How a private birthday party became a big punk rock festival
Markus is a requirements manager in the Business Area Engineering IT. He tells us in this article how he came to his hobby of organising a festival every year with old school friends:
Today's punk rock festival Fonsstock started in 1994 as a birthday party with 60 people in Markus' mates' garden. Every year there were more guests and because of the size everyone thought about starting a festival. The birthday boy, nicknamed Fons, gave the festival its name, based on the famous Woodstock Festival.
Over time, the organisers looked for a larger location and in 1999 founded the festival association, which today has about 120 members. After Markus had been a regular festival visitor, he decided in 2001 to become an active member of the association and to take over the responsibility for the water and electricity supply. The festival developed steadily, so that in 2002 there were over 2,000 visitors in Nordenham. After a flop on a bigger site and a break in 2004, the festival now regularly has between 1,500 and 2,000 punk rock fans on the Osterwiese site.
The preparations for the event take a lot of time. So Markus and the other members of the association start planning for next year shortly after the festival. It is important to approach possible bands in good time and to work out a security concept. A few days before the event, Markus and his friends start setting up and securing the water supply.
After the festival weekend, the dismantling of all the event equipment is also on the schedule. No wonder that you are really exhausted after such eventful days. The Friends of Fonsstock are not out to make a profit from the event, but work during the festival with about 80 volunteers in the stalls, in logistics, with band support and other tasks that arise at a festival. For them, the community feeling of the punk rock scene is in the foreground. That's exactly why Markus enjoys organising the Fonsstock Festival so much, because he and his friends are a big and united Fonsstock family!