‘Forever Young’ becomes Hockenheim’s national anthem at Glücksgefühle Festival

The organizers wanted “Good Vibes Only.” Instead, the Glücksgefühle Festival at the Hockenheimring became one of Germany’s most political festivals, according to Culcha Candela.

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Good Vibes Only

Several performers used the event to oppose far-right tendencies and speak for diversity and democracy. DJ Felix Jaehn welcomed the audience to a “political event” and played an anti-AfD song shortly before the state election in Saxony-Anhalt. The No Angels wore shirts reading “FCK AFD,” while singer Zartmann spoke against far-right extremism, racism and sexism.

The political mood followed a dispute over Alphaville. The band had been booked for the festival, one of Germany’s largest, but organizers disinvited it after citing political statements made at an earlier event. They later invited the band back. Alphaville accepted the organizers’ apology but still declined to perform.

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the most political festival in Germany

Co-organizer Markus Krampe apologized and called the decision “super stupid.” He said he would have welcomed Alphaville’s return because it might have allowed the festival to make a statement of its own. Co-organizer Lukas Podolski defended him, saying everyone makes mistakes.

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What the festival organizers wanted to enforce is censorship

Alphaville singer Marian Gold rejected the organizers’ original position. “What the festival organizers wanted to enforce is censorship,” he told Der Spiegel. “An organizer cannot simply block out certain things because they do not like them about an artist.” The dispute gave the band’s more than 40-year-old hit “Forever Young” a small revival. Tom Gregory, Max Giesinger, Nura and David Guetta all incorporated the song into their sets, and Mark Forster called it Hockenheim’s “national anthem.”

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An organizer cannot simply block out certain things because they do not like them about an artist.