Category Archives: Wave Gotik Treffen

Wave Gotik Treffen 25th-28th May – Pre-Festival picks

Posted by missashjade on

So the count down has begun in earnest! In 6 days the 21st annual Wave Gotik Treffen will begin. Four days of 209 of Gothic, Metal and Industrial bands, clubs, talks, art, theatre and events.

As ever the schedule is packed! Details of the programme can be found on the Official Wave Gotik Treffen site, iPhone or android app (Be aware: both apps are apparently clunky to use!) or my personal recommendation of NecroWebs PDF planner and Google Map (also see my guide to WGT recommended Places in Leipzig).

Here’s my picks from this years schedule:

On Thursday (24th May), as ever there is Sadgoth’s pre-WGT Meeting at the Bayerischer Bahnhof. Kicking off the festival with this yearly pub/restaurant is great to meet up with people particularly if you are a festival first timer.

Over the entire festival the Stasi Museum Runde Ecke is running an exhibition entitled: “When The Cemetery Was My Living Room” – The Gothic Scene In The DDR and access to this seems to be free for WGT wristband holders (else €3). Goths, like many other youth cultures were persecuted by the Communist regime in Eastern Germany so this exhibit should be interesting. The museum is running several scheduled guided tours through the exhibit as well. See the Official Programme for further details.

On Friday (25th May) from 3pm is the Victorian Picnic, again this year at the Clara-Zetkin-Park (by the lake near the Parkbühne venue). This is a great place to see/be seen with fabulous, often home-made Victorian, Steampunk, Medieval and Lolita fashions.

Bands on the Friday include Rhombus (at 6:30pm) and The Eden House (at 9pm) representing the British Goth scene at Fehlenskeller. Then the fabulous Haujobb are playing at 11pm at the Agra Halle.

On Saturday (26th May) the Agra is the place to be with Grendel (6pm), Aesthetic Perfection (8:30pm) and Combichrist (11:10pm) all performing there. Also on is the brilliant British electro-industrial band Global Citizen at the Moritzbastei at 8:30pm.

On Sunday (27th May) the mourning halls of the Südfriedhof (South Cemetery) is open to the public for free from 10am-4pm. The cemetery is one of the largest in Germany.

Sunday’s notable bands are Klutae  (Leather Strip’s frontman Claus Larsen’s side project) at Parkbühne at 9pm.

Sunday’s clubbing must is the Moritzbastei with DJ sets from Haujobb‘s Daniel Myer.

Final day on Monday (28th May) bands at Agra are demonic Mexicans Amduscia (7:50pm) and the band you definitely don’t want to be in the front row for (they have promised “loads of blood” on their Facebook page!) Germany’s own Agonoize at 10:30pm.

Monday at Darkflower should be awesome (if you can get in) with the finale party from Out Of Line Electrostorm. Star DJs are listed as Lola Angst and Erk from Hocico/Rabia Sorda playing tunes from 8pm – 6am.

See you there!!!

Miss Jade in Leipzig

Miss Jade in Leipzig in 2011

Coming up in 2011…

Posted by missashjade on

Long time no post – but here’s an update of what we have in store to go to and report back on for 2011

Festivals

Top of my list for festivals this year is Amphi Festival. I have never been to Cologne’s famous Goth and alternative festival but this year’s lineup is just irresistible: it looks as though it’ll be In Strict Confidence‘s only Festival and also on the lineup Covenant, Suicide Commando, Grendel, [X]-rx, Hocico, Nitzer Ebb… check the entire lineup on the Amphi Website.

Coming in at a close second is Wave Gotik Treffen. It’s the 20th Birthday of the worlds biggest Goth Festival and that can only mean it’s going to be bigger and more crazy than ever! The WGT official site has only sent out one newsletter so far stating that there will be a grand opening gig on Thursday 9th June with some of the original lineup from the first festival in 1991. Other rumoured bands have been listed on WGT’s Last.FM events page include The Murderdolls but the lineup isn’t quite capturing my imagination yet. Something tells me though that considering there were almost 200 bands in the lineup last year, I’m sure there will be something for everyone this year.

