Ciwi´s Blog

My Blog about Amphi festival is a bit late this year. I am still trying to get back into my usual festival mode :) After two years of break it still feels weird to be back to parties and festivals. I really enjoy it, but I get overwhelmed by a lot of people a lot easier.

I arrived in Cologne on Friday afternoon, so that I would have enough time on Saturday morning in the hotel to get ready for the first day. The pre-party on Friday was optional for me, because I didn´t know whether would have the energy for it. But I ended up going and it was a lot of fun.

My Saturday started out with hosting the Industrial Dance Meetup. I was a bit late for the meetup, because I underestimated how far away my hotel actually was from the Tanzbrunnen. I ended up sprinting in my platform boots through "entire" Cologne and arrived late with my feet already hurting. But the video shooting was a lot of fun. And we where a lot of people which made me really happy. I am currently still editing the video, but it is coming long.

After the video shooting I had a short photo shooting with Ulrich Waschul  And then I finally had time to watch a couple of bands. My favorite gig from that day were Solar Fake and [SITD]. The weather on Saturday was really good, only slightly too warm and a tiny bit too much sunshine. Besides watching bands I also spent a lot of time talking to friends and acquaintances. The sentence that was used most often was properly..."I think I saw you last in 2019". It was really good seeing all those people again. I ended up staying for the aftershow-party and danced there for a longer time. But not for too long...my feet were killing me, so I took a bicycle taxi back to my hotel.

On Sunday I was at the festival area pretty early again for the second part of the industrial dance video filming. And wow! We were so, so many people there. Filming all of them took me a lot of time. But I got awesome help from Anoxia, who was really good in coordinating the people to go where they need to be for the camera.

And afterwards I had a really nice photo shooting with Ulrich Waschul again. He is a really good photographer and I am so happy that he takes me pictures every Amphi and also does our meetup group pictures.

In general Sunday was unbearable sunny and hot. After watching Aesthetic perfection I had to go back to the hotel, to get out of the sun, eat something and take a cold shower. Otherwise I would have gotten a bad sunburn and a heat stroke at the same time. I changed into a very light outfit and flat shoes afterwards, so that I could enjoy the rest of the festival evening more relaxed. I watched the last bands and then stayed for a few hours of the aftershow party.  My favorite gigs from Sunday where Eisbrecher and Aesthetic perfection.

I went back home on Monday morning with the train. My learning from the Amphi festival: book a better hotel next time. I walked why to often the 40 minutes from my hotel to the festival area and back- which took energy from me that I couldn`t spend dancing. But otherwise it was a very, very fun festival and I am really looking forward to be there next year again.

Hello there! :) I did not write a blog post on here for a very long time. Usually I am writing my posts about the bigger festival I attended. But well...we all know what has been going on 2020/2021. I can`t believe that it has been over 2 years since I was last at a festival. I am not sure what 2022 brings, I didn`t make any plans for festivals/parties jet because I don´t want to be disappointed jet.

But there is also new projects coming up. I will have a photo shooting with a new photographer in February that I am very excited about. Also I am still looking for new photographers in Berlin :)

I am also working on 2 more video collaborations and one bigger video project. And I have a lot of fun lately with Tiktok.

So I try to make the best out of the situation. But I would love to be able to go to M'era Luna or Amphi or WGT festival somewhen again.

I hope you are all coping as good as possible with the current situation and that you are healthy.

My conclusion for M'era Luna 2019? - Water melon :)

It was my last festival for this year, since I am now pregnant in week 36 (so 4-7 weeks to go, depending whether the baby comes on time or later). I still really wanted to go to the festival, since after having a baby I won´t be able to go out for any party/concert/festival for at least 3-4 month and also afterwards it will be very limited to local parties at first.

My M'era Luna started on Saturday mid-day. Since I live close to Hildesheim I could get ready at home and then take the train/bus to the festival ground. I am still waiting for the year, on which I will finally make it to the camping ground at M'era Luna, so far every year something came in between (maybe that´s also due to the fact, that I live so close and never find the motivation to take the hustle to build my tent there).

The first thing I noticed this year was that they had a shuttle bus directly to the festival area, however I am not sure whether I might have missed it last year. But: the bus was driving far to few times especially at the arrival times on Saturday. And paying for it took a long time, because everyone in the line need a ticket. I think they should just make the shuttle bus part of the festival price (1-2 euros per ticket more, don´t make a big difference anyways).

This year my main focus where not the bands, but meeting people and friends and getting into the general festival atmosphere. The weather was perfect, not to hot, not to cold, no rain. Only a bit windy. 

What I like about M'era Luna is that is seems to be a very relaxed festival. Everything is close together, and due to the location (on a field/old airport), people are sitting everywhere around, enjoying the music and chilling in the sun.

The festival is also very nicely decorated. The only thing I missed this year where the stilt walkers/acrobats. They were there every year since I was at M'era Luna, however somehow this year not. I hope they bring them back.

M'era Luna as has a very nice shopping area, that contains also a lot of shops that  sell unique handcrafted things and not only the cheap resellers, that buy stuff online and sell it for twice the price at the festival.

One thing I want to try out next year is the Academy (a place at M'era Luna where you can take different workshops). Not necessary because of the workshops itself, but because I am interested to see how this goes.

I did watch some parts of the Gothic fashion which I very much enjoyed.

After a full festival day it was very hard for me to motivate myself to get ready again on Sunday morning. Not because I didn`t want to go to the festival, but because in every movement I make the belly is now in the way. However I found the motivation and I was very happy about it in the end. I meet more people and friends that I missed out on the day beforehand.

I can not say a lot about the bands this year. The line-up would have been every good in my point of view, if I had been able to watch the bands. However I needed to stay away from the stages because they where way to crowed and too loud for the baby in the belly. But next year I will be able to go to the front row again. :)

In general this M'era Luna festival was very "full". The festival got more and more popular over the last years and this year it was sold out. I can only repeat what people who camped told me, but the camping ground seem to be too full and the arrival pretty stressful. Maybe they can open more space next year.

However what was very nice (and unfortunately not very common at festivals) - there were enough toilets (import for a pregnant woman^^) and water stations available so that you didn´t have to wait in a long queue.

So I very much enjoyed M'era Luna festival this year again. My festival experience was properly a lot, lot different from most people, because of my "late-stage" pregnancy. But I am so glad that I was still so fit that I could last a full festival day. And next year I will be able to fully enjoy the concerts again, something I am really looking forward too.

Amphi Festival 2019 was super fun again. Also it was again a bit different for me, since I am (still) pregnant - now in week 33.

This means I have to stick to outside locations, where it´s not so noisy and not too crowed. However I am just so happy, that I am still able to go to festivals and there were a couple of really good bands playing outside on the main stage.

My friends and me arrived in Cologne on Friday evening. Usually that´s the evening of the pre-party. Well, I had to miss out on that - since it is inside. We went to pick up our festival wrist bands and found a every nice restaurant in Cologne to eat dinner.

Saturday started pretty early. A friend of mine spontaneously organized a little "cyber-meeting" - to be honest, I would rather have it called "industrial dance meeting" since it is more inclusive. Not all industrial dancers and ex-das-klubbers are Cybergoth. The meeting was set to be at 11 am - I made it there at 11:30. Getting ready in the morning just takes 3 hours, especially if you have a big belly in front of you that makes moving around a bit harder. I had a very nice photo-shoot with Ulrich Waschul afterwards - I take pictures with him every year. In general festivals are starting for me to become more like family-and-friends meetings. I didn´t even check the Amphi Lineup beforehand. I just knew I had to be there to meet "my people". And a couple of good bands are always playing.

