Golden yellow (festival)
The Goldgelb -Festival, its own spelling GOLDGELB , is a five-day open-air music and family festival in Aichwald ( Esslingen district , Baden-Württemberg). The organizer is the Krummhardt cultural association, which organizes the festival every two years. Gold yellow took place for the first time in 2003.
The festival takes place in a sunflower field. The highest number of visitors so far was in 2011 with around 32,000 visitors.
The festival is free of charge and is organized and carried out exclusively by volunteers. Goldgelb is financed from the proceeds from the sale of food and drinks as well as from a few sponsors.
Venue
The festival takes place on a field of around two hectares at the foot of the Krummhardt water tower near the Aichwald district of Krummhardt. The site was planned in 2003 by an architect who is a member of the association and has been refined since then. For the festival, the field is then sown with sunflowers in spring. Areas for paths, concert areas, food and drink stands and various niches (two vine arbors, summer bar, café, etc.) are left out. There are also several fields and meadows around the festival site for free parking.
history
Krummhardt, part of the municipality of Aichwald, has around 750 inhabitants. The Krummhardt cultural association of the same name was founded in 1999 by some residents. At the beginning of the third millennium, one of the founding members brought the idea of golden yellow with him from a vacation in Austria. In Carinthia he had taken part in a festival, a kind of hocket that lasted several weeks, in a field. The Austrians called this "farming". Goldgelb was born out of this idea in 2003. The cultural association now has over 500 members (as of August 2019). The board of directors is Rolf Doll.
2003
The first Golden Yellow Festival took place from August 14th to 18th, 2003. Already on the first evening a good 1,500 people visited the open air; there were 9,000 in total. Five bands played over the five days: Kabelsalat (oldies; until 2009 the “house band” of the cultural association because three band members were members of the association at the same time), Le Clou (Cajun music), Wild Country (country) , Dixi Busters (Dixie-Jazz) and the Street Doctors (Blues & Boogie). An outdoor service was held on Sunday morning. This tradition has been maintained until today.
2005
From August 11th to 15th, 2005, the second edition of the Sunflower Festival took place. The organizer counted a total of 12,000 visitors. Seven bands played: Kabelsalat, Dixie Wheels (Country), Caledonix (Scottish Folk), Irish Steirish (Irish-Steirischer-Folk), Dixie Busters, The Union (Gospel & Soul) and Hiss (Polka & Roll).
2007
The third edition of the Golden Yellow Festival rose from August 9 to 13, 2007. Despite the sometimes very poor weather and terrain conditions, the organizers recorded a new visitor record with around 17,000 guests. 13 bands performed: Kabelsalat, Acoustic Groove (unplugged cover songs), Zdydeco Playboys (Zydeco & Cajun), Ludwig Seuss Band (Blues & Zydeco), Tea Crackers (unplugged cover songs), GoN (Rock & Folk), Flippmanns (party rock) , Dixie Busters, Pepper & Salt (A-cappella), Ipanema Beach Hotel (Bossa Nova), Chain of Fools (Blues & Soul), Street Doctors and Dr. Mablues and the Detail Horns (Blues & Soul). For the first time, some of these bands played on an additional, smaller unplugged stage.
2009
The fourth golden yellow took place from 6 to 10 August 2009. The unplugged stage was discarded, but for the first time there was a large professional stage. Nine bands performed there: Kabelsalat (the band broke up afterwards), Triple Espresso (Gangster Swing), Natural Force Band (Funk & Soul), Simple-Union from Munich (Country-Western), MayQueen from Cologne (Queen- Tribute-Band), September (Latin-Jazz), Opportunity (unplugged cover songs), Mark Gillespie Band from Gießen (rock & pop) and The 2nd-Crash (rock cover songs). A total of 21,000 guests came. 450 volunteers were on duty.
2011
With the best external conditions - five days of bright sunshine and high summer temperatures including mild summer nights - the fifth golden yellow (August 18-22, 2011) took place. With a good 32,000 guests, the organizers recorded a new visitor record that was believed to be impossible, an increase of another 50 percent compared to the previous record year 2009. Goldgelb has thus finally established itself as one of the largest music festivals in the Stuttgart region. 520 volunteers were on duty to cope with the onslaught of guests. On Saturday evening the festival area had to be closed for an hour due to overcrowding. A total of 10 bands performed on the ten meter wide stage, which was once again enlarged: Ernest & the Hemingways (rock, soul & funk), Tanglefoot (Irish folk), Cripple Creek Band from Nuremberg (country rock), Michael Antony Band from England (Brit-Pop), Tim Beam & the Dead Flowers from Freiburg (Rock & Roll), ES-music-fans (Jazz), Vivid Curls from Kempten (Dialect Pop), 80s ALIVE from Schwäbisch Hall (Eighties Coverband), Get the Cat from Cologne (Blues) and Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits Tribute Band).
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2013
In 2013 the Golden Yellow Festival had visitors from Lower Saxony, Berlin and Bavaria as well as from Austria, Switzerland and Holland. The sixth edition took place from August 15 to 19, 2013. As two years earlier, the organizer was lucky with the weather: it only rained on the last two days of the event. With almost 30,000 guests, the organizers were rewarded again for their exclusively voluntary work. 600 helpers were on duty to keep the guests completely satisfied. There were two major changes compared to 2011: The inner area was enlarged again, and the jazz morning pint on Sunday morning was canceled without replacement, in favor of a later start of the outdoor service. Nine bands performed in total: The Barons from Hessen (Beatles Tribute Band), Irish Stew (Irish Folk), The Twang (Countryfication), Anica Abeyé (Soul-Pop), Agua Loca from Stuttgart (Latin, Reggae), Gitze & Band ( Wolle Kriwanek Tribute), Sugar Sound from Southern Italy (Zucchero Tribute Band), Playground from Heidelberg (funk-rock) and Jessy Martens & Band from Hamburg (blues-rock).
2015
The festival took place from August 20-24, 2015.
2017
The festival took place from August 17-21, 2017. Lots of photos and information at www.goldgelb.eu
2019
The festival took place from August 15-19, 2019. Lots of photos and information at www.goldgelb.eu
Web links
- Official website of the Golden Yellow Festival
- Festival website
- Article about the Golden Yellow 2009 in the Esslinger Zeitung
- Stuttgarter Zeitung about the golden yellow 2011