Splash! festival turns 25
What does the anniversary edition have to offer?
The Splash! Festival in Ferropolis.
© imago images/Hartmut Bösener
The legendary hip-hop festival Splash! celebrates its 25th edition. Where does it take place and what acts are performing?
“What began in 1998 in a Chemnitz youth club wrote rap history”: The Splash! Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The Chemnitz hip-hop duo Tefla & Jaleel founded the festival, which will take place from June 29th to July 1st this year.
The history
The Splash! Festival has been held since 1998. First it took place in the power plant in Chemnitz with around 1,300 festival visitors. Just one year later, the festival moved to the Oberrabenstein reservoir near Chemnitz and attracted around 13,000 visitors.
The Splash! developed into the most important hip-hop festival in Germany in the years that followed, but had to contend with heavy rainfall on the festival days in 2005 and 2006. The future of the festival was hanging in the balance due to the financial losses, but it was saved with a benefit concert and donations. In 2007 and 2008 it took place on the Puch peninsula near Bitterfeld, and since 2009 it has been based in Ferropolis. In 2022, around 50,000 hip-hop fans celebrated there over two festival weekends. This year it will take place on the first weekend in July, after the original date (July 6-8, 2023) was advanced.
Directions, line-up and tickets
The site is between Berlin and Leipzig, around 20 kilometers from Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt. The Peninsula is according to directions Via the Gräfenhainichen train station by train from Berlin via Lutherstadt Wittenberg or directly from Leipzig. From Gräfenhainichen, shuttle buses bring visitors to Ferropolis at regular intervals.
According to the organizer, fans can look forward to 140 program items on eight stages. Acts announced for Thursday (June 29) include Shindy, Kendrick Lamar and Peter Fox. On Friday (June 30) Ski Aggu, Trettmann, Haftbefehl, Domiziana, Luvre47 and Blvth will be on stage, among others. On Saturday (July 1st) Esther Grad, Verified and Ufo361 are among the acts of the last day of the festival.
In addition to live acts, there will also be two DJ stages and a site program with live podcasts and talks, rap battles or graffiti and street art workshops. The program starts between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on the campsite stages, from 4.30 p.m. it continues until 5 a.m. on the festival grounds.
Tickets for the Splash! are still available according to the website. A 3-day festival ticket including camping is available for around 210 euros. However, interested parties must join a waiting list.