The evening is still young and the Munich sky is bright blue when the festival area at the Olympiapark fills up for the “Midsummer Night’s Dream”. It doesn’t feel like a dream yet. The sun burns hotly on the people who trundle in one by one and still seem as if they have to find their way around the large area first. The first visitors sit under one of the few trees in the shade with a bratwurst or fries and ketchup. From time to time you see men with rectangular fanny packs strolling through the crowd and you ask yourself: How do the cocktails stay cold in them?
Numerous listeners have already gathered in front of the main stage to cheer for the young Munich singer “Paul Kowol”. The first arms reach up and rock from left to right along to the song “Somma” that he is singing along to Culcha Candela has sung. With this he heats up for the later performance of the band.
But there is still a while to go until then. The wait is bridged with a young talent show that feeds on young talents from the audience. When ten-year-old Frieda stands on stage and starts singing “Easy on me” by Adele, she sends goosebumps all over the audience with every note.
The main stage in the Olympic Park during the performance of “Silbermond” at Midsummer Night’s Dream.
(Photo: Leonhard Simon)
Some time later the time has come. A loud, dark hum booms from the speakers, applause breaks out and the four of Culcha Candela jump onto the stage in their orange summer outfits. The next hour and a half is characterized by a good mood and it seems as if you are celebrating a summer party together with those on stage. “Berlin City Girls” become the Munich City Girls, who take over the refrain and sing along loudly. Many are infected by the choreos and the swinging hips of the nine people on stage, and their arms in the air reach to the horizon. The singer Don Cali also teaches the audience Spanish and after thousands of people know the famous dance steps from the song “Von Alone” and the crowd moves to the rhythm to the left and right in small steps, the enthusiasm is at the “Hamma” encore hard to beat.
At some point, the stomach reports and wants to come into its own. Now the question is whether to risk your good spot in front of the main stage for something nutritious. The long, seemingly endless queues in front of the food trucks get lost in the crowd. Spoiled for choice: Do you prefer the hearty and sweet stuffed potato pockets or the Texas burgers with homemade coleslaw?
Stefanie Kloß from “Silbermond” celebrated all “Warriors of Light” on the main stage in the Olympic Park at Midsummer Night’s Dream.
(Photo: Leonhard Simon)
While you can’t really get any further in the queue, Stefanie Kloß enters from silvermoon the stage. In the warm summer evening she promises the people of this midsummer night’s dream “something stays” and a “little bit more security”. The lighting mood changes to the guitar solo, which makes the stage tremble. Kloß no longer feels like looking back on the past two years and celebrates all the “warriors of light” – at least all the people who make the night shine in the audience with their mobile phone light.
The band “2Raumwohnung” plays on the peninsula stage at the Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Olympic Park.
(Photo: Leonhard Simon)
On the way to the peninsula stage, one encounters huge, air-filled soap bubbles on the small Olympic lake, in which children try to walk across the water like on a hamster wheel. Behind the bridge you are greeted by the electric sounds of 2 room apartment and the easy-going, light voice of front singer Inga Humpe, who promptly invites you to dance. The different sounds from the synthesizer let the audience fall into a weightless state and with the strobe light it feels like walking in an open-air club. At least now the dreaming begins.
The fireworks under the title “Sign of Life” provided more than one sign of life at the Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Olympic Park.
(Photo: Leonhard Simon)
Exactly at 10 p.m., a festival employee asks the booth owners to switch off their lights so that the long-awaited fireworks display, which has the motto “Sign of Life”, can really shine. The highlight of the 50th anniversary year of the Olympic Park is set in motion with the 1972 Olympic fanfare, and finally the first sparks begin to fly. Brightly colored flowers rise into the sky, spread out like a fan. A golden shower of glitter rises over the Olympic lake, which looks as if a school of flying fish would jump over it, and thanks to pixel technology smileys rise to the beat to “Happy” by Pharrell Williams in the sky. When the sky turns into a sea of light during the finale, you don’t want to wake up from the dream on this warm summer night.