I saw a bit of Chrom, Hocico and Lord of the Lost that day. My highlight was definitely Hocico. Unfortunately I was so done, that I had to leave Lord of the Lost early. Just before a big rain shower started. I missed Blutengel which I would have loved to see, but baby comes first this year. :) The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful for me - having a nice dinner, enjoying the bathtub in my hotel room and then crushing into my bed. I really hope everyone else went on to party! :D Besides this rain shower the weather for Amphi Festival was actually perfect this year. Not to warm, not to cold, not to rainy, not to sunny. Perfect for running around the entire day and dance. :)

Sunday started later - which was nice. Some people really wanted to do an industrial dance video at the Amphi again. My friend Lunara organized a meeting point very spontaneous - and I stumbled into the responsibility of filming and editing it....so a week after my Amphi impressions video, there should be also an industrial dance video from Amphi 2019 online. However I really want to do it properly organized next year again. But a couple of friends (Anoxia, Frettchen, Lunara, me)...already decided, that next year that will happen. :)

This day I saw Faderhead and a bit of Welle:Erdball. Faderhead was definitely my festival highlight. The gig was super fun and the people were having a great party. I missed out on Nachtmahr that day - because they played inside.

The rest of my day was again pretty uneventful but nevertheless super nice. I spend most of the time talking to friends, that I haven`t met in a long time. And when everyone left for Nachtmahr, I left again for the hotel - straight into the bathtub.

So that was my Amphi Festival. I was forced to miss out on a lot of things, nevertheless I am super happy that even in 9th month I am still fit enough to travel and attend festivals. And it´s only 9 month, so next year it will be a lot different again - I will be able to go to inside locations, dance a lot, drink a bit. But most importantly I will meet my friends at Amphi 2020 also again. :)

This year's WGT was my second with a pregnancy belly. My older daughter is now 3 years old now and with her in the belly I was also at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen. So in a way, I already knew what to expect and what I can do and what I can't do with a belly inhabitant. First things first: the WGT was super amazing and I was happy that I was still able to go. It was a lot "slower" then usual and with only 3-4 concerts, but at least I was there. Biggest set-back for me however as the Pagan Village (Heidnisches Dorf). I will come to that later.

I arrived in Leipzig as usual on Thursday evening. However to a much later time then usual - because I had to give my master thesis defense right before hopping into the train. I got picked up by my friend, festival and stage partner in crime Lady Flauschig. Originally the plan was to camp together on the camping ground, however due to my belly that was postponed for a later WGT. After getting my stuff into the flat, we  went to the Agra area that evening to pick up my festival ribbon and meet up with a couple of friends. The pre-party was to loud for the baby so we went to bed pretty early.

On Friday we got ready for the Victorian Picnic. I always love coming back, because people seem to be so relaxed and you get to see some of the most amazing outfits of the entire WGT. The little café that in the middle of the park also upgrade it´s amount of toilets, so the queue was a lot shorter this year. (Unfortunatelly the queue for the ice cream was much longer, so I didn´t get one).

After the picnic we went to the Haus Leipzig for the Synthattack gig. Usually I am on stage with Lady Flauschig together, however this time I found a very good replacement for myself. Snowy Firefly will be dancing instead of myself as long as I have my pregnancy belly. But I was allowed to stay on the gallery to see the gig. Otherwise it would have been to crowed for me and the belly, but in this way I got to enjoy the concert. (Thank you very much to the event manager for letting me sit there).

For me that was already my Friday. After the concert I was starving and after having food I was so done that I went to bed. But I send out Lady Flauschig to dance and party for me.

Our Saturday started super early. Because friends of us have a new band called TOAL and we wanted to support them as they played as opener in the Nontox. They are all experienced musicians that play in multiple bands, but as TOAL it was only their second gig. The gig was really nice and I am sure for the next gigs we get to sleep longer, as they make their way up the line-up. :D

After TOAL we went back to the flat to finish our hair and makeup. Afterwards we did a short trip to the Agra area, however only shortly afterwards I meet a lot of friends that wanted to go back to the Nontox for Epinephrine, Noisuf-X and Centron. We took the cap to the location, because the Nontox the the worst location to reach out of all locations of the WGT I have been so far. Additionally they also had a replacement bus service they year, which took extra long. The concert of Ephinephrine was really nice and I was able to dance a bit. Much to my disappointment they enhanced the bass by a lot when Noisuf-X started, so that I had to go, because it was again to loud for my baby. So that was my Saturday, it was super fun nevertheless.

Our Sunday started super late and it took us ages to get ready. Because Lady Flauschig and me were already pretty done from the festival. When we finally got ready and reached the festival area, we run into to friend photographers, who`s model had just cancelled them. So we spontaneously went to a photo shoot with them. Lady Flauschig went afterwards to see Soman in the Täubchental. And I wanted to go inside the Heidnisches Villages. Well - my part didn`t go as planed.

The Pagan Village (Heidnisches Dorf) was a huge disappointment this year - because they are only interested into profit and not that people actually enjoy it. The Pagan Village is independent of the WGT - however they work together since years. The pagan village is one of the few places were you can go with a day ticket without buying the entire festival ribbon. However - they are selling day tickets without limits. So that people who paid the entire festival price can not get inside anymore. The queue for the village was at 3 days up until the train station. So about 500m! If you didn´t get inside the pagan village by mid-day you could not get inside at all and once you were inside you couldn´t go outside again, because...you wouldn´t get back inside. In the village itself it was so crowed that it was also not much fun. For me the pagan village was always essential for the WGT. When you didn´t have anything else to do you would go inside, have a honey wine, some sweets and chill out on the meadow. However this was not possible this year. It was especially disappointing, since I was pregnant and couldn´t see most concerts. So the pagan village was actually one of the things I really wanted to do. Just sit in the meadow and listen to some nice music from afar. To be honest, I am not sure, whether I will pay the festival ribbon again, if they don´t find a solution for this. The ticket got more and more expensive over the last year`s and they cut more and more things that are included. If the pagan village is now also not available anymore then I don´t see a point in spending so much money.

On Monday we got up early again - because at least once I wanted to go inside the pagan village. However there was on music playing and the moment and my friend didn´t want to be there, because she ''forgot'' to eat again in the morning, so we went outside again soon. On that day, I pretty much only did some walking through the Agra area and enjoying some food and good conversations there and on the camping ground. And then it was already time to get back to the train station and leave Leipzig again.

So was WGT fun? Yes! I am happy that I went and didn´t let my pregnancy prevent me from having fun. However I was very much disappointed with the Pagan Village disaster. Will I go next year again? Properly, but only if they find a better solution for the pagan village. If they don´t find a solution I will simply do the without-a-ticket WGT. So Friday Victorian Picnic, Saturday a day-ticket for the Pagan Village. In the evening Nontox (you can get day tickets for that as well). Because if I go next year, it will be with my entire family, 5 days are too long to be without my then born baby. And as the family we will have the same problem - most concerts are to noisy, the Agar area is not so nice to sit and play at. So it really depends upon if and how they manage to solve the Heidnisches Dorf situation. Otherwise the tickets are simply to over-priced for the service I get.

This year was my third M'era Luna festival. And at some point I should really camp at this festival, because I think it makes festival experience a different and properly also even more fun. But since I live only 25 minutes by train way from Hildesheim every year I come up with another excuse to not sleep in a tent there. This year I am just a little overworked and didn´t want to bother with preparing for camping. Last year it was too muddy.... :D

M'era Luna 2018 was the first festival in a long time where I didn´t have a gig or any obligations, that's why I didn´t plan anything. I just wanted to go there, meet up with friends, see some bands, dance and enjoy myself. I didn´t even bother looking which bands where playing when I bought the ticket. So on Saturday I took my time to drink coffee and get ready at home, before arriving around 14 pm at the festival area.

The only band I was truly interested into that day was Nachtmahr and the Prodigy. Unfortunately I had to catch my last train, so I missed out on the Prodigy. But as I said, seeing bands wasn´t the main reason I went to the festival. I went more for the festival vibe and for my friends and fans.

I really love how M'era Luna always feels like a mixture of a goth and a metal festival. You have all the dressed up people, but also a lot of people in plain t-shirt sitting around in the grass enjoying the bands and a cold beer. Also the huge medieval market is really nice. If you want to you can also do a lot of "goth shopping" there. :D

On Sunday there where a lot more bands that I wanted to see and dance too. So I saw Frozen Plasma, Aesthetic Perfection and Roter Sand. If I didn´t have to take the train I properly would have watched Eisbrecher and Hocico as well.

But I was able to dance that day and had really nice conversations with old and new friends.

