds did not even arrive in Scheeßel in some cases it was because the payment of travel expenses had not been ensured and in other cases it was due to the fact the extremely inexperienced event organiser (a 25 year old bank clerk) had already paid in advance some bands in full who then did not turn up at all. Dutch band Long Tall Ernie & The Shakers opened on the first night which then ended with Golden Earring playing their song Radar Love. Hells Angels who were hired as stewards collectively abandoned their duties due to a lack of payment. After a while the fans who felt conned and the stewards who had been cheated of their pay set the stage and the organiser's trailers on fire. Equipment and instruments were destroyed. In addition to those already mentioned bands Van der Graaf Generator and Colosseum II and British progressive rock group Camel also performed. Electro artist Klaus Schulze had also been ready to go on stage and perform before the fire. Originally Steppenwolf and Ray Manzarek (the pianist from The Doors) had been set to perform. Some people were injured from falling parts of the steel scaffolding. Those affected were then immediately dealt with by the emergency services. Following the major's orders the rock festival in Scheeßel was temporarily terminated.

In 1997 a festival in Scheeßel was resumed under a new city mayor and renamed Hurricane Festival. With the help of a local company, the event organiser Folkert Koopmans (FKP Scorpio) succeeded in convincing the Scheeßel city administration to resume the festival. Around 20.000 people attended the first Hurricane Festival on 21 and 22 June 1997 where the headliners were Rammstein, INXS and Bad Religion; the event did not make any profit. Koopmans had calculated that if there were 12.000 attendees then he would break even. 36 bands performed over the two days across two stages, a main stage and a smaller one which were both in tents. Since there were 9.000 more attendees than expected who wanted to stay over night on the site, land from the neighbouring farm was converted last minute to camping grounds.

In only its second year the number of attendees at the festival was more than double that of the first, with a total of 40.000 and over the following years it would could continue to increase. A new record was reached in 2002 with 52.000 attendees. During the initial years (the exception being 2000) bands played over two days (Saturday and Sunday) but since 2003 the festival has taken place over three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Since 2013 Spanish artist Dani Blázquez has created each year a new design for Hurricane. In 2013 it was a pink owl, 2014 a blue wolf, 2015 a green boar, 2016 a red fox, 2017 a green bear, 2018 a purple lynx and in 2019 a green racoon. The stylish animal's eye colour differs from the eye colour used in the designs at Hurricane's sister festival Southside. The design is used: to display on the stage screen when no acts are performing; as the wallpaper for the Hurricane App and on the internet; as well as in many places around the festival grounds on banners. After the 2014 festival also sold out before the weekend, selling 73.000 Combitickets, 2015 was the first non sell out in several years with around 65.000 attendees. According to the organisers this was due to the strong competition from other festivals that year and the subsequent weaker headliner line up (Placebo, Florence + the Machine, Materia). In addition in the same year an elaborate contactless payment system was used on site rather than cash. On 23 February 2016, the event organisers announced that all 73.000 Combitickets for that year's festival had sold out. On the very first day of the festival there was a two hour disruption due to a thunder storm warning. The event organisers were particularly aware after a lightning strike injured 21 people at the festival Rock am Ring, which was then terminated early. On the second day of the festival the opening of the festival grounds was initially delayed and then later in the evening completely cancelled. During the night of 25 June 2016 along with specialist groups from the THW, Technisches Hilfswerk (a German governmental civil protection group), the fire service and some staff, the organisers of the event drained the land, they pumped water away and distributed straw and gravel. The site was then able to be open as normal on the Sunday.

Year Dates Tickets sold Ticket price Number of bands Headliners 1997 21–22 June 20.000 €30.17 (59 DM) 36 INXS, Rammstein, Bad Religion, Midnight Oil 1998 20–21 June 40.000 €40.39 (79 DM) 39 Beastie Boys, Björk, Iggy Pop, Garbage 1999 26–27 June 45.000 €40.39 (79 DM) 38 Marilyn Manson, Massive Attack, Skunk Anansie, Blur, Bush 2000 24–25 June 35.000 €45.50 (89 DM) 44 Nine Inch Nails, Bush, Skunk Anansie 2001 23–24 June 40.000 €60.84 (119 DM) 39 Die Toten Hosen, Placebo, Faithless 2002 22–23 June 52.000 €72.50 39 Red Hot Chili Peppers, Die Ärzte, New Order 2003 20–22 June 45.000 €79 49 Coldplay, Massive Attack, Björk, Radiohead 2004 25–27 June 40.000 €79 46 David Bowie, The Cure, Placebo, Die Fantastischen Vier 2005 10–12 June 60.000 €89 44 Die Ärzte, Rammstein, System of a Down, Nine Inch Nails 2006 23–25 June 50.000 €89 64 The Strokes, Muse, Manu Chao 2007 22–24 June 55.000 €109 61 Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, Marilyn Manson 2008 20–22 June 70.000 €99 to €130 63 Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Beatsteaks 2009 19–21 June 60.000 from €99 64 Die Ärzte, Kings of Leon, Faith No More 2010 18–20 June 70.000 from €105 74 The Strokes, Beatsteaks, Billy Talent, Jack Johnson 2011 17–19 June 70.000 from €109 77 Foo Fighters, Incubus, Arcade Fire 2012 22–24 June 73.000 from €109 96 Die Ärzte, The Cure, blink 182 2013 21–23 June 73.000 from €109 98 Rammstein, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys 2014 20–22 June 73.000 from €109 100 Arcade Fire, Volbeat, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Seeed 2015 19–21 June 65.000 from €125 104 Placebo, Florence + the Machine, Marteria 2016 24–26 June 73.000 from €139 106 Rammstein, Mumford & Sons, The Prodigy 2017 23–25 June 78.000 from €159 103 Green Day, Linkin Park, Casper 2018 22–24 June 65.000 from €159 The Prodigy, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, Billy Talent