This year I’ve finally visited the biggest Gothic festival in the world – Wave Gotik Treffen. It’s my shame that I decided to go there just now, but I hope that I’ll miss it ever again. It’s not surprising that I’ve got a lot of impressions I want to share. Perhaps, it will look too naive for those, who visit festival every year. Anyway I’d like to publish this little review and I hope that someone finds it interesting or even useful.
WGT happens always in Leipzig (Germany) and lasts 4 days. There are about 60 scenes, 200 bands and maybe 200 events (or more). Of course, you should choose only some of them, because it’s impossible to visit all. More than that, you have to get to different parts of the city, which takes your time too. On the one hand, it’s sad. On the other hand, completely different people can find events, which they like. Besides, you get an opportunity to use trams and buses for free. One more useful thing is the app, which helps you to find a way and not to forget about events. Of course, I can tell only about my own program, which was quit saturated.
Friday. Our day began with Victorian picnic in Clara Zetkin park. It’s unofficial, but really popular event. More than that, I discovered that there would be a concert of Goethes Erben. So I put my Victorian dress, a hat with feathers, took my lace umbrella and knitted skeleton (I’ve made all of this by myself) and went to the park. It was cloudy and quit cold, that’s why we’ve got really gloomy photos and our skin didn’t suffer because of sun. We watched a concert with piano and met our friends. Then we went to other part of the park. There were a lot of people (it was said that there were about 3000 guests during the picnic), that’s why it was difficult to find quite place. Finally we sat down near Rhododendron and had a meal. This event finished at 6 p. m., but we all wanted to visit some concerts, so we went at 5 p. m.
The girl, who was standing with us: www.instagram.com/vera_fidez
I changed my clothes and hairstyle and rushed to Haus Leipzig to watch several bands (Fabrik C, Phosghore and Centhron) and to dance. I was thrilled, especially, when Centhron was on the scene. There were really awesome concerts. About midnight I returned to my hotel.
Saturday. I had to wake up early, because I wanted to visit Victorian Village, which started to work at 10 a. m. I put on my Victorian dress once again and went there. It was also unofficial event, but organizers rented a mansion, which looked fantastic. There were lovely courtyard with a fountain, statues and tables and gallery with paintings and handmade. Organizers invited some bands, but we hadn’t enough time to watch their concerts. We just had a rest there about 2,5 hours and played cards. Then we went to the hotel, where I changed my clothes. I put on my Renaissance dress, which I’ve also made by myself, because we were going to visit a festival of music of the Middle Age and the Renaissance.
Before it we visited Egyptian museum, where listened a lection. There were a lot of exhibits and the lection was really interesting. It finished about 5 p. m., so we had a time to look at Medieval market. It wasn’t huge, that’s why it took us not so much time.
About 7 p. m. we came to Thomaskirche, where Johann Sebastian Bach was buried. In this church there was a concert a capella and then – organ music. All of this sounded amazing. Medieval and Renaissance music finished at 8.30 p. m., but we didn’t want to hear modern music after it, so we just went to the hotel.
Sunday. I decided to wear comfortable clothes, that’s why I put on my Cyber Gothic stuff and didn’t change it two days. First of all, we went to Agra Treffenpark to visit Black market. It took us about 2 hours to look at all shops. Clothes and dishes, CDs and linen, shoes and toys and many other things were there. We’ve bought some of them and rushed to Südfriedhof.
One more a capella concert was amid one of the biggest cemeteries in the country. Firstly we listened singing in Große Trauerhalle, then we walked through the cemetery, which looked like a park. I wanted to visit a club, where Painbastard had a concert, but it was far away and I changed my mind.
Suddenly we saw giant building and went to it. It was Völkerschlachtdenkmal - one of the biggest monuments in Europe. There was a crowd of Goths and I opened my app to search an event. It turned out that these people wanted to watch a concert in the crypt. An orchestra played Requiem (by Johannes Brahms). We rushed there and had to leave our dishes, which we’ve bought, to security guard. Likely, we’ve got it again after the concert. The crypt looked magnificent, but there were no chairs, that’s why all people sat down on stone steps. The orchestra included a Theremin. There was also a man, who read a poem, when the music stopped. It was awesome unexpected concert in my program.
About 10 p. m. we went to Westbad to watch Zeraphine. It was situated near our hotel, that’s why we were there soon.
Monday. I decided to visit Heidnisches Dorf (Pagan Village). There was little market with drinks, clothes, baths and so on. I’ve bought there some things and went to Oper Leipzig. Unfortunately, only 150 people were permitted to visit it for free and we were not amount them, so since 3 p. m. we had free time. We just walked through Altstadt. At 5 p. m. began a concert of Seelennacht. We went to Westbad to watch it. Since 6 p. m. we spent our time in Agra Treffenpark and its market. We’ve bought some splendid things and went to concert of Grendel. Then there was God Module. About midnight we returned to our hotel.
In total we visited 4 cities (Wien, Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden), that’s why we were really tired, when we came home. But our journey was amazing. Especially WGT. I’ve watched not so many concerts (I mean modern bands), but I don’t think that it’s bad. There are a lot of magnificent places in Leipzig and I hope to see all of them. If I visit the festival once again, I’m sure that I go to Clara Zetkin park and Victorian Village, to Thomaskirche and Agra Treffenpark (I can’t resist its market).