Ok. So here’s the scene. Slippery, wet, cold, drizzly rain. Mud caked Converse sneakers and dirty blue jeans. Plenty of good beer and festival food. No cops. No bad attitudes. Rockin’ indie bands from Europe and the US. This is Obstwiesenfestival; an independent alternative rock festival held in the middle of a farm field in Southern Germany. WOW! What a party!Indie bands from the US, UK, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and Germany played their asses off to the shouts and screams from the mostly twenty-thirty something year old German crowd. Bands with names like The Virgins, Missent to Denmark, Polarkreis 18, Plus/Minus, Bishop Allen, and We Have Band are some of the many groups playing this weekend. The festival began on Thursday night and continued on until at least 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. I say at least because that’s when I finally had to throw up the white flag and surrender to some sleep back at the campground. Actually, when I arrived back at the campground,
campers were still going strong, blasting tunes and dancing around their tents.I attended the festival on a fluke, all because of a German couchsurfer named Martin. Martin had put out an invitation on www.couchsurfing.org announcing to anyone interested that he would be driving to the festival and had room for two people in his car. I rolled the idea around in my head for thirty minutes before giving Martin a call. On her way to work, Michelle dropped me off at Martin’s apartment. We picked up two of Martin’s friends, loaded their camping gear, and jumped on the autobahn in the direction of Munich.
Upon arriving at the campground, located in an industrial area on the outskirts of town, we are
immediately taken aback at the amount of mud at the entrance. There’s a lot of it and it’s deep. Ankle deep. Crap. This is how it is going to be for the weekend. We pay our entrance fees, have our bags searched for glass, and tiptoe our way through the mud, trying to find the path the least muddy. Ha! It’s also slippery, so walking around requires constant attention. While we set up camp, several campers come by to introduce themselves. One guy from Austria brings a couple of cans of Austrian lager. Prost! Martin visits several of the tents in our area and introduces all of us. We are all officially friends and good neighbors. I notice from the amount of beer cans shoved into the chicken wire fence surrounding us that we are among campers bent on having a good time.We chat with a few fellow tenters and start the party rolling. Around 7 pm, we head out to catch
the festival bus to take us to the show. We are joined by an eclectic crowd, many of them completely covered in mud. There is no avoiding the mud. After awhile, you just don’t care anymore.We hike about three kilometers, past wheat and corn fields to the festival grounds. Our first priority is to get a good base going in our stomachs. We eat freshly toasted baguette sandwiches and are ready for some Ochsen Lager, the beer of Ulm.
There are two stages set up: One is under a giant canvas tent and the other, the main stage, is outside. When one band finishes, the next one starts at the opposite side. Back and
forth we travel, making stops in between for beer and food. Sloshing, slipping, and sliding through the mud, we all smile to each other. And the more people drink, the muddier they get. It’s chilly out here too. Gluhwein, a traditional German hot drink served during winter, is a big seller tonight. 
The crowd is excited and displays their enthusiasm by singing along with the bands, fists pumping the air. Fans have traveled from all over Germany. Several other European countries are also represented, judging from the license plates in the camp parking lot.
The Virgins from New York City were the band that impressed me the most. They played a funky, soulful song called Rich Girl that really got my attention. The singer reminded me of a cross between Mick Jagger and the late Michael Hutchence of INXS. Another favorite of mine was a dance band called We Have Band from the UK. They played bass pounding dance beats, making it irresistible to groove to the sound. Bishop Allen, another US band, put on a hell of a show. They have more of an alternative/college rock kind of feel – kind of Elvis Costello-ish, but their own unique sound. All of the bands were professionals and there to make their mark. There were no hacks in the lineup. Outstanding performances. Outstanding sound. Outstanding attitudes. All were appreciative of the fans and welcomed the attention.
But what impressed me the most about the festival was the behavior from the fans, especially the young ones. Many of them were drunk, as the drinking age in Germany for beer is sixteen. They didn’t get sloppy-falling down drunk and belligerent. They behaved incredibly well, even being fueled by the alcohol. I found them all to be well-behaved, friendly, energetic, and social.
There were no altercations, no fights, and no bad vibes anywhere. It was all really good juju happening everywhere. I spoke with many of them and found them to be extremely polite, enjoying themselves, and grooving on the music. Even in the campground, there were no problems as one would expect to have at an event like this in America. Festival security was a minimum. I saw zero police officers at both the concert site and the campground. ZERO! There were more paramedics wandering around than guys in black shirts with securite written on them.I danced and danced through the night into the morning. There was an
after party/rave show in the tent when the last band, a hiphop act from the UK, finished their wild set. I twirled glowsticks, danced, and laughed with Martin until the wee morning hours when our legs finally gave out.Daylight came too soon, along with tremendous wind that threatened to blow down my tent. Dirty, hungover, and dehydrated, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and staggered wearily to the car for the one hour trip back to Stuttgart.
Obstwiesenfestival: Mission Accomplished