M'era Luna festival was nice. I feel like I am a bit festival tired at the moment, with Amphi Festival only being 2 weeks away. But I will camp next year at the M'era Luna festival. I think it will be a lot more fun this way.

Like Amphi Festival it´s nice that at the M'era Luna everything is really close by and you don´t have to travel thru the entire city like at the WGT. And unlike Amphi Festival you can camp at the M'era Luna, which gives you a lot more of the festival experience (if you do so^^).

One thing that does start to bother me are the safety rules that are increasing every year and seem to get more and more ridiculous. Checking into the concert area start´s to feel like going thru a airport security check in. So If you go to M'era Luna 2019 pack a see-thru backpack that isn´t bigger then A4 so that you can take at least a few thing to the in-field like a jacket, sun screen, a fan....

What I love about M'era Luna is that say always seem to put a lot of effort into making the festival area fun to look it. They put a lot of afford into the decorations of the festival. And every year they come up with something new. So M'era Luna 2019: be ready for me and my tent. :D

WOW. I am so done. Tired. Exhausted. But it was such an amazing festival. The festival blues is gonna hit me so hard tomorrow when I slept enough. (And I really should go to bed now). :)

The Amphi Festivals 2018 was simply amazing. I shared my hotel room with a new friend of mine – Lady Flauschig - who is also an industrial dancer – and is doing now a lot of gigs together with me. We both arrived on Friday pretty late – and pretty exhausted because it was soo hot outside. But after some rest and a couple of strawberry beer we were ready to go to the pre-party. Which was really nice and I met a lot of my friends and fellow dancers there. And I got a huge surprise present from my fans/friends from Italy...:D

We partied until 1 am and had to go then because we had to get up the next morning already at 8:00 am. First thing on Saturday after getting into our outfits was a little photo shooting with a friend and it is really nice to have some good pictures from the outfits before then sun and the heat destroyed us. This Amphi festival was super, super hot and a fan and a water bottle were the most necessary things to keep with you.

After the photo shot I went to host the Amphi Industrial Dance Meeting together with JavaxChaos and I feel like every year we are more and more people there. It was nice to have all friends and industrial dancers at one spot at least once at the festival. Glutton Trex did the Amphi industrial dance video this year – which I hope will turn out really well since he put a lot of work into filming it. Unfortunately I only had time for a short scene in it.

After the Meeting we went to see our first band – XRX. So a really good start into the festival.

The we went to see the last parts of Kiew and then Centron in the theater stage. The last band I saw that day was Aesthetic Perfection. And then we really need to go to the hotel and rest a bit and have a shower. It was just so hot that day. When I felt better again I went to go out dancing at the after-show party.  

Sunday was our big day – our gig with Synthattack together. A dream coming true. Dancing on stage at the Amphi Festival.  And the gig was simply amazing. The theater stage was full, the people had a lot of fun, where dancing and clapping and having a good time. And that as an opener at the festival. After packing everything we rested a bit in the backstage and talked about the gig and socialist a bit with other bands. Lady Flauschig and me went to see Grendel next – and thanks to the really nice stage manager we were able to see it from the front row.

The last band I really saw and danced too that day was Agonoize. Unfortunately they weren´t allowed to do their fake blood show, but it was really amazing anyways. During the entire day I saw and met a lot of people, fans and friends so my social battery was really low. So enjoying a good cold honey wine with a group of friends was really relaxing. And we laughed so hard the entire evening. Especially because some of us practically never drink and started to be tipsy really fast. The rest of the evening we spend sitting there and having a good time. My little festival highlight was that I was able to say hi to Freya (It´s Black Friday) again. I didn´t know she would be at the festival this year.

And After the After-Show party I was done. Not able to move. Happy. Tired. Exhausted. Happy.

Nothing felt better the some food and the hotel bed.

This years Amphi Festival gets a 10/10 from me :)

What a festival! WGT 2018 is over and I am having a festival blues. This year the festival was simply amazing. At least for me – a lot of other people they would have found my time schedule too stressful, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

I arrived in Leipzig on Thursday evening. In general Thursday was a bit stressful – first getting my luggage to the train station (1 suitcase, a bag, a handbag and a backpack). Then the trip with the train –  taking all my stuff to a hotel close to Leipzig Main Station to get their my artist wrist band – taking my stuff back to the train station, picking up 2 extra big suit cases that I shipped via post – then taking all my stuff to a taxi and  finally arriving at the Agra camping ground.  Fortunately my friends helped me setting up my tent and then we went to party together in the evening in the Agra 2.0. I danced a lot, met my friends from Synthattack there and was able to talk to Freya (it´s Black Friday) shortly.

On Friday with time schedule was really full. @11 am I had to be in the Sixtina for my gig with System Noire @ 12am. The Sixtina was really full and I loved my outfit. The Sixtina is a really beautiful location but unfortunately a bit small and you don´t have a big spot in front of the stage for people to stand there and watch the show.

After the concert I went back to the Agra and met there Allison (The Goblin Queen), her husband Braidskiis and more friends. That woman is so nice and so funny. I really wished she didn´t live so so far away (USA)^^

Then I grabbed my stuff for my next gig, met with my friend Lady Flauschig to go together to Haus Leipzig. We went around backstage, got ready and annoyed the security, because we accidentally always wanted to enter the male bathroom. (I really don´t know why, that door just felt a lot more intuitive).

Our gig together was Extize was absolutely amazing and definitely my WGT highlight. I don´t know how many, but maybe 1000 people e were watching us dance on Stage :) And it was such a fun gig as well. The guys from Extize are really fun to be around.  I later on watched a bit of Centhron and I did see a bit of Phosgore beforehand as well.

Saturday in had most of the day off and was able to wear one of my demon outfits. I went around the Agra area and the Heidnisches Village. It really feels like the medieval market is growing every year a bit more. One of my friends has a little shop there called Crea Cora. So I visited her there.

In the evening me and Lady Flauschig were on stage again, together with the dance group vixxxen who already joined us in the Extize gig on Friday.  We danced from 23pm until 2am in the Agra 2.0 disco on Stage. Afterwards we were really done and I missed out on the fetish party again. So that´s still on my WGT bucket list – hopefully I make in next year.

On Sunday was our gig with Synthattack in the Nontox. Since the Nontox is a long drive with the tram away from the Agra area, that´s where I went straight too after getting ready in the morning. Our gig was @16 pm. Unfortunately there went a couple of things wrong. The Nontox wasn´t able to play the videos Synthattack prepared and they also didn’t warn us about their “time-limited” so they just cutted the last song from the set – in which me and Lady Flauschig were supposed to dance again. So we got ready for 4 hours just to dance for 1 song on stage which was pretty disappointing. But this was our practice for the Amphi festival and in German we have the saying that if the last practice goes really wrong, the gig will be amazing. So I am really looking forward to our concert with Synthattack @the Amphi Festival 2019.

I stayed the rest of the day there drank beer, had a nice talk to [X]-RX and enjoyed the concerts of Painbastard, Arise-X and [X]-RX.

And then it was ready Monday. This was my day off – so I got into my second really cool but unpractical outfit and went around the Agra area, the Heidnisches village and too the Südfriendhof (a super nice graveyard). For the evening I changed into something more dance-able.

I really loved to see the concerts from Rummelsnuff, Faderhead, Grendel and God Module.

Also I met Allison and Brady again and we ended up running into Simon (CoalCandy), Freya (It´s Black Friday), Caligo Bastet and Adora Batbrat :D

They invited me to come to the Moritz Bastei with them, but at that point I was already so done that I decided to go to bed – my daughter needs me today so I couldn´t be to done.

This was my WGT for this year. We were lucky that the weather wasn´t as cold as the weather report told us, even so the night in the tent were still really freezing.  I met a lot of old and new friends, danced and had gig, enjoy really nice food and partied a lot. And I have a really bad festival blues already. See you next year at WGT 2019!!!

