Wave Gothic meeting

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Wave Gothic meeting
General information
place Leipzig
genre Electro , future pop , synth pop , synth rock , alternative rock , medieval rock , new German hardness , EBM , industrial
Visitor numbers
1992 2,000
2016 20,000
2018 21,000
2019 21,000
2020 Failure due to COVID-19 pandemic
Participant in the high-profile Victorian Picnic as part of WGT 2013.

The Wave-Gotik-Treffen (short: WGT ) is a music and culture festival that has been held annually on the Whitsun weekend in Leipzig since 1992 . It is from the Chemnitz company meetings & Festival Society of Central Germany mbH organized with over 20,000 visitors, it is next to the in Hildesheim held Mera Luna Festival one of the biggest events of the alternative and gothic scene .

Surname

Until the mid-1990s, the Wave-Gotik-Treffen was still called the Wave-Gothic-Treffen . The name was derived from the names Wave and Gothic , as the meeting was an event of the original Wave and Gothic culture in Germany and was limited to the music styles associated with it. At the fifth meeting in 1996, the event appeared under the new name for the first time.

background

During the four days of the festival, visitors will be offered a wide range of cultural activities in addition to more than a hundred concerts. These include special film screenings, club parties, author readings of eerie and romantic literature, exhibitions in museums and galleries, live role-playing , church concerts, medieval markets and workshops on various topics. The visitors spend the night in hotels, guesthouses or use the camping facilities at the most important single location of the meeting, the agra exhibition center , with a campsite.

In addition to admission tickets, so-called custody cards are also sold for the Wave-Gotik-Treffen. The admission ticket only allows access to the events and travel on LVB public transport during the meeting. Owners of a custody card can also use the tent sites and received the Pentecost program book free of charge until 2017 , which can now only be purchased separately. Until 2007 this was a sampler Silberling - artist for the XX. Wave-Gotik-Treffen enclosed. The CD contained selected songs from bands that performed at the festival.

Venues

Participants in the Victorian Picnic , 2013.

In contrast to other festivals, the locations of the Wave-Gotik-Treffen are spread over the whole city. A wristband typical of the festival, which you receive when you validate your admission ticket, serves as admission authorization. There are two versions of this bracelet: one with and one without a campsite permit. The former is only available at the agra exhibition center, while the latter is available at several locations in the city.

agra exhibition center
The tents and agra halls are located on the agra exhibition grounds, an old exhibition park. One of the large halls is used for concerts. Due to the capacity, the concerts with the highest audience numbers take place there. The other large hall is used for the scene fair (a sales fair ). In the other halls (behind the bistro area) there is a discovery event with many well-known DJs every evening.
Plant II (until 2013)
In Werk II, an alternative cultural center in the Connewitz district , the concerts took place in Hall A and the Discover events in Hall D. You could also sit comfortably in the beer garden.
Moritzbastei
An old fortification. The Wonnemond medieval market takes place above ground, the second part of the medieval market in tons , smaller concerts and a place to dance underground .
Cinestar (until 2014)
A cinema in the Petersbogen in the city center. Readings and the official autograph sessions took place here. In addition, DVDs from scene bands and dark films were shown.
Clara Zetkin Park
Victorian Picnic Venue.
Gatehouse Dölitz
Located in the agra park at the end of the campsite next to the agra site; The pagan village has pitched its tents here, which is also open to non-festival visitors for a fee. Here, too, bands play on an open-air stage.

Other venues:

history

The predecessor of the Wave-Gotik-Treffen was a celebration at the Belvedere in Potsdam , where around 20 people met on Walpurgis Night in 1988 . Ultimately, several supporters of the black scene joined them, so that around 150 people were present. The undisturbed course of the gathering of members of the scene and people who sympathized with the scene was prevented by the security forces of the former GDR regime , for whom the emergence of a critical and difficult to control subculture was a thorn in the side. What was forbidden and punished in GDR times could only be officially operated after the fall of the Wall. The first Wave-Gotik-Treffen took place in 1992 in the Eiskeller (today “ Conne Island ”) in Leipzig. About 2000 like-minded people gathered for this occasion.

In the following years the WGT continued to grow, both the number of visitors and the number of bands performing. This resulted in a need for additional venues, overnight accommodation and discovery events. The festival was also expanded to include other attractions such as readings and film screenings. While the band selection of the early WGTs still represented a small typical spectrum of bands belonging to the black scene in Germany, the band selection became more and more diversified, especially from the mid-1990s. The reason for this was also the influence of other musical styles on the black scene. The appearances of more and more metal-heavy bands were seen by some visitors as the beginning of the end of the “real” Wave-Gotik-Treffen, as many metal musicians had traveled alongside the traditional target groups . When assessing the quality of the festival, the visitors differed according to the more traditionally shaped people in the scene, who viewed the penetration of new musical styles at the WGT as a dilution of the WGT, while the supporters of these new varieties and more open minds viewed the innovations positively and as proof of this saw that the black scene was still alive and developing musically.

