Hurricane Festival 2017 turning into a real Hurricane (part 1)
The Hurricane Festival is a german festival that takes place at the Eichenring in Scheeßel, since 1997. It's one of the biggest Festivals in Germany and by now opens its doors for about 70.000 visitors each year. The Hurricane Festical combines a mix of Pop, Rock, Alternative and Electronic music.
As most of you probably know, I have been to the 20th edition of the Hurricane Festival in 2016 and in the end I had a swimming pool inside of my tent and broken shoes. For everyone who hasn't read my article about Hurricane Festival 201 yet, here are the links: Hurricane 2016, part 1 and Hurricane 2016, part 2 .
Hurricane 2017 took place from 23rd to 25th of June this year and during the few months before the Festival started the line-up kept blowing me away. Each announcement of new bands got better and soon the Hurricane Festival 2017 had the best lineup of all german Festivals. Artists like Lorde, Halsey and german rapper Casper were gonna perform just like famous international bands such as Blink-182, Green Day, Die Antwoord and Imagine Dragons. The lineup could not have been any better and as the festival came closer, I was getting more excited to return to one of my favorite Festivals after a year of being away.
A day before the festival was supposed to start and while I was sitting at my desk preparing for my oral exam, which took place right after the festival, the weather became a full mess. It started raining and a strong thunderstorm was going around Hamburg and also the place where the Festival would take place. All of a sudden a hurricane began and trains to the festival stopped in Hamburg and no one was able to get to the festival before friday anymore. The central station was full of people, a friend told me after I let her stay at my place for the night before going to Hurricane the next day.
Friday, 23rd of June 2017 - Day one of Hurricane
My friend and I woke up pretty early after a night of worrying if the Festival would even take place. Luckily in the morning the trains already were leaving from the central station to the Festival, only 50 minutes away, again. We packed the rest of our stuff and made our way downtown, where we met up with one of my friends from home. The whole central station was still a mess when we arrived and it took us at least two hours to catch a train to the festival. I felt more than relieved when we finally sat down on the floor of the train.
Other than the day before, it was pretty hot outside when we got out of the train with all our things for the next few days and we still had a long way to walk. We got our wristbands, played one drinking game and then continued walking. The friend who had slept at my house the night before left us after half the way and my friend Philipp and I continued walking to the last camp, where our friends had already arrived at on Thursday.
When we arrived I put up my tent and got a beer to relax. I did not have a lot of time before the first concert I wanted to go to started, so after about an hour only in the camp, we left already to begin the first festival-day of Hurricane Festival 2017. Unfortunately a lot of other people were also thinking about starting their festival at the same time, so it took us a while to get in and I missed sxtn, the first act I wanted to see. I stayed with my friends and spent the day going to the concerts they wanted to go to, as the next acts I wanted to see where in the evening, a few hours later.
We walked over the festival and it felt like being at a safe place again. Everything looked exactly like last year and I had the feeling that I never left. Even though the festival was full of mud, I had the best mood, which got even better when I all of a sudden met Dina and Aileen with whom I always go on the nbhd tours. We were watching the show of OK KID, after watching Milky Chance was performing, a german rapper who was playing around 8pm on one of the smaller stages when I felt someone touching my shoulder. I turned to the left and looked right into Aileens face and before I could even realize it, I was already hugging her as if I hadn't seen here for years. I completely lost it when suddenly also Dina was standing next to me. Out of 70.000 people, I managed to stand right next to some of my best friends. I was so shocked that I did not even notice it, when my friends left.
We watched a few more minutes of the show and then Dina and I left to meet some other friends and try to understand what had just happened. We talked for a little while and then I decided to go looking for my friends again, who luckily weren't far away from me. We met up and then went back to the Camp before returning for Green Day a few hours later.
