The highlights of Saturday – with Casper, Muse and Marteria

Today the sun is sizzling a bit more mercilessly on the site, so the isolated shady spots are very convenient – also on the mountain stage. Thanks to the well-positioned screens, you can not only enjoy the Nuremberg punk band Akne Kid Joe, but also the My Ugly Clementine show without sweaty existence. And their version of “What’s up” by the 4 Non Blondes sounds so dreamily beautiful that many seek physical contact despite the heat. Right next door on the River Stage, Lauren Mayberry and her band Chvrches perform hits like “Clearest Blue” and “The Mother We Share” in an airy, blood-red cloudy dress. They’re lucky to be able to finish their set just in time, because the Hurricane lives up to its name around 7 p.m.

First sweltering hot, then suddenly soaking wet

Within minutes, a violent storm brewed. The hobby meteorologists in the audience talk shop earlier, because the piling up clouds on one side and the dark band that meets them immediately do not bode well. On the other hand, those who tend to look ahead to the stage will get a push message via the app that it’s time to get in the car quickly.

30 minutes of heavy rain, gusts and then it’s good again. After the official all-clear, things can continue without delays and now without clouds of dust. “I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain / Comin’ down on a sunny day?” The Lumineers then ask with an apparently unceremoniously improvised cover of the “Creedence Clearwater Revival” hit, before they start their folky sympathetic set in the continue evening sun. In addition, the festival visitors develop a new move: to the beat, they wave their soaked jumpers and T-shirts dry.

Marteria: The hurricane has bitten

Marteria spent the day completely differently, as he has to share with beaming eyes right at the start of the set. The rapper went fishing and apparently didn’t manage to take off his fishing vest before the performance. Like so many other acts this weekend, he also has great memories of the Hurricane Festival: “In 2013, our lives changed exactly on this stage” – at that time songs like “Bengalische Tiger” and “Kids” from the album “Zum Glück in the future II” was published. And so the show appears like a small retrospective. At the same time there was a still unreleased song to be heard with “Man is descended from weapons”:

Then a shy Marsi speaks from the off and explains: The last green album will be out next year – Marsimoto is about to say goodbye. “Thank you for the love at this special festival,” adds Marteria afterwards. “The last few weeks and months have been the hardest of my life” – a reaction to the recent private controversy surrounding the rapper. At the same time he reminds the audience to stand up “against violence and division” before encouraging himself with “No one brings Marten to death” and ending the set with “Purple Clouds” and demolition mood in the last 20 seconds. A smooth transition to Rin, which already attracts a much younger but equally large audience one stage down.

Muse: The Great Rock Show

One can of course accuse Muse of limitless posing with the bridge stage specially built for her and the flashing jackets – but there is nothing to shake about the fact that the audience will be able to enjoy a bombastic concept rock show on Saturday. With “Will of the People” the British storm the stage in masks – they are the incarnate actors of their video game-like screen story about monstrous police violence.

Meanwhile, Bellamy performs Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, before the band jumps into the comparatively shallow “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween”. “They will not force us / And they will stop degrading us / And they will not control us / We will be victorious, so come on” – but in the end, as always, good wins and we ride together to “Knights of Cydonia”. Happy end to the evening on the Forest Stage.

Big bang with Casper

Shows like these show how high the demands are for an unforgettable show in 2023 – both for the acts and the audience. Casper also seems to be aware of this, because he is the final act on the River Stage in a sea of ​​flowers – with strewn pants, surrounded by artificial trees, his rock band and strings. With these visual and acoustic stimuli, the viewers have no choice but to activate their last reserves of energy at half past twelve. This does not leave the rapper untouched: Often he lacks the words, often the grip goes to the heart. The audience is once again pumping to the Marteria/Casper hit “Adrenaline” and celebrating the hit “Keine Angst” with Drangsal.

After a string outro that gets under your skin, to which the help pages Depressionsliga.de, frnd.de and theoceaninyourmind.de are faded in for several minutes, the curtain closes – and Casper appears on another stage above the middle of the crowd. In the second act, with songs like “Gib mir danger”, which contains an explosive “New Noise” sample, the mood is heated up again and it doesn’t let go until the end at around two in the morning. This day could not have ended any better.