I am hosting an Industrial Dance Contest this year :) Maybe you are a dancer or know somebody who would love to enter. Here

are the Rules:
🖤 Deadline 1st June 2018 - 12pm European Central Time
🖤 Worldwide, you have to be 18++
🖤🖤🖤🖤 Winner-video will get $100 and the 2nd place $50 - we got somebody that donated money to increase the prices :D and wanted to help our community with it 🖤🖤🖤
🖤 Winners will be announced on June 2nd 2018
🖤 Free choice of music
🖤 Edited + unedited videos (but you should put the original music under the audio track of your video, because the sound qualtity will be to low otherwise)
🖤 Single dancers + groups allowed
🖤 Upload your entry public to youtube
🖤 1 entry per person/youtube channel
🖤 Use CIDC in the titel
🖤 Hold a sign with "Ciwana's Industrial Dance Contest" in at the beginning of the video or have it otherwise written in the video - so that people can find the contest even when the video was uploaded to another plattform (vimeo...)
🖤 Link this video in your video description
🖤 Send an email to: ciwana.black@gmail.com with your entry
🖤🖤🖤 most important: have fun with dancing and filming. This is a competition, but most important I would love to see our community more active again. 🖤

🖤Jury: Ciwana, Eisschrei and Glutton Trex

Again a festival I have never been too beforehand. But as far as I know the festival is quite new and so I didn´t have a lot of chances to go. :D

The atmosphere was a lot different to the other festivals I have been to this year. As far as I could tell you didn´t have the “usual” set of people that I meet at the Goth festival – but completely different once. Maybe that was due to the fact that a very big medieval market was a main part of the festival. So you had a lot of people there that were mainly into the medieval stuff.

I didn´t get to see many bands on this festival. On Friday I went to see Faderhead. And on Saturday I had my gig with System Noire which made me miss out on XRX. So I only saw parts of Letzte Instanz that day. I also couldn´t see Front 424 and Suicide Commando because I had to make my last train back home.  So if I go again to this festival, I will definitely book a hotel as well, because driving 2 hours to and from the festival two days in a row takes a lot of the fun.

Being there as a Band – part of System Noire – was really awesome. On Friday we were there on the guest list, on Saturday we had the Backstage/Vip are as well. Everything was really nicely organized, the people were super friendly. The Backstage was really nice as well and so was the food. :)

The location for our gig – the Hemmingway had an amazing sound and a really good atmosphere.

This year I went very spontaneously to the Autumn Moon Festival because a video shooting that was planned was delayed and so had time to go with System Noire and dance on Stage. But if I have the chance to go again I will definitely book a hotel for Friday and Saturday so that I can actually enjoy the other bands as well.

I think it actually quite nice to have a festival like this in the autumn. Because usually my festival season ends already in August - and I am always very sad about it.

This year was my second time at the M’era Luna Festival. To be honest – short before the festival I wasn´t even really sure whether I still wanted to go. Not because I didn´t enjoy the festival last year a lot. But because just two weeks ago was already the Amphi festival, we had really bad weather and I still have exams up coming.This year was my second time at the M’era Luna Festival. To be honest – short before the festival I wasn´t even really sure whether I still wanted to go. Not because I didn´t enjoy the festival last year a lot. But because just two weeks ago was already the Amphi festival, we had really bad weather and I still have exams up coming.

But in the end I’m really, really happy that I did decided to go. I only opted against camping – which I am also really happy about. When I saw the camping ground it felt a bit like Wacken 2.0 (but only a bit). It was raining all Friday and big parts of Saturday, so that most festival guest had to set up their tents during rain and everything was very muddy. Also apparently parking was a big issue – the usual parking areas were too muddy so that people got stuck with their car. The festival organizer had to find an alternative parking lot and offer a shuttle bus service. I arrived by train, so I didn´t have this kind of issue, but as far as I can tell the festival organizers  did a pretty good job in finding parking alternatives, setting up the shuttle busses and providing tractors for pulling out the cars that got already stuck.

On Saturday morning I had the advantage getting ready at home. I wasn´t super motivated since it was raining outside again but I managed to put an outfit together.  Afterwards I took the train towards Hildesheim. Walking around in public in a festival Outfit is always fun – people really stare at you and ask the most silly questions. But on the other hand, when I saw myself riding the bike and then taking the train like this I would properly stare as well…:D

I arrived at the festival area around 2 pm and had to queue for a pretty long time to get my festival bracelet. It also started to rain again and I felt again really demotivated. But afterwards I slowly got into the festival wipe. Seeing the people camping, having fun little extras like a small Goth garden or “dance zones” on the floor and hearing the music from the far.

After filming a bit my surrounding I went into the concert area. It was announced beforehand that they had installed really harsh bag rules. But to my surprised I was allowed into the concert area with my little sports bag.

Since I lost one of my cat ears on the way to the M’era Luna my first mission was to find a new pair in the shopping area of the festival. I went around and took my time to look at nearly all the shops. During that time I stumbled every couple of meters into somebody I knew and friends of mine, had a chat and took photos. I also found a cute little t-shirt for my daughter and finally some cat ears “the original atelier”. I also own a pair of little horns from there and the owner of it is really nice, so we ended up talking for a pretty long time.

My next destination was Faderhead. I love this band but it was really sad that the Hanger Stage was super crowed, so that I couldn´t dance. But I meet a lot of other industrial dancers there which was really nice. After Faderhead I found two random, fun girls and ended up drinking honey wine with them. Later on I went to Solar Fake. I think that was my favourite gig of the festival. The music was good and we had enough space to dance! :)

My last mission of this day was having some food and a drink with a good friend of mine.

Sunday started off with really good weather and also my mood was a lot, lot better. Despite the weather and such I really enjoyed the Saturday after arriving at the festival area and I thought that this day can only be even better. After breakfast with my family and getting ready I had to take the train again to Hildesheim. I arrived around the same time as Saturday.

Getting into the festival area was a bit of a hustle because they changed their bag rules Saturday evening again so all off a sudden my little sports bag wasn´t allowed anymore. So I took out all of my things, stuffed the bag into my jacket pocket, carried my things in both hands thru the security just to put it back into the sports bag right afterwards. I am pretty sure that´s not the way they wanted it, but they also didn´t hinder me and I thought that the bag rules weren´t really well thought through.

I saw a bit of The Crüxshadows on the main stage, and then went to the Shop of my friend again.  

I am not sure as to want happened next, but I first ended up drinking some honey wine with a really nice group of strangers (it was my first drink that day, so I wasn’t drunk but the events were all just really surprising). And somehow I ended up from there in a group of other Youtubers, models and bloggers – some of who I am “fangirling” a bit. But I think that a bar of chocolate was somehow involved.

And then I got stuck there. And we had a lot of fun. Trying to give people chocolate (two of them got a present of 20 bars or such). Dancing, taking pictures, having awesome conversations.  In my memories it’s a big bubbly blur. But a really nice one.

I went to Blutengel with one of them who was fairly new to the dark scene. I enjoyed the concert, but you couldn´t really dance, because of all the mud. Afterwards we went back to the group, were we just had fun together. I decided to see a little bit of “And One” with them, before it was time to leave the M’era Luna.

So that was my festival experience this year. A lot of mud, some really good conversations. Meeting a lot of new people – well known or not – but nevertheless having honey wine and a fun time with all of them. And a bit of music. I have to say that the more often I am at festivals, the less important the concerts become. There isn´t really a band that I didn´t see at least 3 times already. And since I M’era Luna was already my 4^th festival this year, I saw most of them already this year. But I don´t mind. I had such an amazing time there and I am so glad that I went. I only hope that the weather will be better next year and that they find a better way for the bag rules :)

This year was my first Amphi festival, after my "baby-break". I actually just missed out last year - but I didn´t really like the Amphi at the Lantex area (2015), so this felt like the frist proper Amphi after a long time.

I drove with my friends from System Noire together from Hannover to Köln (Cologne). Usually I arrive in Köln on Friday and leave on Monday, but this year Amphi was a bit shorter for me – because my friend had to work and because I didn´t want to leave my baby girl for such a long time jet.