In third place is probably my favourite festival M’era Luna. M’era Luna has an atmosphere like no other and so far we have ASP and Within Temptation and a handful of other bands

We also have the British festivals: no announcements on Infest (Bradford) other than the dates which seem to indicate that it is definitely going ahead. We also have Resistanz in Sheffield which has a similar lineup to Amphi Festival (meaning I might not go to Resistanz – maybe only Amphi Festival).

And finally I have a ticket to see Danny Boyle’s (Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic classic Frankenstein at The National. Benedict Cumberbatch (The BBC’s Sherlock) and Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting). Should be reporting on that too!

Happy New Year!

Wave Gotik Treffen Leipzig Festival Day 5 (Monday) – Kitty in a Casket, In Strict Confidence and Festival Closing Party at the Moritzbastei

Posted by missashjade on

Apologies for the late writeup – Wave Gotik Treffen took so long for me to write about that in the meantime I have seen KMFDM at the O2 Academy, been to Waregem Goth Festival, M’era Luna Festival, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival (where I saw The Tiger Lillies) and am soon heading off to Bradford’s Infest! Hopefully I can get some more write-ups done before then.
——-

After the mayhem of the previous night’s partying at “Eine rituelle Zusammenkunft” Mittelalter Rock club it was a late start for us. We headed down to the Werk II for Austrian psychobilly rokers Kitty in a Casket.

Kitty in a Casket performing at Werk II

Kitty in a Casket performing at Werk II


(Unfortunately it was at this point my camera died! Se here is a crappy picture I took on my iphone. Apologies for the lack of photos/videos!)

I couldn’t help thinking that lead singer Kitty Casket reminds you somewhat of a cooler, more rock and roll Avril Levine. She’s a small, slight woman who jumps around and prances about on stage. The rest of the band: Slappin’ Suspender, Billy The Bat and Mike Mean Machine (I bet their parents don’t call them by those names!) all performed well and although I do enjoy Psychobilly music, I do find it hard to get really excited about.

Kitty in a Casket‘s most recent release “Horror Express” is available here from Amazon. This and their back catalogue is also available from missjade’s alternative music & culture shop.

Rating: 3/5

After some time milling around in the Medieval Village (above the Moritzbastei), we headed to the Kohlrabizirkus (which we had by this point rather maturely nick named “the boobie building” in honour of the two cones sticking out of it’s roof making it look like Madona‘s bra). We went to the Kohlrabizirkus to see the fantastic In Strict Confidence.

In Strict Confidence at the Kohlrabizirkus

In Strict Confidence at the Kohlrabizirkus

The German Electro-rockers In Strict Confidence gave a tremendous performance. They performed infront of some of their fantastic music videos such as when performing “Forbidden Fruit“, “My Dispair” and “Silver Bullets” and front-man Dennis Ostermann has a wonderful voice when performing live. Beautiful female vocals provided by Nina di Lianin and additional guitars were provided by Haydee who, when not rocking out on her guitar performed with fire staffs and poi. This, along with Nina di Lainin‘s skinny figure being hugged by a tight, red latex dress with matching elbow-length gloves provided plenty of spectacle to the event.

In Strict Confidence were definitely one of my favourite performances of the festival, especially as it is impossible to see them play in the UK. Their new album “La Parade Monstrueuse” is also fast becoming one of my favourite albums this year!

“La Parade Monstrueuse” is available available from Amazon or this along with their back catalogue is also available from missjade’s alternative music & culture shop.

Rating: 5/5

Having seen our final performance of Wave Gotik Treffen, we headed out to find an end-of-festival party. Although almost every venue was holding a party, we decided to go to the Moritzbastei as we hadn’t yet been inside the venue. What a venue it is! The Moritzbastei is an old fortress which is made up of brick rooms linked by a series of catacombs. Each room has been converted into bars, seating areas and dance floors giving a very unique feel to the venue. The music policy was fairly eclectic and a remix of Depeche Mode‘s “Master and Servant” particularly stood out from the night. We partied late into the night, saying a final goodbye to friends before heading to bed in order to catch our train from Leipzig Hauptbahnhof to Berlin in the morning.

Rating: 5/5