News
MONO INC., L’ÂME IMMORTELLE & FOUR ADDITIONAL BANDS CONFIRMED
Friday, 15.01.2016
Alongside already announced highlights we´re back today with six additional artists, ready to pull you out of everyday´s life and to create memorable moments with their concerts. Let us salute new to the Amphi Line-up:
MONO INC.
L’ÂME IMMORTELLE
LEBANON HANOVER
NOSFERATU
SPIRITUAL FRONT
DIVE
AMPHI PRE-PARTY ON FRIDAY
Thursday, 14.01.2016
For many years the official Amphi Pre-Party on Friday ahead of the festival has been a popular landmark in the course of the weekend. So far located at the opposite shore of the Rhine, it is time to bring the pre-party closer to the festivalground, the Amphi camp and the pier of the ship.
Beginning on 22.07. at 10 pm we want to celebrate with you and a fine selection of star DJs at the Theater am Tanzbrunnen. This time for you behind the decks will be nobody less than:
DJ ALEX WESSELSKY (Eisbrecher)
DJ ADRIAN HATES (Diary of Dreams)
DJ ERK AICRAG (Hocico / Rabia Sorda)
DJ MSTH (Nacht der Maschinen / FFM)
The Tanzbrunnen Theater creates a special atmosphere and delivers a great setting for a hot summer partynight. More (if the weather plays along) you also have the opportunity to walk over to the adjacent beach club ?KM689? and enjoy the old town city line, paired up with the relaxing beach feeling.
Admission is at 6,00 Euro plus charges for all visitors. A festival ticket is not requiered for the pre-party. However for the majority of visitors that do own a festival ticket we offer a possibility to pick up the festival wristband directly at the party. A respective station will be put up inside the Theater (presumably at the foyer).
You can pre-order your tickets for the official Amphi Pre-Party now - available at the Amphi-Shop htto://www.amphi-shop.de, at all nationwide CTS/EVENTIM box offices and via print@home.
MERCHANDISE: CALL THE SHIP TO PORT - CHARM NOW AVAILABLE SEPARATELY!
Wednesday, 16.12.2015
Hey folks, we´re happy to announce that the "CALL THE SHIP TO PORT" metal charm ist now also available as standalone item at the Amphi merchandise shop at https://www.amphi-shop.de/article/782.html
It´s not a ticket but a very neat accessory - also for all ship-fans from previous years. Colour: shiny silver, with black letters "CALL THE SHIP TO PORT". Also there´s a 60 cm cord (cotton) included, extendable to 65 cm.
4 ADDITIONAL BANDS!
Monday, 07.12.2015
After yesterday’s St. Nicholas’ Day we prepared a little surprise for you in the shape of four additional Amphi bands!
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s go wild together with BLUTENGEL, MOONSPELL, OST+FRONT and ANGELS & AGONY, who will expand the confirmed Amphi 2016 line-up.
-
A FINAL WORD ON AMPHI FESTIVAL 2015
about two weeks have passed since the first Amphi Festival 2015 at Amphi Eventpark Cologne. It has been a difficult start at the new venue, strongly biased by storm „Zeljko“, whirling through months worth of planning, shortly before doors opened on Saturday. In fact it had been particularly for the mainstage at Lanxess arena, that the festival was able to take place amidst the storm at all, instead of getting cancelled right away. Not only for our visitors from over 40 countries the latter would have meant the worst case scenario.
The forced shutdown of the complete open-air area unfortunately provided a wrong first impression of the new venue that differed significantly from what we imagined for you and advertised in advance. In consequence many special food offers, most of the merchandise stalls as well as crucial parts of the festivalground simple became unaccessible. Also the open-air stages could not be played.
As your safety stood above everything at all times, the entire festival ado had to take place inside the arena until 9:00 pm. Despite the hampered start, we may still count us among lucky ones for having gotten the possibility to reveal the potential that rests in the new venue on Sunday.
Since it was merely feasible to integrate three bands of the open-air stages into the running Arena Stage programme, we tried to catch up on further bands at least on Sunday. In that process we had to decide to place the new slots PRIOR TO the regular course of the programme. One reason was not to discard the original running order again and the other were the showtimes of Sunday´s regular bands, which were contractually fixed. To our big regret a couple of bands were not able to blend in at a later time. Some bands were simply not available on Sunday and for others there wasn´t a suitable time-window for a new slot within the festival. For those affected, we will try to win the band to return next year!
It bothers ourselves more than anyone else, that the weather crossed our plans so heavily and put everthing upside down. It´s hard to imagine a more ungrateful situation than being ripped of your assets by an act of nature – especially during the first time at a new venue. No surprise, the Amphi Festival 2015 took its toll from everyone in the Amphi team. Physically and mentally we went to the limit. For the relocation of the venue we had to build-up almost everything from scratch again, to plan the festival in a wholly different way, to discuss the legal affairs with the authorities, adjust to a lot of new partners – and finally to master an emergency situation on completely untested terrain.
Honestly we had to take a step back after the festival to process the aftermath. We took our time to work through the many comments on the social media platforms and the visitor poll. Be assured, we´re grateful for all constructive suggestions. We always treated your opinions and support seriously and tried to apply optimisations wherever possible, since the very first Amphi Festival. We will keep doing this in the future, because you are the ones that breathe the spark of life into the festival and we want to fuel the passion for the music and the scene forever more!
Among the first matters we picked up are:
- SECURITY & STEWARD SITUATION
This year we had almost twice as many security staff on site than at the Tanzbrunnen. This significant bump for example originated from much higher safety standards of the Arena. New – and for most of you unusual – was the function of the stewards at the stands. Among different other tasks they were responsible for keeping the doorways, escapeways and staircases clear, as well as they observed the safety at the balustrades. As opposed to an evening show at the arena, for which in most cases the tickets are assigned to particular seats, this lead to a new and unaccustomed situation for both, visitors and stewards.
