Ow! That were my fingers.
I hate these tent poles.
I prefer those ones. They are rapidly put together and then gone.
The dirty bags of shit, they’re the worst.
When the sun’s been on them for a few days... nice...
I need it. I need to get up early in the morning and to put a shift in.
Then at night I know what I’ve achieved, fall into bed and fall to sleep.
The alternative is wasting away all day, doing nothing and waiting for the next pay cheque – no thanks!
- Did you apply?
- What for?
- For the job here?
- Nah.
I mean sort of, I suppose.
Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.
A bit of conviction is what it takes.
You need to show that you can work well and say what you can’t do.
What good is some joker who doesn’t get it?
Someone you have explain everything 10 or 20 times to – no way!
- But this is a completely normal company here, with a boss and everything, right?
What does normal even mean these days? Nothing is normal.
Apart from those aliens in the ‘real world’, who just create their own shitty rules,
although they don’t have the rights to do it.
House, yard, garden, great…
nice ride, sweet yacht, whatever…
Nah...
This is just fine for me – more than enough.
More often than not, less is more.
Alright Krücki?
Everything dry already? Not coming apart, no?
I like it this way – it’s how I want it.
All is great.
Back in a minute, off for a pee.
Nah.
It's just amazing.
Work
1. An activity which produces results or achieves a purpose. “To be a lot of work for someone”.
2. Activity as a means to earn income, to be employed. “To go to work”
Of course, we knew that it was a rather unstable matter.
And that the cultural use of 14 hangars in open fields without neighbours sort of sounds like a free space,
like an adventure playground, where anything and everything goes.
And that’s how we thought we could approach the planning process.
We’d draw a line around the whole area, paint everything orange, and write “Special Cultural Site” on it.
Then we’d give the place a name and submit a draft of a plan
with the option that Kulturkosmos could do basically whatever it sees fit around here.
That didn’t work…
That’s sort of the weakness of the building laws.
They just can’t handle such a basic-use project.
Instead they always think: to build means to build something new,
to develop an area, to invest big and leave a big footprint somewhere.
It was pretty difficult to communicate to the authorities that we pretty much didn’t want to do anything with this space.
We didn’t want to change anything.
Ultimately, it’s artistic ideas that should shape the space.
And that should be allowed to do so.
Here’s my hair bobble!
Hold the tension!
Right, let’s do it. Ready: one, two, three...! Hair bobble!
I’ve got it, I’ve got it, you can let go.
Where’s the rallying cry?
We need some help over here!
The People’s Front of Judea.
When we stand here, it becomes clear, what we we’re working for.
At last!
At last, we know.
It took a bit for us to realise.
It’s a great thing of course that the festival produces a relatively safe income to allow us to do things like this here at all.
Obviously as a non-profit association, whatever we take in as revenue is legally required to go out again.
We can’t just say that we’re going to do something else with it –
our statue outlines cultural activity and youth work
and that is where the money has to go to.
We have the aspiration to open this place for others to use it all year around.
We created our own building company – with all the bells and whistles –
just temporary for a few years because it’s obvious that,
given our extensive building needs, there’s no point contracting others to do it.
So we’re doing 70% of it ourselves.
Yeah, I reckon 70% is probably about right.
There’s a real clear hierarchy in the building trade:
The architect leads the planning and the coordination and everyone else follows his or her direction.
Here it’s of course very different.
Here everyone works across all levels in partnership with each other.
The classical working order is secondary here.
The handrail, for instance. Now that’s a tale.
When I drew up the plans for the balcony here,
I drew the handrail of course and specified that it was angled so that the rods had to be made of this round steel
and of course drew them vertically.
When I arrived at the building site I got a right shock.
That’s Kulturkosmos for you.
Someone draws something, gives the measurements, bish bash bosh.
And they are welding suns out of it.
You have to expect that here.
I could just stop them or ...have they done it?
Walling up a pentagram. I think they did it, right?
- How long have you been working on this?
- In total on the mirrors? For about two weeks.
- And what is it?
- Disco balls.
- But those aren’t balls.
- Yeah balls are pretty boring I think.
I’ve done a skull and stuff.
Together it’s a massive CHIUUUUUUUA
The process is really exciting for me.
I learn a lot here.
I am constantly involved in things that I haven't been in touch with before.
I haven't spent the night here either... There's the sunrise!
My whole life consists of new learning and broadening my horizon.
I am so penniless that I would never have the means to buy a house.
But I have the opportunity to build a house for the association.
That is something that I enjoy more than other tasks I have to fulfill for Kulturkosmos.
That brings me to reminding you to uncover the concrete element.
We need to uncover the concrete element? Which one?
The artistic one.
I moved out and into a squat when I was 18, 19. And there we were trying out new ways of living.
I’m from a working class family with middle class aspirations.
And had a Christian-fundamentalist upbringing,
and five siblings and a detached house in the suburbs and… so kind of typical really.
I think my father felt at the end of his life like… Well, at the beginning, it was like “I do everything wrong".