When we left the Camp again I was already absolutely excited to finally see Green Day live. My mom had alwa told me about how she saw them before they became a big band and also a lot of my friends had been seeing them the weeks before Hurricane Festival. I was still with the two friends with whom I had already spent the whole day together and we also went to Green Day just the three of us. The crowd was huge and it was hard to get a good spot for one of the headliners, but we somehow managed to get a spot pretty in the back from where we were still able to see most of the stage. Unfortunately the sound turned out to be horrible and from where we were standing all we could hear were the guitars. I was really disappointed and did not expect a band this huge to have such an awful sound at one of the biggest german festivals. We didn't stay long and left early to go see Die Orsons, a german hip-hop group.
We left from the mainstage to one of the smaller stages and when we arrived there were already a few people in front of the stage, but we still decided to get something to drink before the show started. After getting beer, we made our way into the crowd and got a pretty good spot in the middle but still close to the stage. I was excited and did not know what was awaiting me. The band came on stage at 11:30pm and went insane from the first minute on. It was a blast and totally different from what we had just experienced at the show of Green Day. The sound was amazing and even though it was so late and everyone had already lived through a whole festival day, the whole crowd was full on energy. The band played for about 1 1/2 hour and during that time my friends and I jumped around in front of the stage and we sang along loudly. It was a crazy show and I did not expect to be as done after the show as I turned out to be.
After a long first day and going to a lot of concerts I did not plan to go to, I went back to the camp together with my friends where we let the first of three days end peacefully befor leaving and going into the tents. As usual I woke up a few hours later because I had to pee and I ended up spending one hour looking for our camp after I came back from the toilet. But when I reached my tent I slowly fell back into my tent and continued sleeping before waking up the next morning.
Saturday, 24th of June 2017 - Day Two of Hurricane Festival
I woke up the next morning to a few people already sitting outside in their chairs, while it was raining again. I got out my chair, ate some breakfast and drank my first beer. We still had a few hours to go before the firvt concerts, so we spent about half the day in the camp, listening to music, playing drinking games and having long talks about everything. Time passed by faster than I expected it too and we soon made our way to the festival again. We went to see a little bit of Royal Blood, before we went to go see Lorde. I was really excited to see Lorde, as I have been a huge admirer of her for a long time now and never got to see her live. When she began singing the first notes it sounded exactly like on her albums and I was amazed by how someone as young as her is already able to sing that well. After a few songs I began to feel bad and I had to sit down because my blood glucose rushed down and I felt like collapsing. I stayed there sitting on the ground for the whole concert whily my friends got me some food and something to drink before getting the ambulance. I was then brought backstage with my friend to calm down and get some help. I was laying down and calming a bit down while Halsey started her show on the stage next to us.
I left the tent and we went back on the festival and got out right in front of the stage where Halsey was performing. Her long blue hair and her soft voice made me feel better immediately and I started dancing around and singing along to her new and her old tracks. I was so happy to finally be able to see her perform that I completely forgot how bad I had just been feeling a few minutes before that concert. We did not stay long since Blink-182 were about to start on the other main stage and I had missed them on their European Tour. There were at least as many people in front of the stage as the day before when Green Day were performing - but the sound was way better. My friend and I were pretty far in the crowd and enjoying the concert as I began to feel weak again. I did not want ot ruin another great concert for my friend so I left the crowd alone and began walking around the festival. I bought some merch and then watched the show from Blink-182 from the back. They played a lot of known songs and the crowd was singing along while the sky slowly turned dark blue and the sun went down. It was an incredible moment. The Editors were in the meantime playing on the other mainstage and after a while I went to the other stage and watched a little bit of their show before going back to the camp, since I was still not feeling strong. On my way to the camp I met my friend who was juvt going back to watch some other bands. It was pretty late already so I spent the rest of the night with some other friends in the camp, while Linkin Park were playing in the background and we were able to hear their whole performance. Though I wish I would have been there, I'm thankful I got to hear there performance and at the same time spend some time with my friends.
We waited for our other friends and after spending a few more hours together we went to sleep around 3am, not knowing what was expecting us the next day...
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