The free choice of seats caused an unusual amount of traffic all through the day. We´re already following single reports about arguments with the stewards. Together with the responsible security service we are working on a solution for a more relaxed and less conflicting conduct. In the same way we´re currently checking some reports about different experiences with the admission process, aiming for an optimised briefing of the security staff.
- RE-ADMISSION TO THE STANDS
During the headliner shows, especially VNV Nation, the lower stand of the arena had to be laid with a temporary admission stop. Those who left the stand during the show (like e.g. to visit the toilet at the foyer) had encountered a problem with re-admission. Of course the upper stand still offered plenty of space but this didn´t help when the partner or one´s buddies still were situated at the lower stand. We aim to avoid this problem in the future and already began to discuss a couple of possible solutions to this issue with the chief security.
- CUP-DEPOSIT SYSTEM
Like most of you, we also wish to introduce a cup-deposit system at the new venue. We will get in touch with the responsible people from the arena gastronomy-department about that matter soon and we are confident that a deposit system will be implemented next Amphi Festival.
- AFTER-SHOW PARTY ON SUNDAY:
Our original plans for the Henkelmännchen were threatened by possible renovation works. For that reason it became insecure whether the Henkelmännchen would be available at the time of the festival, until a few days before. Luckily we were able to use the Henkelmännchen at least for a party on Saturday on a very short-term basis. Some of you lacked the after-show party on Sunday. We´ll try to close that gap again next year.
- LIGHTING OF THE ARENA
A couple of people considered the arena as being too dark, especially during changeover phases between the bands. We will adjust changeover lighting next year according to your request.
- COMMUNICATION WITH YOU
A lot of complaints have been uttered by you about the way we communicated the changes within the programme. We must admit that we underestimated this part. There were various channels between you and us, like for the example the monitors at the foyer, the info-counter, displays, facebook, the website and of course the announcers. Supplying all these channels with information at the same time was sheer impossible for us. Sometimes because of technical reasons (for example quick access to the monitors), and also for free capacity of the staff. Our complete promoter team – in addition to their regular festival duties – was working at their limit to prepare all the necessary changes, connected with moving the bands. Besides the initial discussions with the bands and/or booking agencies we had to order more catering for Sunday, re-book hotel rooms, adjust the backline disposition, the proceedings for the stagehands, technicians, the stage manager and so forth.
All that got even more difficult by the fact that throughougt Saturday nobody – including the meteorologists – was able to tell for sure, how long the storm situation would continue. On that basis it was impossible for us to plan beyond the next two or three hours, particularly as there was hope until 6:00 pm we would still come to open-air stages later on. The whole situation remained afloat all the time with various different scenarios. Publishing those unconfirmed intermediate states would have created even more insecurity and confusion. In the end we completely understand your complaints and can only apologize for the inconvenience!
We will try to improve the communication during the festival significantly in the future and evaluate useful measures, like e.g. an Amphi app for smartphones.
OUR RÉSUMÉ:
As Amphi Festival promoters we began our work in 2005 with the aim to achieve the best possible experience year after year. Not just for the Amphi Festival but also with the E-tropolis Festival in Oberhausen, where we managed to translate a lot of your constructive suggestions into optimisations for the second year, after having moved the festival to a new venue the year before: That instantly created a much more enjoyable atmosphere.
Since 2005 the Amphi Festival developed the same way and over the course of the past 10 years it became a major scene event with unique character that always kept a strong emphasis on convenience, atmosphere and satisfied visitors. Yes, the Tanzbrunnen is gone now – the new venue has a different vibe. Then again it carries – as the results from the visitor poll already confirm – big potential. Unfortunately we didn´t get to play it all out because of the weather restrictions this time and we ask for your indulgence about these higher circumstances!
On the flipside Sunday finally revealed the well balanced interplay of the open-air-stages, the outdoor gastronomy, the merchant gallery and the arena. We think it presented a completely different image and a unique enjoyable atmosphere with a lot of variation in it.
On the slightly downhill greenfield in front of the Green Stage you came to enjoy genuine open-air feeling with a much bigger stage than it was at Tanzbrunnen. Depite its position, which we are going to tweak until next year - the Orbit Stage was another great place to enjoy shows at very intimate scene while indoor bands like COMBICHRIST, OOMPH! or VNV NATION took full advantage of the impressive backdrop, created by the arena, surging an incredible amount ofenergy into the audience. Who in the world would seriously trade that in for the old Staatenhaus – especially in terms of sound and climatic conditions?!
Contributing further features, we had the autograph sessions at Henkelmännchen and the indoor-merchants plus bakery at the Magistrale, free parking spaces close to the venue, a broad gastronomical concept with vegetarian/vegan foods, lots of drinks for special tastes, short waiting times at the stalls as well as sufficient and clean sanitary facilities. Even the opportunity to sit down anytime, either at the arena or outdoor at the beer garden and the chill-out area enriched the overall experience.
Rest assured: like we did in the past, we will continue to respond to your suggestions and wishes. Not always with words but surely with deeds wherever it´s possible. We are looking forward to seeing all of you again in 2016 for the 12th Amphi Festival on 23. & 24. July. In the end there is no doubt: All is Amphi – now more than ever!
FIRT BANDS & TICKET PRE-ORDER ON 21.08.
Working through the intense aftermath of this year´s festival we decided to postpone ticket sales to 21. August 2015. The highly requested early-bird tickets will become available at that time as well as an Amphi-Shop exclusive at www.amphi-shop.de. Actually for the same price as last year (60,00 € + charges).
The announcement of the first bands will be combined with the pre-sale start as well. Stay tuned!
Kind regards
Your Amphi Festival Team