"I won’t amount to anything and I’ll wind up in the gutter”.
Looking back many years later, I think he ended up thinking I did something right that he didn’t.
That I had a very fulfilled life and he asked himself what he could or should have done differently.
What did he do?
I guess, his family... He was a white-collar worker in a factory for 30, 40 years.
When we were young, we always said to him: “You and your company are just as capitalistic as all the others. They just use you”.
And he never believed us until they fired him.
That was his family.
At some point when you’re 50 or so, you notice... that you’ve got much less time left on the clock.
That question of what value material goods have when life comes to an end.
And you can’t buy everything with money, of course.
I think that makes a lot of people stop and think.
I reckon I would have just taken any small or part-time job.
I just wanted to leave home.
When I was 14, I went to Rechlin to the shipyard to a restaurant,
where I cleaned and cleared up other people’s crap.
The working environment didn’t suit me there any more though.
I was just used and messed about.
So then I came here to the Kindergarten in Rechlin.
My dream was always to work with kids, but hey:
Having dreams doesn’t mean they’ll come true, I always say.
Then I applied in Retzow as I was on benefits.
And when I asked more in the interview, they said it was Kulturkosmos.
Oh god.
Shit.
Okay, well go take a look.
And when I went for the first time, I thought:
“Get out of here. There is no system. It’s just complete chaos.”
But then I spoke to Eule… and I thought he was pretty cool.
No prejudices. You could just be as you were.
And then I started here and I was the happiest person ever.
And my family was really happy. It all just clicked.
That was the hangar! We made it!
- holiday communism instead of turbo capitalism -
I don’t really like the term “holiday communism”,
but it does feel a bit like a holiday camp.
And it takes people out of their usual routine and structures.
I think it’s a lot about community and living together.
At the end of the day, that’s something a lot of people are missing.
They live alone; do lots of stuff on their own.
And this “time being with other people in the same place and working on a joint project“
is something a lot of people are missing.
Karl Kutter.
I’ll push it later.
You have to give yourself some time.
I’ll be busy for another five minutes and then I have to do something else for ten minutes.
ThenI’ll sort it out.
It really started from this thing: opening up space for creativity, togetherness – all that hippy stuff.
And this two-week set-up phase. That’s what we do it all for.
We get together and work on projects together. You build something with other people.
And at some point it looks great.
That gives you such a high to know that everyone is enjoying looking around and saying:
“Wow, there’s just nowhere I don’t want to look.”
This creative aspect of life, it’s a really deep need to search for ways to express our individuality.
And these statements are constantly being made here and create pleasure.
This is the “dance desert”.
Before there was a meadow here.
But at some point everything was drowned here and so we replaced it all with sand.
So since then it’s been the dance desert.
And this year, as you can see, we’ve built a universe.
The universe wasn’t created in a day.
The planets were slowly built, and then we put them up in stages
– first forwards and then up.
That’s what it looks like when I do sketches of it all.
This one is now being used as the blueprint for the construction.
These are all drawings that have got a bit wet under the tent...
This one is a more detailed sketch of what the sun will look like.
These are earlier sketches of how you might build it.
But of course, it wasn’t possible to have it with such long beams.
But then this idea is relatively close to how it’s ended up now.
I was here two times as a "normal guest".
And then I thought that actually it is much nicer here before and after the Fusion.
Then I wrote an email and asked if they need more Fusion helpers.
And said what I can do and cannot do.
And then had a missed call. Then called back Monday.
Punker then said: Cool, you are an electricity expert.
We have two ghettoblasters here that don't work anymore.
Then I repaired them and also old GDR lamps.
And then they said: "Now you are an electricity crew."
- Come in Lego, this is Luce.
- This is Lego, go ahead.
- Have you got the list with our diesel inventory. I’d like to make the order.
It's in front of me. I am in the second backstage kitchen.
- So there’s the line for the cars – that’s also where the THW is.
There’s a giraffe and that where this Honda generators should… There’s also a pedestrian line.
That’s near the airfield tower where the people arrive on the shuttle buses.
And there are one or two wooden huts there, too.
- Exactly. But there’s also a giraffe here. Or does that need to be switched off in the day?
- That's all a bit unclear to me at the moment...
So I had this time when I had really a lot of freedom,
but would work now and again on jobs setting up exhibition stands to pay for that lifestyle.
But then I had this moment when I was building an exhibition stand for a manufacturer of guided missiles.
I thought: “Wait a minute. I’m here financing my hippy lifestyle by building stands for arms manufacturers."
"That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
So I made a decision that I only wanted to work on things where I believed in the ideas behind them.
That’s not so easy to define.
I’ve just not worked within those other structures for years now.
I just don’t see the point in putting my energy into them.
I see living as being out there and using the skills and energy I have as a human to good effect –
so I would see it as a waste to put my energy into something that I’d didn’t enjoy and believe in.
I started working here years ago and was given the opportunity and materials to work on crazy building projects.
We’re a festival. In the beginning, there were also less rigorous checks on the structures.
