Haldern Pop

Haldern Pop is an annual German open air music festival. In 2008 it will be held for the 25th time. It takes place in Rees-Haldern (North Rhine-Westphalia).

Focus

The festival mainly features rock and pop bands. While recruiting the artists, the organizers set more value on (their) musical taste than on "mass-compatibility" or broad effect. Even though well-known artists such as Bob Geldof (1991), Heather Nova (1998) and Patti Smith (2003) have already performed at Haldern Pop, the main focus lies on indie music bands like e.g. The Kooks or Shout Out Louds.Many bands are so impressed by the familiar atmosphere, that they gladly come back. You can often find band members relaxing at the little lake right behind the backstage area, or playing soccer with local kids.

History

The festival has its roots in an annual party, which was organized by some local altar servers. In 1982/83, this party already attracted more than 1500 guests. During the first years, music was played from records only, and because of the high visitor counts it came to the decision to feature live bands. In order to fund this, "share holders" should support the festival with 500 Deutsche Mark each and their willingness to contribute in organizing. At large, 54 "share holders" from now on set up this festival with a lot of dedication and improvisation talent. So the festival could take place on June 23, 1984 for the first time. The "share holders" tried to keep the costs as low as possible, and with active work and donations the financial loss added up to only 130 Deutsche Mark per person. The first stage was self-made from the roof truss of a knocked down house, also other material was supplied for free or very little money.

In 1987, first profit could be realized. That year played Extrabreit, The Affair, The Trash and Midnite Fun. Due to the great success, the bands Element Of Crime and Plan B could be engaged in 1988. Those were still relatively unknown at that time, so they were satisfied with out-of-pocket expenses. More than 2000 visitors were counted. Since then, a party with recorded music is held every eve of the festival.

A milestone in the festival's history is the year 1991, when Bob Geldof performed in Haldern. The organizers themselves called this event "the most successful night in the festival's history". Besides Geldof, The Jeremy Days, The Blue Aeroplanes, Plan B and Tuff Babies played in front of 5000 guests. Another peak was hit in the following year (1992) with the Spanish band Heroes del Silencio.

Some other highlights of Haldern Pop were so far: Belle & Sebastian, dEUS, Phoenix, Guano Apes, Tocotronic, Blumfeld, Muse, Sportfreunde Stiller, Reamonn, Starsailor, Travis, Franz Ferdinand, Mando Diao, The Cardigans, Mogwai, Kante, Kaiser Chiefs, Kaizers Orchestra, Adam Green, Kelis, Paolo Nutini and The Kooks.

Even though the festival gains much attention from national media (1LIVE, WDR/Rockpalast etc.) and is mentioned in a row with big events such as Bizarre Festival or Roskilde Festival, the organizers want to remain true to their concept of "the small, cozy festival in the Lower Rhine area". The venue (an old horse range) should be kept, which limits the number of visitors to about 5000 people.

Record label

In 1999, the idea came up to release a sampler with music by the bands of the year. This led to the founding of the record label "Haldern Pop Recordings", which as yet released works of e.g. Das Pop and Zita Swoon.

External links

* [http://www.haldern-pop.de Official site (German, Dutch, English)]

References