Wave-Gotik-Treffen
Wave-Gotik-Treffen is probably the largest of Germany’s “schwartz scene” events. Being a treffen, meet or festival, dedicated to the mix of goth, industrial, metal and associated genres as they fit together in Germany. It is a large, around 20,000 attendees last I checked, festival that takes place across the entire city. The main base of the event is at Agra Park which has several large buildings, one dedicated to vendors and another as a 5000 person concert hall. Also there is the camp grounds where many of the price conscious Germans will be staying. The rest of the events, mostly bands, will be at venues spread across the city.
The first time I went to WGT, it was in 2001 and its tenth anniversary. That meant the first WGT was in what was East Germany at the time. I’ve heard the tale from people that should know. It was apparently an informal thing, in the outskirts of the city, and broken up by the police. I grew up in Oklahoma so I know how that goes. Leipzig was still something of an East German city. Friends that drove from Berlin had to travel on a gravel road for part of the trip. Old factories and buildings were all over the city. Rumor had it that Agra Hall was an old Soviet air force hangar. Soviet busts were still in the city square. Some friends who did not speak German, found store owners who did not speak English, but both had taken Russian in school and were glad to finally get some use out of it.
The city itself was wonderful. It was my first trip to Europe and the city center had been mostly restored to an older look. The train station was huge and there were already goths everywhere with people in black getting off the trains as people in black stood outside and handed out flyers. I walked across into the main part of the city and a large TV screen, fairly unusual for that time, flashed a large image of a goth girl with lots of make up and jewelry. It was obviously part of the city’s message of what was going on that holiday weekend and although I could not read German, it seems very positive. It was nice to move through the city and see lots of people obviously there for the festival and shops and owners who were friendly to the attendees. Some of the bands that were playing could be heard at the local department store playing as the store music. Later in the night, we’d move through the city looking for a club called Dark Flower and see others dressed in black moving to their own agendas down the misty streets.
The event itself was wonderful. My group of friends spent all week running around from venue to venue catching bands. Our first band was in a local amphitheater in a city park. It was the middle of the afternoon and the refreshment stands were serving mead. We went from there to the main Agra Hall filled for the bands playing there. The vendor side of Agra was so large that it took several days to make enough time to even make a single pass. All festival, the venues are mostly spread all over town. It’s often a trade off between who you want to see but getting to see them in a smaller, more intimate venue. If you want to hang out in the Agra Hall, the large venue has bands all the time also. Then, after all the bands have ended, we would make our way to the Moritzbastei, a 16th century brick fort, which has multiple venues and bars itself. There, we’d stay until the sun rose or need for sleep and the next day’s schedule called us back to our hotel rooms.
I’ll be heading back to Wave-Gotik-Treffen in two weeks. It’s been fifteen years since my last planned trip was interrupted by Covid. I’ve heard some things have changed. The beloved Werk II is no longer an official venue but a separate event at the same time called Gothic Pogo. Supposedly, venues are more crowded but that has always been a problem to get in to see hot acts if showing up at the last minute. I adopted the policy of picking less ‘must see bands’ and showing up to venues several bands before to experience new music after my first trip in 2001 when we spent too much time running from venue to venue. I’m sure it will have lots of new fun.