There are many great alternative music festivals in Germany, especially electronic music. If you like industrial or gothic electronic music, Germany also has something to offer you. Some of the biggest festivals are Wave Gotik Treffen, Mera Luna, and Amphi Festival. Amphi Festival is similar to Mera Luna but takes place in a different location and is more suited to industrial dance.
The history of the Amphi Festival began in 2005 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The first year of the festival over 4,000 people attended, the following year it was determined that the original venue: “Amphitheatre” was no longer big enough and was moved to Tanzbrunnen in Cologne. The name stuck and the crowd nearly doubled in size to 7,500 in 2006. Since then, the event has reached near capacity levels, over 16,000 people per day.
What attracts this large crowd? The festival is more like a rock concert than other alternative election events. There is a large outdoor main stage and a large indoor stage as well. Bands play both times on Saturday and Sunday in late July. People come from all over the world because Cologne is a unique city that loves music and because it has established itself as the largest industrial dance event in the world.
People who go fall into many different subgenres. These include: goth (mainly older fans of dark rock), cyber goths (younger, more colorful electronic music fans), and many shades in between. The place is located next to the Rhine river and you can see it as well as the famous festival Cologne Dom. People travel from all over the world because it attracts a large elector-industrial following.
Amphi Festival is one of the largest industrial electro events in the world. In the United States and Canada, the largest such event can only gather between 300 and 1,000 people, while Amphi can easily gather more than 15,000 people. Some bands that play at Amphi are: Aesthetic Perfection, X-RX, Combichrist, Nachtmahr and Blutengel. Check out these bands if you want to know what kind of music is being played at the event.
If you plan to go to the Amphi Festival, make sure you get your ticket in advance. One thing that many people try to do before the event is attend a pre-party at the Eisfabrik. It’s hard to get tickets for that event, so make sure you go in person to get them.
Amphi Festival is a great event that anyone interested in industrial/electro music should attend. It doesn’t matter if you stay at the camp or in a hotel, you will be able to make it to the event. At night the club is usually open until around 4am so you should have plenty to do.