Alright, alright… I know that you hear coming out of my posts a lot how much I love the very warm and beachy side of life and how great an all year round beachbabe life would be, BUT, if you are a frequent reader on this blog you probably should know that I love spending some time in the summer months up in the northern side of Europe.

I always was fascinated about the landscapes you find up there: lighthouses, houseboats, long summer nights, the swallows singing, you look at the locals and picture them most of the time as sailors… And in the middle of these very peaceful sounding things – BOOM! – there is a rockfestival called Deichbrand.

We arrived one day earlier, so we had time to settle down in the lovely town of Bremerhaven, one of the most important ports on this side of Europe. It’s a nice quiet place, where you can take great walks along the water, enjoy the modern building on the seaside and gosh, you’ll eat some amazing tasting salmon here!

It was my first German Festival ever, so I had no idea what to expect. I combined some of my travels to Germany with some live concerts, but a festival is always a completely different story, you know what I’m talking about. Especially when we talk about rock festivals, I see often that every country is slightly different. In Switzerland you’d might have a pretty much mixed crowd, starting from a metalhead and ending to a not really fitting hippie. But nobody cares. I could see after taking a few steps on the Deichbrand Festival site that these people take rock’n’roll pretty seriously! I saw loads of black, leather jackets, band shirts and hoodies – even kilts! 😀

So my first reaction was quite scared off, because I’m kinda badass in the inside, but on the outside you’d might thing I’m 12 years old. This feeling flew away pretty fast, since the people here in Cuxhaven, a town along the North Sea, are very sweet and open minded. Didn’t really matter where I was having my drink, after a maximum of 5 minutes I wasn’t alone anymore. The festival lovers here are very chatty and are very interested in your story, which made this place very comfortable for me. There weren’t groups or snobs, everybody seems to be on the same level. The festival exists since more than 10 years, so the locals living around the site are very ok with that and even offer showers or an own bar outside of their homes to freshen up. Plus points! ❤

That the festival is held at the North Sea, is also very noticeable from the installed beaches with the typical baskets along the site. We took a break there from time to time in between the walking and enjoyed some people watching. Deichbrand has a pretty big variety of food & drink stands and even an eye, on which we obviously took a tour to enjoy a panoramic view of the festival. The line up was quite impressive with loads of big German names like Deichkind, Kraftklub or the Beatstakes. Internationally seen, there could be some improvement, The Kooks and Mando Diao were the two most famous acts. I can imagine that 3 or 4 more headliner like them wouldn’t be too bad for next year. Despite the acclaimed names, the festival also offered a stage for band battles and a poetry slam corner.

I enjoyed one of my favourite bands of the festival, the Kooks, on the balcony of the legendary Jägermeister Gasthof (kinda like of a guesthouse). It gave us a 360 degrees view on both big stages and in between the concerts we enjoyed their live program like the instrumental Blaskapelle or the DJ duo Dumme Jungs playing some beats. The Gasthof’s bar is equipped with different Jägermeister cocktails and a great staff. The inside kinda reminded myself of a good, old cozy livingroom.

Practical Infos

How to get there: Cuxhaven is around 2.5 hour away from Hamburg by train. It’s a quite long trip so you might should plan two days extra to arrive and relax. And another to get rid of your festival hangover 🙂 Tickets can be purchased at every train station for around 15EUR per person.

Where to Stay: If you’re obviously a festival badass you’ll be camping on site. If you aren’t, like me (sorry, to old for certain stuff 😉 ) you should consider the little town of Bremerhaven. We had a gorgeous stay at the Atlantic Hotel which is located directly on the sea side of life. If you’re lucky enough you’ll meet some bands chilling at the hotel bar in the evening. You’ll have pretty interesting Chats, you’re might even will be asked in which band you’re playing, so try don’t be a groupie! Prices start from 60EUR per night.

Festival Tickets: Deichbrand Festival is almost an institution in Cuxhaven. This means that the event is sold out most of the time. You can inform yourself about passes and the program on their webiste.

A Special Thank  You to Jägermeister for the Invitation and VIP Treatment.

All non-stated Pictures are by my lovely friend Metropolischt