But this led to the fact that I had to get up at 4:00 am in the morning on Saturday to drive to Hannover and from there to Köln. Meaning that I only got 4 hours of sleep even before arriving at the festival.  We got thru traffic really fast, so by 9 am we were already in our hotel. More time then I thought to get ready to go out. Unfortunately I was still a bit in a rush, so that my hairpieces weren´t quite right and fell off during dancing later on.  After a short bus drive and getting ask for my number twice I made it to the Amphi area. The first band I saw was Eisfabrik and they were really cool. I also met a lot of friends and fellow dancers there. This is also one of the main reasons why I love going to the Amphi festival.  You met so many people there that you usually only know over the internet or only get to see few times in the year. To be honest – I am also surprised how many people come up to me, because they watch my videos and want to greet me and take a picture with me. But: don´t be shy, I usually don´t bit and I like taking pictures. :D Only exception: if I am eating, I am eating. No pictures please, when I am stuffing my face with a Burger.

After a bit of walking around and talking to friends and fans we met up to make a little Amphi dance video.  But I only took part in a couple of scene. My SD card from my camera broke down and I was a bit stressed out about it and worried that I lost all the video material that I had filmed so far. (It just turned out at home, that I could at least save the files). After the video filming I took a taxi back to the hotel, to take out my hairpieces that were falling off and to pick up my second SD card, so that I could at least make new video files.

Afterwards I went back to the Amphi and enjoyed Tanzwut and Lord of the Lost from the far while sitting at the beach bar and enjoying a really good vegan burger.

My highlight from this day was definitely Nachtmahr. I really enjoyed their concert, only setback was that they were playing inside, so that it was really crowed and the air wasn´t really good. I wished they would have put Nachtmahr on the main stage outside. Then I could have also danced properly.

I spend the rest of the enjoying with walking around the shopping area and chilling with friends at the beach bar listening to VNV Nation. By that time I was already really done. So after VNV Nation I drove back to the hotel. Got into the bathtube and went then for a really long and good sleep – properly the best that I had since my baby girl arrived.

Next morning I got up at 9 am and made myself ready to go out. By around 11 am I was finished, but I had to wait another half hour until my friends were done so that I arrived a bit too late to the das Klub Meeting. But the meeting was really nice. Then I saw a bit of Stahlmann.

Afterwards I had a little photoshooting with a photographer that wanted to use the chance that I was in Köln for the weekend. I think there will be some really awesome pictures from this shooting.  

My favourite act from Sunday was definitely Hocico. I loved their performance and the music. And it was outside, so that I could actually dance again. I didn´t bother seeing Combichrist. Ever since they are trying to make it in the Goth and the Metal scene I don´t like their music anymore. I wished they would have kept the Combichrist songs as they were and made a new project that makes metal music.

The last band of the day was Apoptygma Berzerk which was a really nice concert. And then it was already time to leave again. I arrived around 1am on Monday back home. Really tired, really done, but also really happy.

And next year I am sure that I will be able to stay longer again – and party longer. ;)

We arrived in Leipzig on Thursday evening. We are really lucky that our camping friends helped us carry our stuff to the camping ground, because otherwise we would have had to walk at least 4 times from the enterence to our camping area and back. Therefore I was actually able to go out dancing in the Agra 4.2 in the evening because I wasn´t completely exhausted from the trip.

On Friday the Victorian Picnic was again my main highlight. With a baby everything takes longer, so after I got into my outfit we went directly to the Clara-Zetkin-Park which was around 2 pm. Even so the Picknick starts "officially" at 3 pm there were already a lot of people there. I really enjoy the picnic, you get to see so many great outfits, sit around, eat something and meet friends. And of course there are also a lot of photographers who take pictures.

In the evening we went to the Heidnisches Dorf (Pagan Village), saw Tanzwut and enjoyed some awesome "Baumstriezel" (a sweet bun with different toppings). I didn´t go to any concerts other then that one Friday, because me, my boyfriend and the baby were pretty done already and needed a more quiet evening.

On Saturday the day started off beautiful with sunshine. But we knew already that it was supposed to rain later on - so the first thing we did was securing our tent and camping area. Afterwards I got into my outfit and then we went wandering around the agra area and had a look at the shops there. Later on in the evening I had promised a friend/photographer that I would do a shooting with him and another photographer. We went to a really cool old factory and it was a nice shooting.

Luckily my gut feelings told me to go back after about an hour and we just made it into our car until the downpour went off. Back at the festival area I went to see after my family - they were together with pretty much everybody else in the agra food and shopping area. After some french fries I wanted to see Rotersand (playing in the Agra). Unfortunatelly you have to walk around the Agra hall to make it to the enterence for the concert part so that I missed in the first part from Rotersand - because I wanted to wait at least until the rain got a bit less heavy. Afterwards I saw some parts of V2A but then it was my "baby shift" again. :D Me and my boyfriend always switched so that one of us had a bit of baby-off time, but we also did a lot of stuff together as a family.

It rained pretty much the entire night and also the entire Sunday morning - therefore I couldn´t wear the outfit that I wanted to wear and I only put on a bit of makeup. Then we went into the agra to look around for a birthday present for our baby girl. (We found a t-shirt for her that says "I am too old for that shit" - which I find every funny considering the fact she is only 1 now.) Back at the camping area I decided to put in my hairpieces and go with some friends to [X]-RX. This was my favorit gig of the entry WGT - but I didn´t really see much, for example I couldn´t go to Ephinephrin or Centhron. So I guess I can´t really judge.

And then it was already Monday. Unfortunatelly our baby girl started to teething again - so she was crying a lot and not in a good mood, so that we decided to make it a very relaxed day. But my highlight of this days was the gig I had with System Noire in the Sixtina. And I really loved the venue. The decoration and the feeling inside the Sixtina are very awesome. And it was a lot of fun to dance on stage again. We spent the rest of the day shopping in the Agra and then enjoying the Heidnisches Dorf (Pagan Village), some Treffen Met and one of of the Baumstrietzl.

And today - Tuesday it was the leaving day. So we had to pack our tent and everything again. Take the cap back to the train station and get back home. It was very nice to have a shower and cook again in our own kitchen - but now I am starting to miss the WGT already again.

To sum it up: this WGT was a lot slower, because we had our baby girl with us and could only do so much with her/had to take "shifts". But I am very happy that I was able to go to the WGT, because she is still to small to leave her for so long with her grandmother. But it seemed like she enjoyed her first WGT and she did sleep surprisingly good in the tent. So we will definitly do more festivals with her again. :)

And I feel like I start to understand the WGT better. This festival is not so much about the bands, but more like a big goth "family" meeting. I met so many friends, fellow dancers, models, bands and just random people there. And had with all off them really nice chats.

Last but not least I have to leave a compliment for the festival security. I never in my live experienced much a nice security staff. The are very polite, they greet you in the morning, they remember your face, some off them have been at the same spot for the last 5 WGT festivals and are happy to see you every year again, they help you (like watching your stuff for a short time and such) and if they want to picture with you they ask very kindly.

See you next year again in Leipzig! :)

The E-Tropolis Festival is the first one I attended this year. It´s always in march when it is still cold outside, therefore it is an indoor festival. This year was the second time I went to it and I did enjoy it more than last year. But I think that is mostly due to the fact that I didn´t have a baby belly anymore and therefore I could dance the entire time again.

We booked the Hotel a bit late, hence we had a Hotel in the city Bottrop which is pretty close to Oberhausen. But unfortunately the traffic was very thick, so instead of 10-15 minutes which Google maps told us, we needed around 40 minutes and got nearly too late for Centhron.

But we made it and the show was awesome. Afterwards we had a little break and went wandering around, having a look at the few shops they had there. I tried to talk my best friend into an air brush tattoo which last a couple of days (I wanted him to pick one for me and vice versa). But he didn´t want too (I am still a bit “mad”^^). I got some nice little jewellery for a shop (a late gift from my friend) and bought myself a little chain. After some drinks we went to see Solitary Experiments. I really love their music and they were one of the highlights of the festival for me.

