THE AREA:
I already knew they are getting bad weather almost every year at Chiemsee Reggae Summer. So I was mentally prepared. But I didn't expect this huge mud area! To leave the festival, cars had to be towed by tractors to get out of the mud (so it is really recommended to go there by train, not only because of saving the environment). Anyway, it seemed that rain and mud didn't cause too much problems to the people. This crowd was like hard core. Big up!
This festival is beginning less than 1 week after summerjam, so the differences are striking:
- It is much smaller, so the atmosphere seems to be friendlier.
- It takes place on the bavarian countryside (including view to the Alpes).
- Compared to Summerjam, here have been much more police and security in relation to visitors, but they seemed to be friendly and relaxed. This is my personal impression, but in Cologne the securities are like overworked and arrogant, probably because of this mass of people and the sometimes not clear organization. Remember the "highlight" at Summerjam this year: at the entrance, the securities sniffed into every bag to look for weed, what caused 1 hour or more time to wait to get in... At Chiemsee Reggae Summer, I didn't see any drug-controls (although I heard there have been some) .
-The artists got much more time on stage! (I'm often suffering from the restricted time the artists get at Summerjam).
Friday's mainstage program:
Gentleman, Macka B, Israel Vibration, Aswad, Beenie Man.
Lee Perry was also announced, but started too late to make it to Chiemsee... People were very disappointed because the show of his recent tour is very special.
Friday's highlight was Beenie Man!! It was raining all time long during his show, but he was great. He came again with Little Kirk, Silvercat and Snagga Puss. The crowd was enthusiastic.
Saturday's mainstage program: Tolga, Livin' Spirits, Selecter (Ska from England), Sixth Revelation, Michael Rose, Buju Banton, Ziggy Marley.
All those concerts were good. During the day, when it was not raining, they filled up the area with straw. Unfortunately it started raining again...
Just some pictures...
(@) AnneB for the Reggaenode