The Friday before leaving for Canada I was able to hit "Das Fest", an open-air FREE concert in Karlsruhe held for 3 days every year. I've never attended before and was fighting off a cold but the lure of seeing "Wir Sind Heldon" (translation: we are hero's, a German band that plays one of my favorite songs, Denkmal) live won me over. Thank heavens I went as it was one of the most energetic and atmospheric festivals ever. It rivalled the atmoshpere of Woodstock 99' that we went to and that was AWSOME (although they totally raped our wallets!). Over 100,000 people showed including a bunch of loonies that bring chairs and huge flags to denote their group and territory on the hill overlooking the main stage. Take a look:



Apparently this concert "outs" some great bands every year and starts their rise to fame. Great music, great food, great price, great times. On Sunday the cold won the battle and I wasn't able to go meaning I missed the surprise appearances of Xavier Nado and Pink. Damn! Apparently they have a surprise guest every year on Sunday which I didn't know about until after, so be sure not to miss the Sunday show next year!

Another cool festival is the Bad-Durkheim winefest mid-September. I went last year and plan on attending fro a day or two this year as well. They've got a quaint but fun keg tapping ceremony (which has almost as many people on stage representing the festival as people watching the opening, most of whom are already experiencing the effects of other "taster" barrels). The festival ending hour long firework show is also tres cool :-)

Of course for traditionalists there's always Oktoberfest! We'll be hitting it on the middle Saturday (Sept 25th) so that we can hit the Avril Lavigne concert the next night, BAM! Shoot me a message if you're interested in hitting the O'fest the same day and we'll coordinate tent location and times :-)