Hide Article Text (OCR)
.--•A. S'.WEEKEND SPECIAL—Speyer was the bands were rockin’ ’ and the enjoyed every moment of the fest.steaming, audience The onlynote of discord came from city officials who bemoaned the litter of trash, the crowds of people and the traffic tieups. —SS, DossRhine City’s FestIraws 10.000 inIBy GLEN DOSS Staff WriterSPEYER, Germany (SS) — “Real freaky, man. .„. Heavy.”That’s how one GI described one of the biggest hard rock festivals ever performed in Europe which lured a crowd of 40,000 here this past weekend.MAMA Concepts, who sponsored the festival, estimated that more than half of the huge audience were GIs who hitchhiked and drove from all over Germany to join the crowd which displayed flags from France, Spain, Italy and England.They perched upon tree limbs, roofs and trailer tops as well as the plush green grass along the new harbor of theRhine River here to witness a two-day performance of 22 British rock groups which included such big names as the Deep Purple, the Black Sabbath, the Groundhogs and the Fleetwood Mac.Some of the crowd arrived as early as Friday noon for the festival which began Saturday at 2 p.m.Despite the crowd size, aside f r o m a few cases of hashish overdosage and sunstrokeswhen the temperature climbedinto the 80s Saturday and Sunday, there were no casualties.Many a young man and woman swam the Rhine fully clothed in an attempt to bypass the ticket takers who were asking $6 to witness the spectacular. Others paid boatmen $1.50 to take them across while some took the long way around through the woods.The festival lasted until 2 p.m. Sunday and from 10 a.m. Sunday to 1 a.m. Monday.All the bands were on schedule and the people went wild, at times climbing right over the guard rails before the stage and pushing right up to the platform. It took repeated efforts from the guard to keep them under control.Hie audience was rewardedfor its patience. The Black Sabbath knocked them dead with “Paranoid” and other songs from their Paranoid album. The Deep Purple brought a standing ovation at 10 p.m. Saturday with “Speed King,” “Child in Time,” “Fireball” and “Strange Kind of Woman.”Despite “minor incidents,”the festival was “unusually quiet for a rock festival,” a spokesman with the municipal police department said.Two American soldiers and “one American lady” were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of selling hashish to members of the audience, he added.Another GI, who presumably came for the festival, was arrested in downtown Speyer “for molesting a young German lady,” he said.He explained that all four were turned over to the military police.One. element npt enjoying the festival were city authorities, according to a MAMA spokesman.“They didn’t like the crowd size, the trash that was left standing when everyone wenthome and the huge traffic buildup around the grqunds. Theythink their city’ too small for a production of this size.”“But no matter,” he added, ‘‘next, year we’re holding another British rock festival and we’ll find another site in Germany.Next year’s festival, he said,will feature The Who, The PickFloyd and Elton John.Although the city authorities were unpleased, it’s obviousthe audience was enthralled.
Newspaper Details
European Stars and Stripes
Darmstadt, Hesse, DE
Wed, Sep 08, 1971
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 10 Mar 2022
Other Publications Near Darmstadt, Hesse
Allgemeine Kirchen Zeitung
European Stars and Stripes
