Dear Prog Community,
Three wonderful festival days are behind us and the WiV team would like to thank everyone who came to the festival.
We tried to take your suggestions into account beforehand after the experiences of previous festivals. This time we have organized the camping ourselves and decided to keep it as simple as possible for you while maintaining a higher standard of handling. We also stayed in contact with you during the festival and are happy that our efforts were appreciated.
We were able to separate the merchandise stand and the signing tent (where our graphic artist Frank exhibits his paintings every year) a bit, so that both had enough space. We were also very pleased about the great motivation of the bands to participate in the signing and of course your interest in it.
The line-up this year was a challenge in terms of composition, but in the end we were able to offer a very good mix of styles. Thank you very much for all the positive comments!
There were many highlights – Nick Mason (79 now!) and his band celebrated a real party full of early Pink Floyd classics and deep cuts, CYAN made themselves the secret festival stars with a splendid Pete Jones, Franck Carducci brought the rock to a boil with his Fantastic Squads and also had the most impressive signing session. The Musical Box managed to keep away the rain until almost the end and celebrated the story of The Lamb on Broadway one last time. Wishbone Ash celebrated a proud 50 years of their classic ARGUS, Abel Ganz virtually came out of the woodwork and on Sunday we had prog metal greats Soen and Leprous who played impressive sets. Anneke van Giersbergen had to improvise a bit after her keyboard player had to go to hospital at short notice. But even with the programme changed at short notice, Anneke took the audience by storm.
But it was also the new upcoming bands that made 2023 special. The festival opener on Friday, Time Shift Accident, raised the bar quite a bit. Agusa came with a brand new album, which was appropriately released on the Friday of the festival, and thrilled the fans. On Saturday, it was Aedon who kicked things off as newcomers and got the rock in the mood. FUCHS are not so new anymore, but still an insider tip and they also came with a new album. They have even released a digital Night Of The Prog EP before the festival. At noon on Sunday, the Ukrainians Karfagen played straight into the hearts of the fans. Mad Fellaz also managed to do the same and Oak once again showed why they were so well received in 2019. Panzerballett‘s cracking mix of styles with drumming legend Virgil Donati was certainly a challenge for many, but in the end it blended in excellently. Esthesis from France should now enjoy greater attention beyond their national borders.
Unfortunately, Alex Henry Foster could not perform due to health reasons – some fans took this as an opportunity to send him a video message and photos, which touched Alex very much. Here you can see a photo of this:
Your feedback on the 2023 Festival, which you have posted especially on social media, makes us mighty proud and is a great motivation to make it even better next year. Of course we can’t influence everything, but we always try to make your stay as pleasant as possible. Looking ahead to next year, we will remain in contact with the operators in order to achieve further improvements in catering, for example. We are particularly pleased that the camping situation is now much better. In addition, there was good cooperation with the security and the regulations regarding the chairs on the grounds also worked well and there were no incidents.
The Early Bird Sale is running this week and after the summer we will also start announcing the first bands.
We look forward to 2024 and of course any suggestions you may have. Feel free to send us an email!
Thanks again and best regards
Win Völklein and the WiV team!
Photos: Christian Gerhardts