The people of Munich could have saved themselves the New Year’s fireworks if Rammstein had been able to realize their plans of appearing on the Theresienwiese. The band had planned to play to a crowd of 145,000 on New Year’s Eve 2022, but by August 16 the much-discussed gig had been cancelled. This gave rise to a lot of criticism of the organizer – speculation on which the organizer has now commented.
The Leutgeb Entertainment Group, more precisely owner Klaus Leutgeb, according to “music week” issued a detailed statement on the situation and went through every point of the planning chronologically in order to put an end to “all speculation, false press statements and politically motivated discussions”. “I had the idea of organizing a concert at the Munich Exhibition Center for New Year’s Eve. Such a project always includes an iterative process of clarification of the site situation, preliminary coordination with the authorities, availability of the band and finally contractual fixing of the individual elements.” Messe München was also informed about this – “which basically gave me a positive signal for the examination .” A rejection was later issued due to “operational processes”.
Unknown persons are said to have passed on details
In consultation with the band, the Theresienwiese was considered as an alternative. For this, however, there must be a positive decision by the city council – “a corresponding application was made in the city council”. “Days before the city council meeting, information regarding the project was already being sent to the press by an agency (unknown to me). On the same day I informed the band that someone had informed the press, which was neither in the interest of the band nor in my interest, since there were also negotiations about the optional concert area in NRW in addition to the Theresienwiese, written evidence is available before. From that moment onwards, the undertaking took on a life of its own in the media, contrary to all of our interests, and caused far-reaching speculation. Politicians, authorities and state organs immediately commented on the project. These ‘pros and cons’ have been sufficiently discussed in the press. Usually such processes take place internally and not publicly!
“Rammstein himself became a political pawn here”
In the city council meeting, the majority voted in favor of the concert, but at that time it had already developed into a political issue. “Because of the heated, controversial debate at the political level and the legitimate security-related objections of the authorities, police and rescue services, I decided, in consultation with the band, to declare the project over. Rammstein himself became a political pawn here and as the organizer I cannot and will not allow that to happen. It is also my responsibility to hold only safe events in the interest of the common good.”