We did see the beginning of Solar Fake, but I really needed some food, so I got an awesome vegan Burger (it was soo good!). Afterwards [X]-RX was playing. I really like their music, but the show wasn´t really good this time. They had a lot of sound issues with their voices, so either they or the sound technician messed up  - which is a bit surprising due to the fact, that everything except the voices comes from the computer. And their stage outfits were a bit weird. One look like a bad cosplayer, one like a hipster…

The next show from Agonoize was really great those. Even so I am not such a fan of their new songs, but the old once are really good and they played a lot of them. Only the talking bit in between was really weird. I think he wanted to transport some kind of message, but it was a bit random.

I didn´t see much of Faderhead. But it did made me smile that he didn´t wear his sunglasses. This is very very rare. Usually he wears them day and night. (At least when he is giving a concert/partying).

When Covenant was playing me and my best friend were enjoying some hot chocolate and a cookie. By that time I was already really tired because I don´t get much sleep because of my baby daughter jet. So we were listening to Covenant from the Coffee place and afterwards went back to the hotel. Where I had a really good night of sleep – without the baby.

I am actually not sure which was more worth it – the festival or one night of sleep after so many months. :D

This year was my first time at the M'era Luna festival. It was also my first time going out after I had  my little baby. I knew that I could spend only a couple of hours at the festival because I can´t leave her for too long (she is just 2 month old). But the Mera Luna is very close to where I live, so I could easily drive back and forward by train in about 30 minutes.

One good thing about goth festivals is that it is very easy to spot the people who are going to it. So when I arrived in Hildesheim main station I found some nice new people with whom I shared a taxi to the festival ground.

When we arrived at the Flugplatz I was straight away impressed by the massive camping ground. Most other goth festivals I have been to don´t have so many people camping. It kinda felt more like arriving to a metal festival. There were even people playing toilet bingo (give the portable toilets a number and guess which one the next visitor will take). And somebody with a free hug sign. And very cool decorated tents – even an inflatable palm tree and such :)

On Saturday I arrived around 13:00 pm at the festival. I went pretty much straight to the hangar stage, because I wanted to see Noisuf-X playing. And it was really good. It felt amazing to dance again and meet all the dancers as well. Afterwards I was just wandering around; having a look at the festival area, and filming a bit. I didn´t actively see a band on the main stage. But it was a very nice feeling to always have some good music in the back ground and people sitting everywhere, enjoying the sun and the bands playing. Then I went to the camping ground to visit my friends with whom I unusually camp at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen.  After spending some time there, it was already time to go back home. Those five hours of festival feeling and being away from the little one were really like soul food – but I also couldn´t wait to come home to her afterwards.

Sunday started of pretty much the same. I got into my outfit at home and went to the festival area where I arrived again at 13:00pm. This time I found again some nice random people who shared a taxi with my. Then I went straight away to see Centhron. I think I enjoyed them even more the Noisuf-X. But that’s maybe also because I knew that yesterday everything went  well with the little one even so I wasn´t there – so I could dive even more into the festival feeling.

After Centhron I went around the festival area again. But it was more like walking 10 meters - meeting somebody and talking 10 minutes, walking 20m - pictures taken by a photographer, walking 10m - pictures taken, walking 20m  - meeting a friend. And I really enjoyed this. It was so awesome to be outside, talking to nice people and having pictures taken – without the baby belly. After a short trip to my friends at the camping ground it was already time to go home again. Even so it was just few hours for me, I really got a festival blues when I needed to go. I wished I could have seen more bands like Hocico, VNV Nations or Eisbrecher. On the other hand I know that I was really lucky to be able to go to a festival with a 2 month old baby.

So that was my first M'era Luna. It felt a bit like a fusion of a Goth with a Metal festival – you had people sitting around drinking something, enjoy the music, just having fun and also the people in the amazing outfits which I love to look at. And I really enjoyed this athmosphere. I will definitely be back next year – then for a longer time and more bands. And maybe in two years time I can finally camp again. Because personally I think that you can enjoy the Mera Luna festival to the fullest, when you are in the middle of where everything is happening.

My boyfriend and I arrived on Thursday evening in Leipzig. First we got rid of our stuff at our friend’s house, and then we went to get our wristbands. We had camping wristbands, because we wanted to be able to spend at least the days with our friends at the camping ground. But that also meant we couldn´t go directly to the Belantis, but had to go to the Agra first.

By the time we were there it was already 22 pm. After we got some food we wanted to go to the Belantis – the Adventure Park were the opening event was happening. I can´t ride roller coaster at the moment anyways, so I didn´t mind going late - just for the parties. But the problem was that by that time the Belantis was full already and that no shuttle busses were driving anymore. And there was absolutely no alternative party/location to go to since the traditional Pre-Party in the Agra 4.2 wasn´t happening.

To be honest, I was pretty tired already and didn´t mind just sitting at the camp ground for a while with my friends, before going home. But I think that it really sucked for most people (whoaren´t at the end of pregnancy) who came to celebrate through the entire festival days. I have never heard of a huge adventure park being full, so that was pretty badly organized from the festival team.

On Friday I got into my steampunk outfit, and then we did some grocery shopping and left for the Victorian Picnic in the Clara-Zetkin-Park. It was a nice and sunny day; we had some good food and were watching the people in their awesome outfits.

Originally I wanted to go to the Nontox afterwards to see Centhron. But I was pretty exhausted after the picnic, so we drove to the camp ground and went for a bit to the Heidnisches Dorf in the evening.

On Saturday my first program point was going to the das Klub meeting, which we had for the first time at the WGT. It was a pretty small meeting, especially because half of the people didn´t make it in time to the meeting. But it was nice to have a chat and see the people again, especially because I couldn´t really go to the industrial events – either it was too cold (for the Nontox) or too loud (in the Agra Concert hall).

After the das Klub meeting and lunch I and a friend of mine went to the Nontox. That was actually the only evening in which I could really listen to bands and even dance a bit. It had gotten already pretty cold and the Nontox is an outside location with no  warm place, but I was lucky that my friend had his car with him, so that we could sit between the bands inside on the seat heater. On this evening I saw Unterschicht, Painbasdards and XRX.

In total the Nontox was still the best location for me this WGT - because the music wasn´t to loud and they had at least a very big tent so that we didnt get wet.

Only that I had to wait over an hour for one cup of coffe (!)  - the only hot drink they serve there - was a bit of a downside.

On Sunday the weather had gotten even crappier, it was cold and rainy the entire day. Originally I wanted to go to see my friends from Desastroes playing at the Nontox at 13:30 pm. But I had to decided against it, because I can´t afford to get a cold at the moment (I don´t want to go into labor not being able to breath properly).

So I pretty much spend the day with walking around inside the shopping area with my friends, looking at the people there, drinking some hot drinks and buying a huge warm hoodie  - after I searched through the entire shopping area until I found the one I wanted in plain black with some rivets.

 I didn´t really bring warm clothes with me (which was a mistake), because the WGT has always been nice, sunny and a bit too hot, so I just could accept the fact that this year it would be cold. Plus the problem is that I don´t really have a lot of clothes that fit over my belly anymore – so I wanted to go belly free and not buying things just for one more month.

In the evening I wanted to go to Diary of Dream and Lacrimosa. I spend properly one minute in the Agra Concert Hall. It was way too loud. And I really have no clue why it must be so loud. The entire backwall off the hall was vibrating (!). That can´t be comfortable even for somebody who isn´t pregnant.

Monday was already the last day of the WGT. The weather started out crappy again, but it got better over the day. I used this day pretty much just with walking around in the Heidnisches Dorf together with my boyfriend, trying out all the awesome (vegan) food that they had there and later on sitting at the camp fire listening to Versengold and Heydenrausch.

In the evening I wanted to go to Aesthetic Perfection and Agonoize. But they were playing in the Agra Concert hall again. So I kinda knew that that wouldn´t work out. I tried it anyways but after 10 seconds of the concert I left again, because it was way too loud again and my baby started kicking me.

So that was my Wave-Gotik-Treffen: no being able to get in, too loud (for me), too cold. But for some reason I had a lot of fun anyways. I met so many of my friends and nice random people. I had tasty food and it was just really nice to go out one last time before the little one will be here.

I am really looking forward to next year, I only hope that the weather will be better again.:)

Because I won´t make it to the Amphi Festival this year (my baby will be very small when the festival starts), I decided to go to another festival instead. And my choice was the Etroplis Festival which is organized by the same people as the Amphi Festival.

