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I survived the Weekend of Crazy Weather, Stinky Mud & Maximum Awesomeness aka Deichbrand Festival. It has been my first festival and despite its' ups and downs I couldn't ask for a better experience. I've met a bunch of awesome people and made new friends, got to see some great live performances, danced my butt off and had a ton of funny encounters with strangers.

On Thursday, I went over to my friends' place to load the car in pouring rain and we were on the road to Cuxhaven by noon. I was excited about the weekend and a little nervous because of the weather. It was supposed to pour all day and we weren't too keen on building up our tents in the rain. The drive took us longer than expected because the rain was so crazy. When we got there around 3:30 pm, we lugged our tents through the mud to the long registration line. I almost didn't get in because I forgot my ID in the car but a nice guy gave me my wristband anyways. We found a nice spot to camp and built up our tents. Luckily it didn't rain that much but it was REALLY windy. Tents and pavilions were flying all over the place and from afar we could see that one of the main stages on the festival grounds was damaged.

With my friends Taraneh and Eva

I wore my rain boots every single day

We explored the grounds and met up with a few people from uni who ended up camping with us. Our friends Johanna and Thorsten arrived in the evening and we had to go back to the car to get our stuff around midnight. It took us an hour because their car was parked on the other side of the parking lot so that was fun. We stayed up until 2am and called it a day. It was an exhausting day but I was happy to be there with my friends and even more happy to go to sleep that night.

We got up early on Friday and got the rest of our stuff from the car after breakfast. The shows were supposed to start at 2pm but the first band we wanted to see was supposed to play at 5pm so we hung out at our pavilion and talked and got to know the other people until it was time to head over to the festival grounds.

Camping chaos

As it turned out everything was delayed because the storm on Thursday has damaged one of the main stages and the area in front of the stages was too muddy so they didn't let us in until around 8pm. We just walked around and had a few drinks but we were also pretty annoyed by the organisation and it was rather cold cold because it was still wet and windy. We saw Samy Deluxe and Sunrise Avenue which I both enjoyed.

Samy Deluxe

My friends enjoying the show

Sunrise Avenue

Then a band called ASP came on and the crowd wasn't too thrilled because we all came to see the headliner: Deichkind. They are a German hip hop electro punk group - that's what Wikipedia says, it's hard to describe their music but they are amazing and their performances are incredible. They played from midnight to 1:30am, it was VERY crowded but seeing them live is something I will never forget.

Before Deichkind's set

On Saturday we woke up early again and hung out until around 3:30 pm.

Penny fell asleep so Susi and Tara drew a mustache on her face with kajal pencil

We got to see the last songs of The Koletzkis. It made me super happy because they played "Hypnotized" and "Karambolage" which I both love. After that we saw Turbostaat and Dick Brave & The Backbeats. Dick Brave is the new "personality" of former German pop singer Sasha and together with his band he mostly does rockabilly covers of popular songs. Their cover of Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" was awesome and their whole set was great and fun.

After that we headed back to our tents and missed Irie Révoltés. I don't like them very much but we were told they were awesome. Taraneh and I got back to see Beatsteaks who are an alternative rock band from Berlin. Fun fact: Buzznet's Princess of Awesome Jane got her user name from their song "Jane Became Insane" :) We found our uni buddies and watched the show together.

Taraneh and Lars

Beatsteaks are a great, energetic live band and I was so happy to see them live and it was all sorts of fantastic. Oh, how I wish I could go back in time to see them again. We met up with our friends at the music tent for the club night with Fritz Kalkbrenner and danced for a while. We were pretty stoked but it was quite disappointing. We left after 30 minutes, hung out at our tents for a bit and went to sleep. It turned out to be the coldest night and there were a bunch of drunk people stumbling through our camping area.

I didn't feel very good on Sunday. I was really tired and completely exhausted so it was a very slow day for me. I didn't want to move or stand around much. We spent a lot of time on the festival grounds and since it was the first sunny and hot day we hung out in deck chairs for a good portion of the afternoon.

With Taraneh and her glorious ice cream

The Jägermeister House of Awesome

Betty showing a little too much on the Jägermeister balcony

Yep... You'll read about Betty in a bit

We got back to our tents to eat and relax and headed to the festival grounds to watch the last shows with our new friends. The Subways were amazing but it was very crowded and I wasn't a fan of the circle pits going on around us. They played "I Want To Hear What You Got To Say" - I love that song and it made up for the pushing around.

The Subways

Eva and Betty

The last headliner was Clueso, a German singer-songwriter. He was really good and it was a nice way to end the festival. Taraneh and I wanted to get a piercing. It was spur-of-the-moment decision but the piercing tent was closing when we got there. Back at our tents we talked for a while and went to bed.

We got up around 8am on Monday and immediately started to pack and then carried our stuff to the car. We had to make two trips though and then said goodbye to Kevin and Simon who were the only ones who were still there as well. We were on the road by 11am and back in Hamburg around 2pm. I took a long and needed shower when I got home, unpacked and was happy that I got to sleep in my own bed again.

I was afraid of the camping aspect and sanitary facilities that a festival brings with it. I just like washing my hands a lot and having solid walls and room to stand. I dealt with it astoundingly well, though. Camping is not as bad as I remember and only having a quick wash instead of showering every morning didn't bother me that much either. So that was a success and I know that this definitely wasn't my last festival. We camped near the entrance of the festival grounds so we didn't have to walk that far but that also meant that it was pretty loud at night. Especially the first night because the Red Bull Tourbus played music until 5am. I woke up between 6 and 8am every morning because the people camping around us turned on their music on full volume. It wasn't bad because I couldn't sleep much anyways and the music was fun. It was also really nice to camp with the people from uni. Before this weekend I didn't know them personally but they are a nice and hilarious group of people. They were very welcoming and surprised they didn't know us before. I like when people treat you like old friends so that was really cool. They have been to lots of festivals before. Dressing up at festivals seems to be a big thing and Lars and Kevin had banana costumes while the girls dressed up as monkeys on Saturday. Seeing a banana running after a monkey is a priceless view . :D

Bananas and a sleeping monkey

Kevin's second costume was the highlight of the festival and I'm pretty sure every person knew him by the end of it. He dressed up as his alter ego Betty Balloon. Tights, dress, wig, nail polish - the whole package. It was hilarious and he couldn't walk five meters without being asked to pose for a photo.

Eva, Betty Balloon, Jens

Of course we ended up spending the weekend with the wildest and funniest people around. :D Lars and Kevin also turned out to be the stars of a big mud bath on Friday night where tons of people took photos and filmed them.

If you've made it this far - congratulations and thank you, you'll get a cookie. :D I had a fantastic weekend, I've made new friends and experiences and I'm a little sad that it's over but I can't wait to do it all again next year. :D

In other news, it's finally sunny and warm so I will go out to enjoy the weather and I'll try to catch up with the posts I've missed later today. :)