The promenade , 2005

In 2000 the steadily growing, elaborately designed festival ended prematurely with the organizer's bankruptcy. The exact causes are unknown, there is talk of mismanagement, massive card forgery and intrigues within the industry. During the festival on Saturday evening the rumor arose that the payment of the bands and obligated organizations (e.g. security) was no longer guaranteed. The organizers left Leipzig due to threats, security left the post, and the performance of groups such as Phillip Boa and the Voodooclub and And One were canceled. Security tasks were quickly organized by visitors themselves and many bands decided to play without a fee and performed in the Agra hall. There were no riots or riots , but the festival was nevertheless a special kind of event for those involved, as most believed that this would be the last WGT in Leipzig.

Since 2001, the Wave-Gotik-Treffen has been taking place under new leadership and in close cooperation with the city of Leipzig. Since then it has officially been part of the city's cultural program, which is why it is mentioned in tourist guides, among other things. Various museums in Leipzig, including the Leipzig City History Museum , the museums in Grassi , the museum memorial in the “Runden Ecke” and the Leipzig Natural History Museum , have offered exhibitions and events for the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in recent years.

The 29th WGT planned for Whitsun 2020 has been postponed to Whitsun 2021 until August 31, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany and the associated ban on major events. According to the organizer, efforts are being made to recruit the artists who have already been signed for the following year.

Line up

Fjoergyn at the WGT, 2013

The artists performing at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen encompass the entire musical spectrum of the black scene. Their number rose from eight in 1992 to almost 350 in 2000. Today there are around 200, which are spread over the entire city area over four days on the parallel stages.

Line-up of the first Wave-Gotik-Treffen 1992:
Age of Heaven - Das Ich - Ghosting - Goethes Erben - Love like Blood - Sweet William - Templar - The Eternal Afflict

audience

The audience of the Wave-Gotik-Treffen usually includes the complete spectrum of the black scene from Goths to electro and neo- folk fans to BDSM and fetish fans. There are also punks , metallers and members of cyber culture , the medieval scene or the steampunk and visual kei scene.

This diversity is criticized by some visitors and perceived as intrusive. Some have felt the Wave-Gotik-Treffen since the mid-1990s at the latest as too big, impersonal and commercialized and would like to see a festival back in the original small framework. Others, on the other hand, hope for steady growth in terms of visitor numbers and the music styles presented.

Right-wing extremism

Antifa groups have been calling the Wave-Gotik-Treffen a Nazi meeting for years, and in 2007 there were already riots. Antifa groups criticize that visitors with uniforms that are confusingly similar to the uniforms of the Schutzstaffel or the Wehrmacht are tolerated. Another point of criticism is the annual market stand of the right-wing extremist publishing house VAWS . The organizers emphasize that they organize a non-political festival, but do not distance themselves from the right. 2009 graced example, an icon among others by Heinrich Himmler on the Wewelsburg used Black Sun resembles that needed for the campground custody cards . This was criticized , among other things, in an open letter from the band ASP .

literature

  • Alexander Nym, Jennifer Hoffert (Eds.): Black celebration. 20 years / 20 years Wave-Gotik-Treffen . Plöttner Verlag, Leipzig 2011, ISBN 978-3-86211-037-7 .

Web links

Commons : Wave-Gotik-Treffen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shan Dark: The 1st WGT 1992: a great Gothic school trip. May 11, 2011, accessed on October 7, 2017 (report on the 1st WGT 1992).
  2. ↑ The frivolous festival of the black fetish scene. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  3. ↑ WGT ends with a record number of visitors at the Victorian Picnic. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
  4. ↑ The most important questions about the WGT. Retrieved June 18, 2019 .
  5. ^ 9th Wave-Gotik-Treffen Whitsun 2000 in Leipzig . June 15, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
  6. ^ Leipzig in Black. Special exhibition in the City History Museum Leipzig for the 23rd WGT. City History Museum Leipzig, accessed on October 7, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Children of the night - unadapted and supervised. Special exhibition in the museum memorial in the "Round Corner" for the 22nd WGT. Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records, accessed on December 18, 2017 .
  8. ↑ From the shadowy realm of nature. Event at the Natural History Museum Leipzig for the 26th WGT. Schemenkabinett, accessed December 18, 2017 .
  9. ↑ mdr.de: Officially: No Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig this year. Retrieved May 9, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Official pages Wave-Gotik-Treffen Leipzig. Retrieved April 28, 2019 .
  11. ^ Artists of the WGT 1992 . wave-gotik-treffen.de. Retrieved May 21, 2011.
  12. ↑ Follow-up report on the WGT - Leipzig / press echo . de.indymedia.org. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  13. ↑ Bitter aftermath of the WGT 2009 | Dark News | Gothic News | Metal News | Black scene news . dark-news.de. May 15, 2010. Retrieved December 17, 2013.

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 25 ″  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 29 ″  E