The Etroplis Festival is a one day, inside Festival in Oberhausen (Germany).

This festival was in many ways new for me, because this is my first pregnancy and therefore I have never been pregnant at a festival before.

Which of course means no alcohol, no smoking (which I never did, but didn´t want to be close to people smoking), not being in a too crowed place and not too much noise.

All things which are pretty much what a festival means/is :)

Well no alcohol was easy, but I did have a fun experience with it.

People were smiling when they saw that I was pregnant, but when I decided to drink an alcohol-FREE beer, I go really hatefull looks.

Which is good on the one side, because you definitly shouldn´t drink when you are pregnant, but on the other hand sad, that they didn´t even think that I would go for the non-alcoholic version....

Smoke was also not a problem, smoking inside wasn´t allowed but there was a seperate smoking area outside which I could easily avoid.

There were many people in the "Turbinenhalle" (hall), but it was only really crowed infront of the stages. Because I wanted to avoid too loud music, I didn´t have any intentions to go there anyways.

So I enjoyed the music either from the every end of the stage halls or from the neighbouring rooms. Since I normally always use ear plucks when I go to concerts (this time intentionally

not), I knew right away whether the music was ok for the little one or not. :)

So this all sounds like a lot to consider, but I really enjoyed going out again and listening to some good music. And the Etroplis Festival was definitly a good place for it.

They had two stages and a pretty good lineup. I didn´t see much of the stage shows, because I was in the side rooms most of the time, but I am pretty sure that it was awesome to be in the middle of the crowd in front of the stages.

I especially enjoyed listening to Front Line Assembly, Assemblage 23 and Hocico.

Besides the stage halls they had as well a big eating/resting area and some small shops.

Food and drink prices were definitly ok and I was very happy that they had a shop ever there sold a lot of vegan food.

I am pretty sure that you could have a completely different festival experience when you are not pregnant. - With drinks, loud music and a lot of dancing. (I missed dancing a bit). And of course with the after show party which I skiped because I didn´t think that the music would be quiet enough for the baby.  ^^ But I can definitly recommend the Etroplis Festival and I think I will go there again without a little on in my belly to get the full festival experience. :)

It´s Xmas time again and luckily I had some time to make Xmas cookies. Maybe you want to try out these recipes as well. :)

The first recipe that I made this year were Vanillekiperl (vanilla crescent cookies).

For those you need:  

560 g flour

160 g sugar

400 g margarine

200 g crushed hazelnuts

4 packages of vanilla sugar

4 drops of vanilla flavor

Decoration:

100g icing sugar

dark couverture (optional)

You can also use half of the amount, because you will get a lot of cookies out of it :)

Frist of all mix all the dry ingridents - the four, the sugar, the crushed hazelnuts and the vanilla sugar-  together. Stir them well and then add the vanilla flavor and the margarine. Mix everything well with a mixer. Put the dough for 1hour into the refrigerator.

Cover the dough with a wrapping film or dish towel and put it for 1hour into the refrigerator.

Form little crescents out of the dough, put them on a baking tray and bake them for around 15minutes at 180°C. When they are gold-brown take them out of the oven and let them cool down for a couple of minutes. Afterwards take a sieve and spread icing sugar over them. When you want to you can also use dark dark couverture (melted) to decorate the cookies.

The second recipe I made this year were black and white cookies.

These are the thing that you will need:

For the white dough

125g magarine

60g icing sugar

160g flour

2 package vanilla sugar

For the black dough

125g magarine

80g icing sugar

125g flour

50 g hazelnuts, ground

25g cocoa powder

4 drops of rum flavoring

For the decoration:

100g icing sugar

water

Some drops of lemon juice

dark couverture

sugar beads

Put some flour on your table and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Then use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.

Put the cookies on a baking tray and bake them for 10-15 minutes at 180°C.

Afterwards let them cool down for a couple of minutes.

Heat up the dark couverture in a water quench (Take a big pot and put water into it, then take a smaller one put the couverture inside and sit it in the big pot. Heat up the water.)

When the couverture is liquid spread it over the cookies and sprinekl some sugar beads over them.

Alternative you can mix some icing sugar with a bit of lemon jucie until it has a pasty consistency, spread it over the cookies and sprinkel it with sugar beads.

Let the decoration dry for some time. Afterwards: enjoy :)

For the WGT 2015 I made my own steampunk hat.  Since I am creating a new steampunk outfit at the moment, I needed a new hat as well. And maybe some of you want to make one on your own as well:)

These are the things that you will need:

- a camping mat out of foam rubber for the main part of the hat

-  a pen, a ruler, tape, scissors and a geometry compass.

- some sheets of paper and a measurement band

- for this type of steampunk hat you also require some textile (I choose a brown color)

- some things to decorate it like an old clockwork, buttons and parts of an old curtain

- a hot glue gun

For the hat I wore at the WGT I used foam sheets to make the little metal plates and painted the hat first black and then with bronze color.

The first step is to measure the circumference of your head. My head is around 56cm. You should add around 2cm to give some room for clearance. With the circumference you can calculate the diameter and the radius for drawing the pattern.

If you don´t have a big enough paper sheet for the pattern just clue some pieces together. I think for this hat 4 paper sheets should always be the right number unless you make a small hat for your child or doll.

Next mark the center of the circle and make one or two dots for the radius of your head. Make another dot a bit further outside to create a second bigger circle for the brim. Then use the geometry compass to draw the two circles.

Afterwards cut out the bigger circle. Then carefully cut out the inner circle so that you then have two patterns.

Depending on your head size glue two or three paper sheets together to form the side of your hat. The circumference of your head is the length of the long side of the paper sheets. So in my case it would normally be 56 cm – but I made my hat bigger to fit over my hairpiece. The other side of the paper sheets determines how high your hat will be. Cut the side pattern for your hat as well and then we can start with the camping mattress.

Lay the pattern on it and draw them on the mattress. Then cut out the first part of the hat. Afterwards start with the next pattern. Be a bit careful when you cut out the inner circle, especially at the start so that you don´t make a big whole.

Now that we have all the hat pieces when can start gluing them together. Use an underlay so that you don´t mess up your table. Put some glue on the inside of the brim and glue the side piece to it before the glue dries.

Work your way around the entire circle. When you glue the side piece inside the brim piece, your hat will get a bit smaller. If you didn´t add some extra cm to your circumfence you should glue the side piece on top of the brim piece.

The final step is to glue the top piece onto the side piece.

And now we have a pink plain hat.

It´s time to decorate the hat now. For this model I used brown textile. First of all cut around the top piece. You don´t need to be too accurate because you will cover up the ends anyways.

Then use some pins to pin the textile to the sides of your hat. And try out how the textile falls best. Cut away the textile that is too much. Then clue the textile step by step to the hat. First the top piece and then the side piece. For this you should take out one pin after the other.

Where the side piece meets glue it to the hat as well. Then glue it to the brim.

Use an old curtain for the inside of the hat. Cut and form it into a way you like it and then use the hot glue gun again. If needed use a needle and some thread to make some stiches to give the textile a better shade around the hat. I used some stiches around the brim.

Then we can start with the small decorations. I used some parts of the old curtain and a clockwork to decorate my hat. Afterwards I also glued some buttons unto my hat. And a little more of the old curtain. Just put onto the hat whatever you want.

The Summer Breeze was my second big metal festival (around 40.000 people) I have been to. I got my ticket on pretty short notice - but after Wacken I just wanted to do another festival. And bands like Knorkator, Blutengel and Powerwolf got me convinced that I really want to go. Sadly the Summer Breeze will properly be the last festival I will go to this year.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, one day later as the majority of our camp group because we just came back from some holidays. But our camp group was so nice to set up our tent for us. After settling into the camp we went to see our first band – Thränenkind, parts of Panzer, Deserted Fear and Death Angel. On Wednesday only the small stages – the T Stage and the Camel Stage - where used, because the festival started official on Thursday.

The Summer Breeze started out a bit as an opposite to Wacken. It was melting hot. Most of the times I was running around in a Bikini.

