It’s accomplished! Germany’s biggest club festival and the new international communication platform for the creative industries, the Reeperbahn Festival and the Reeperbahn Campus, have finally taken place in Hamburg – Northern Europe’s Capital of Music.
Held in the bustling Reeperbahn area of Germany’s St Pauli District, Hamburg last weekend, more than seventeen thousand guests – a new record – enjoyed over one hundred and fifty bands. More than one thousand accredited professionals, journalists, reporters, photographers and TV teams from all over the world (including delegates from the USA, Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Singapore and Korea) visited twenty seven special events.
Such a diverse and richly exuberant event could only exist in Germany’s creative metropolis of Hamburg – a fact underlined by Hamburg’s Mayor, Ole von Beust, during the opening of the Reeperbahn Festival and Reeperbahn Campus last Thursday.
During the Mayor’s speech Hamburg’s strategy of supporting the creative industries was renewed, and their commitment to utilising their rich infrastructure to nurture the current and future generations of aspiring talent was addressed.
Whilst the audience danced and partied throughout the last hours of the festival in clubs and theaters on the Reeperbahn, festival organisers reflected on thier most successful festival to date:
Alexander Schulz, MD of Reeperbahn Festival, states: “International artists, music industry folk, advertisers, IT-workers, trainees, award winners and journalists from all over the world networked, made business deals and experienced a wonderful multi-faceted new event full of exceptional activities. I appreciate the international recognition we have gained, and am very proud of our audience participation and seamless cooperation with all our various initiatives – allowing us to create this synthesis of the arts in Hamburg!”
Sam Taylor who reviewed the festival for leading music industry newsletter CMU Daily said: “Hamburg is an excellent location for a festival like this, small enough to be easily walkable, and with a real edge of cool creativity. The diversity of the line up worked very well, and each night when the music started a brilliant buzz took hold of the area round the venues. Paired with some great insight from the industry strands, Reeperbahn is definitely a date in my diary for 2010.”
Bands included international newcomers and established superstars, who were all celebrated in packed-out venues. Music lovers and industry folk arrived in droves to see the likes of Editors, Dinosaur Jr, Deichkind and Biffy Clyro. But the outstanding performances of all the lesser known musicians were equally rewarded with overwhelming applause. J. Tillman from the United States made the Imperial Theatre hover by singing his compelling, heart-rendering songs. The New Mastersounds from Great Britain took the Moon Doo by storm with their irresistible funk grooves. Hamburg’s alluring Niels Frevert enchanted with her string quartet, while Sophie Hunger from Switzerland gave her concert by candlelight at the Fliegende Bauten. Other blistering UK sets came from Reverend and the Makers, Dananananakroyd and Fight Like Apes.
Highlights of the Reeperbahn Campus included heated discussions between representiatives from Federal Association of the Music Industry and Jens Pirate Party Germany, an inspiring talk on music management by live music legend Carl Leighton-Pope and other enlightened seminars between music mangers and brands. Trendsetting debates of this kind will shape the profile of the Reeperbahn Campus in the future too. These and more events will shortly be available as podcasts and video streams on the Reeperbahn Campus website (www.reeperbahncampus.com)
Hamburg is already looking forward to meeting visitors from Germany and abroad from September 23rd to 25th 2010 during the 5th Reeperbahn Festival and the 2nd Reeperbahn Campus. See you next year. Auf Wiedersehen!
