democracy festival
“Jamel rockt den Förster” ends with a party
The band Madsen played at the democracy festival “Jamel rocks the forester”. photo
© Bernd Wüstneck/dpa
The German music scene comes to life in Jamel. Among others, Madsen, Danger Dan, Turbostaat, Juli, Bosse, Blumfeld and Fury in the Slaughterhouse will be on the stage of the festival for “Democracy and Tolerance”.
This year, the indie rock band Madsen, Danger Dan, Turbostaat, Juli and Sebastian Krumbiegel, among others, played. “Great volunteers, fantastic artists, professional organization and, last but not least, fantastic festival weather,” commented organizer Birgit Lohmeyer on Saturday evening.
According to the organizers, around 3,000 spectators came to Jamel on Friday and Saturday – more than twice as many as last year. The festival, organized by married couple Birgit and Horst Lohmeyer, regularly attracts big names from the German music scene who are committed to a good cause.
“Our voice against hatred, hate speech and racism”
The festival was held for the first time in 2007 to draw attention to the strong neo-Nazi scene in the area. So that the village is not overrun by spectators, it is never announced in advance which musicians are expected.
The festival has been known nationwide since the Toten Hosen performed in 2015, which was followed by numerous visits by well-known artists. Since then, music greats have been coming to Jamel again and again: Out of conviction. “There is at least one weekend a year when Jamel is clearly anti-fascist,” said Daniel Pongratz, Danger Dan’s real name, of the German Press Agency on Saturday.
State and federal politicians were also guests on Friday. In addition to the two patrons, Minister-President Manuela Schwesig and State Parliament President Birgit Hesse, there were, among others, Interior Minister Christian Schwachen and the Federal Government’s representative for Eastern Europe, Carsten Schneider (all SPD). “Together we raise our voice against hate, hate speech and racism. We are loud. And we are unmistakable,” said Schwesig on Friday afternoon.
According to the police, who said they had 40 emergency services on site, the event was “as expected peaceful”. However, even before the start of the festival, two people from the right-wing scene had tried to get onto the site. Anti-constitutional graffiti was also discovered and the police are investigating because of anti-constitutional slogans from the place. “In addition, there were no significant disturbances on or in the vicinity of the festival site,” it said on Sunday.
Encourage people in the region
Danger Dan, who after a visit with the Antilopen-Gang and his performance two years ago with his fellow musician Igor Levit is playing at the Forstrock Festival for the third time, is doing this with full conviction. However, he does not believe that an event like the one in Jamel can reach a person in the right-wing scene. But it could encourage people here in town and in the region.
On the second day of the festival, rapper Danger Dan provided musical highlights and tangible announcements against right-wing extremism.
It was also a matter of course for Marten Ebsen from the punk band Turbostaat to come to Jamel. “It’s a great thing for us to be able to come here,” said the guitarist in the afternoon. He doesn’t see a homogeneous scene at the Democracy Festival, but says: “I think we all think very, very differently who are here,” the commonality is to reject hatred and hate speech. “Here the firewall is defended by human coexistence,” says Ebsen.
The two musicians are not alone in their attitude. On Friday, among others, Madsen, Bosse and “Die Prinzen” frontman Sebastian Krumbiegel made it clear how important they find active engagement. “We are here today to fly the flag for democracy,” said Krumbiegel before singing his song “Democracy is Female”. With a view to the shift to the right in parts of society, Axel Bosse also made it clear: “Especially at this time, it is even more important that everyone who is public, but also everyone else, is loud and takes a stand.”
Another premiere this year was the awarding of the “Horst & Birgit Lohmeyer Democracy Prize”, which is endowed with 1000 euros. In the future, this will be awarded annually and will motivate young people in particular “to actively participate in democratic civil society and to speak out against any form of discrimination,” said organizer Birgit Lohmeyer in advance. This year’s award winner is the performance “In the dark is good rumoring” of the basic course for grade 11 in the subject of performing arts at the Niels-Stensen-School in Schwerin.