RALPH NUSSER - SUMMER BREEZE FESTIVAL

\r\n By wanting to give a complete picture\r\nof the festivals which will take place around Europe we asked the\r\npromoters which organize them to tell us a few things about their\r\nFests. First stop is Summer Breeze Festival which is \r\nset to take place August 17-19, 2006 in the Ostalbkreis district in\r\nGermany. We had the chance to talk with Ralf Nosser, co organizator of\r\nthe festival. \r\n

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\r\n Metalzone: \r\nThis is Metalzone calling at the other end of our line we have Ralf\r\nNosser who is co organizing Summer Breeze Festival Hello Ralf.
\r\nRalf Nosser: Hello, I am fine how are you? \r\n

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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nOk. We are beginning a feature on metal festivals around Europe and you\r\nare co organising Summer Breeze Festival which is a very popular one\r\neven in Greece. We would like you to tell us as an insider the complete\r\ninfo somebody needs to know when he wants to attend the festival.
\r\nRalf Nosser: General information in regards to this you can go on the summer breeze home page which is www.summer-breeze.de\r\nand you will find all relevant information on that. Unfortunately, we\r\nhaven’t got a new festival area yet but we are working on it. The\r\nproblem with the area the event took place in the past years is that it\r\nhas become too small. So we have to find a new one and obviously this\r\nhas become a bit of a problem. We have some offers but we have to of\r\ncourse find the cheapest to make sure that the prices of the tickets\r\nwon’t go up. If you go on that site there you will find all relevant\r\ninformation as I say, you can buy the ticket over there, we will be\r\nsending out the ticket to you and to get there to find hotels, where is\r\nthe camping site and any other questions you can find them on the site\r\nall the information you need.
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\r\nMetalzone : Tell me a few things about the philosophy of the festival, what made you create this festival and the philosophy behind it.
\r\nRalf Nosser:\r\nWell actually Achim who runs this festival he used to play in the band\r\nand he wanted to play on some festivals by the time he was doing it.\r\nThe problem was that none of the festival organisators or none of the\r\nfestival promoters gave him a chance to play and so he decided to build\r\nhis own festival, create his own festival and invite the bands he\r\nlikes. That was the initial reason for creating the festival. I think\r\nthat the philosophy behind it is to create a family affair. Like a\r\nfamily atmosphere. We are not a big festival, with 10.000 people\r\nshowing up each year so far and if you compare it to Waken which is\r\nabout 30.000 people we are kind of a small festival. And this is\r\nactually the way we want to keep it. We want to make sure that\r\neverything we do we do it to the full satisfaction of the people who\r\nattend the festival.
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\r\nMetalzone: So the philosophy is to give small bands a chance to play in a big festival and keep it small. Family like.
\r\nRalf Nosser:\r\nWe have some quite unknown bands playing each year and we are thinking\r\nabout increasing the opportunity for small bands to play in the\r\nfestival. Even bands without a record deal they should have the chance\r\nto play and this is what we are working on. I can’t tell you anymore\r\nabout it cause it’s not fixed yet.\r\n

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\r\n Metalzone: What is the response of the fans in the festival watching on stage bands they don’t know?
\r\nRalf Nosser: \r\nThe reaction is generally good. It’s good to see young bands among with\r\nthe big ones. I know we are not the only festival with younger bands\r\nplaying in the festival. It’s important for the scene in general to\r\ngive smaller bands an opportunity to play live. Because we are running\r\nout of bands in the future. You know all the big names playing\r\neverywhere, again and again, but you definitely have to do something\r\nfor the smaller bands, because sooner or later they become big bands\r\ntoo and you have to give a circulation sort of speak.
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\r\nMetalzone: What sells most in the metal scene? What makes a festival successful?
\r\nRalf Nosser: \r\nI think that what makes a festival successful is good organisation. An\r\norganisation of such size we try to make it perfect. You have to have\r\npeople who work there know what they do well. We have to identify to\r\nthe people and what they are doing there. Both the bands playing there,\r\nand the fans who paid the ticket to attend the festival. They don’t\r\nnecessarily have to like the bands playing but they have to know what\r\nthe thing is all about. It’s a festival, it’s supposed to be a good\r\ntime for everybody there, that’s the most important thing, if you take\r\ncare of things like that it’s as important as the bands playing there.
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\r\nMetalzone : Can you tell me for how many ye ars is the summer breeze being organized?
\r\nRalf Nosser: I would say like seven years.
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\r\nMetalzone: And which one would you say it’s the most successful?
\r\nRalf Nosser:\r\nEvery year is more successful that the previous one. I would say we are\r\ngrowing from year to year, and more people attend it, so far the most\r\nsuccessful one was the last one 2005 and we are hoping that we can keep\r\nthe development going on for the next year as well
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\r\nMetalzone: Over the years how do you see the fans coming to the festival changing?
\r\nRalf Nosser:\r\nFor the summer breeze I would definitely say more Black and Death metal\r\nrising, we have less Heavy Metal bands playing there, like Rebellion\r\nand Gamma Ray and we have to look at bands like Heaven Shall Burn, so\r\nwe are not really a Heavy Metal Festival. In general it’s difficult to\r\nsay. And there’s trends like heavy metal going on for the last years,\r\nwe have metal core coming up at the moment, we don’t know for how long\r\nso it changes. Trends come and go. \r\n

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\r\n Metalzone: What would you say to the Greek Audience coming to the festival?
\r\nRalf Nosser: Bring some money; bring good weather, which we haven’t got much off in Germany\r\n

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\r\nElena "Blackie" Michailidou
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