Thursday we started with going to the town Dinkelsbühl to buy some food that we didn´t bring along with us and some ice for our cold boxes. Afterwards we had breakfast and then went to the stages.

My first band of the day was Trollfest, a pagan metal band that was a lot of fun to watch. Afterwards I went to Megaherz. I didn´t see them live jet and I really liked their concert. Even though they only played half an hour because there were some sound issues on the pain stage in the beginning.

Afterwards I needed a short break for refilling my water bottle, getting out of the sun and for a short shopping trip to get some sun glasses. I returned to the stages to see Die Apokalyptischen Reiter. Their music is great for head banging.  After them I saw the last bit of Ost+Front. I went for a break again and returned for Black Stone Cherries and  Opeth. I think Opeth was my favorit band of that day. I decided not to go to any bands afterwards, because I didn´t want to spoil the impression from their music.

On Friday the line-up was really great. But since the first band I wanted to see started at around 13:30 pm I had some time beforehand. I spent the morning/noon with wandering around, visiting some festival friends and meeting some fun people. One of some could do a flick-flack - even while he was drunk.

The first band I saw that day was Blutengel. I saw them already this year at the WGT, and there they got me conviced of them. It was nice to see how this goth band got accepted at a metal festival. (Even before they brought their 4 beautiful arguments to their stage.)

After a short break I went to Alestorm. This band is fun, especially live. And it is good for crowd surfing, which I did again.

Afterwards I saw Kadaver, Ensiferum, Gloryhammer, parts of Combichrist, Powerwolf and parts of Bloodbath. This day was just packed with good bands.

After Ensiferum we finally got the thunderstorm. The festival was interrupted for one hour. But they didn´t chancel the bands, but rescueduelled everything to one hour later. We spend that our in the car watching the thunderstorm and having some beer. Because of the new running order, we still made it to Gloryhammer which made me really happy. Gloryhammer was fun to watch and the crowd was in a really good mood.

Combichrist played some of their older songs as well, which I like. I am not too fused about their new songs on the other hand.

It was great to see Powerwolf again. Even so it was a bit too much power metal for me that day.

Bloodbath was nice as well, but I was just to tired to stand any longer.

On Saturday I saw Be’Lakor, Kataklysm, Knorkator, Dark Tranquility and Nightwish. I didn´t know Be'Laktor and Kataklysm before but I really enjoyed their music. Knorkator was just amazing. I love their music and the stage show was awesome. The crowd was having so much fun as well. And in the last couple of songs I went crowd surfing again. (As a girl you have to be a bit careful - the guys like to open the bras from female crowd surfers during Knorkator concerts^^).

During this Summer Breeze I found a lot of awesome new bands for myself. Dark Tranquility tured out to be one of them.

Nightwish was a bit of a disappointment. They where supposed to be the headliner of this festival. The first couple of songs the sound was really bad, so that you couldn´t really hear the singing or the guitar. And they played a lot of new songs that only real Nightwish fans knew. Personaly I think that you can promote your new album on a concert with your fans. But when you play at a festival you should play the songs that most people know so that everybody can enjoy the gig.

But I made the best out of it and had a lot of fun making soup-bubbles during the concert.

So that were my impressions from the Summer Breeze festival. I think I like this festival even better then Wacken. It is big enough to get all the great bands - but not as gigantic as Wacken. You can walk more easily to all the places, the queues are not as long, it is easier to get a good place in front of the stages. And it is a lot less comercial. Compared to Wacken tickets, the Summer Breeze ticket cost about one half.

So definitly next year again:)

Last autumn my friend asked me whether I would go with her to Wacken Open Air (the biggest metal festival in the world). Before she asked me I never considered going there – because I was told it was too big and too commercial. But once she asked me, I was very excited to go. At least one time to see how it is really like.

And it was definitely worth it. Yes it is very big, yes it is pretty commercial. But the line up and  the people there are just amazing. And for a festival that has 120.000 people there you just need a very professional organization.

On Monday I left the Amphi festival in Cologne, drove home for a short exchange of my stuff for the next festival. Then I drove with the train to my friend and we left straight away for Wacken with our camper. Fortunatelly we had a long drive before us, so that I could get some sleep. We drove until about 23pm and then slept at some resting place for the night. The next day we left pretty early to get to Wacken and to meet our camp group.

When we arrived in the Wacken village, I started to get really excited. There were already a lot of metalheads running around and the entrie village was decorated and little shops for coffee, food (and showers) where everywhere.  But we could tell already by the legs of the festival guest that it was pretty muddy on the camp ground.

When we arrived at the camp ground, the first thing we did was setting up the camp – a pavilion, the sofa, tables and chairs, a table tennis, the stereo, a fridge and a freezer. We also had generators for getting electricity.  That´s the nice thing about camping in groups - everybody brings a bit and then you have it really comfortable – and it´s of course a lot more fun.

When the worst bit was done, I started to do some finally editing for my Amphi video.  And had big time trouble getting the video somehow uploaded – from the middle of nowhere. But after using up 3 datalimits of mobile phones it was done. I was so happy. Afterwards I was truly ready for Wacken.  We spend the day with walking a bit over the camp ground, setting in the camp, having a barbeque and some drinks.

The next day (Wednesday) was still an unofficial festival day. But there where already some bands playing. In the morning we went to Wacken village and did some scouting and grocery shopping for bread rolls. In the evening we went to Feuerschwanz and also wanted to go to Europe. Feuerschwanz was really good. They show was really entertaining. We didn´t make it to Europe, because they played inside in a (very, very) big tent. And since it was rainy all day long, many people preferred a roof over their heads. But I was told Europe wasn´t so great anyways. All in all the Wednesday felt a bit slow, but it wasn´t an official festival day yet. And because of the whether the action on the camp ground wasn´t as high as usual.

Thursday started with rain again. And now it was really, really muddy. We would sink into the mud knee-deep. So a new fashion come up – the garbage bag rubber boots. Because normal rubber boots where not high enough anymore.

In the morning I went to the village again, to get new bread rolls and some fresh fruit. When I was back, I could change cloth completely again. Everything was wet and muddy. I was really happy that we had a camper. Unforunatelly I still got a little cold.  

In the afternoon we went to Skyline, UDO with the Bundeswehre Musikkorbs and to In Extremo. We actually wanted to stay longer, but my friend got run over by somebody and hurt her ankle. But the most fun we had actually by running through the mud – while most other people just looked a bit crumpy. The rest of the evening we spend in the camp again.

On the Friday the bands started earlier. After the breakfast I went to see Epica and Sepultura. Both bands where definitly worth watching. Only our position was a bit bad for Sepultura so that the sound wasn´t so great.

Around midday it finally also stopped raining. But it was still very, very muddy.

After some resting and a little village tour we went to see Ommph!  and In Flames. I really, really enjoyed In Flames. And my neck is still hurting form the head banging. Ommph! was ok, but I am not to fussed about their music.

Saturday was the best day – weather and line up wise. It started out with Powerwolf. I really like their music. And they did an amazing performance and interacting with the crowd. Me and my friend also went crowd surfing. A bit scary first, but also a lot of fun.

After a little break and some food I went to see the rest of rock meets classic. It was finally dry enough so that I could sit down to enjoy my ice cream.  

I went back to the stages to see Sabaton. They started out pretty bad, because it was way to quiet. And every time we would scream “lauter” (louder) the singer would understand “Noch ein Bier” (drink another beer). But the sound got eventually better and the crowd had fun to mess around with the band. We would scream now really “Noch ein Bier”. And also “Ausziehen” (take off our cloth), which really got the singer out of his concept.

Afterwards Judas Priest was playing. They had an amazing stage show, unfortunatelly it seemed liked they were stretching every single song with solos. Therefore and because I was getting cold, I decided to go back to the camp to get some rest and then go to see the last band of the festival – Subway to Sally. I really like this band, their show was really good and they knew how to entertain the crowd. After Subway to Sally we started directly our drive home. After about 2 hours drive we had a stop for the night, doing the rest of the trip on sunday.

So that was my first Wack Open Air. I really enjoyed it and maybe I can go next year again :)