I built towers, platforms in the trees...
For a certain reason or a certain purpose, I could build a temporary structure that was also a bit crazy-looking.
And it was great because it was crazy – an extra step there, or make it go up and down again.
This opportunity to create a space where things don’t follow a purely functional logic –
they just need to be fun and stimulate you a bit.
That’s what makes it crazy – that’s it’s creative. Something new.
I trained as an engineer and was all set up to go into planning.
But then I decided against that as the content of the work wasn’t for me.
And then it was at that point that I found pleasure in festivals.
When we do the smaller things, that are much more important to me.
Like when we go to the beach.
We get there, build something for a few days and then take it all down,
collecting up the cigarette buts from the sand.
So that afterwards there’s nothing left to show that we were there.
I think that’s a really healthy and healing dynamic in a society that is so focused on accumulation.
Where we build more and more, structure and stabilise everything, create more borders...
Here we want to incorporate the deconstruction into the project.
That means building something, knowing that it’s not going to stay.
But that it is just for now.
-Where are we now?
-In front, no behind the job centre.
-So it needs painting. The floor needs doing.
There need to be shelves, somewhere to sit in the corner, a sofa, a clothes rack, coffee machine...
And there then there will be two desks where before there was only one.
Check in and check out.
-The people who want a job?
- Hello. Yes, they come here, get registered, get briefed and are then sent out.
Then we welcome them back and pay them.
- Woah. Have you just eaten the cake? You didn’t save it?
- That’s our new intern.
- He’s got lovely long hair.
- We might be able to find a job for him.
- Ronny! Pizza!
Would be good.
- Hi!
- I’d like to get something to eat. It’s that way, right?
- Yeah.
- What stage are you at?
- Hangar stage.
- OK. Tonight Dritte Wahl are on. That’s gonna be great.
Have you requested enough people from the job centre?
So that you also have some spare people to help?
- Come in Job Centre, this is Susi.
- This is Job Centre, go ahead.
- Have you thought that you might need to send a lot of helpers for Dritte Wahl tonight?
So here we are in the job centre, which we set up in the year 2000, I think.
The idea behind it was that we wanted to have a festival that we did for us and with all of us,
together with our guests. That was the one idea.
The other was that by giving the guests a chance to work at the festival,
they could be part of it and feel invested in it.
And it gives them the chance to work back some of the money
that they gave to the festival through their ticket.
And that enables the festival to cover certain jobs –
for example, supervising the generators, giving out the programme and rubbish bags at the wristband stand.
Then they get €40 from us.
On the one hand, we need that as we pretty much organise this festival on a voluntary basis and,
on the other hand, we want people to feel part of the festival they’re at
and that they contribute to making it happen.
Of course, a product of that is the massive network that has built up over the years
and which is also evolving outside of the festival.
Lots of different groups – political, cultural or whatever –
get to know each other here.
They chat – that might be personally or through their job or a project.
It is a place where people meet, get to know each other and establish long-term connections –
whatever form they might take.
It’s like that in the world. If you have money, you have opportunities to make things happen.
When you don’t have money, you can also get things done – it’s just often that it is harder,
the road is longer, the process is more taxing, painful, whatever.
And it might mean that you can’t really realise your ideas to the full,
because some part of the process is stuck or you get tired of it all and have to stop.
That’s why it’s the case that if you have money, you have time.
You have space and you have possibilities.
In the beginning, every one was excited about this project and was happy to work voluntarily.
But then it got bigger and bigger until we needed more and more people to help make the festival happen.
And then we came to the point where we said: “Okay, we have certain financial incomes.
And no one wants to take them home with them.
So we’ll distribute it on a basis that means that people can realise their ideas, their projects, their passions.
That they can make these things reality that would otherwise not come to be.
You’re all groups that also do all this in the context of your political or association’s values,
and are also motivated by wanting to support your own projects.
And we’ve been thinking about what you do and contribute here, with the set-up and the programme –
at the end of the day, this festival lives because of you.
And last year we gave for example €300,000 back to the groups.
We know that we want to support the groups.
We know that for many groups, we are an important source of additional income.
For some we are their main source of income to keep their projects going.
So we definitely want to support that and we are all behind the idea.
Perhaps we should also say again that we have a mutual and interdependent relationship here.
The festival massively benefits from all the work and energy you bring here and what you put together.
The festival could not be otherwise – what it is and how it is has developed into what it is today.
So at this point I really want to say once again: Thank you, thank you, thank you that you’re all part of this,
and that you bring all your power, energy and vibrations here to make this festival what it is.
People who are able take responsibility here also do it.
As a rule, no one really stops them.
Otherwise, we live in a world where people tend not to be interested in taking responsibility for things.
And I think that is something that Fusion really lives from.
That there are a lot of people here who are prepared to take more responsibilty for things than they need to.
No one here thinks along the lines of: “I’m only the stage manager” or “I’m only the designer” or “I’m just this and that”.
People here look beyond their own work and think about how they can help.
- I don’t believe that anyone here carries all the responsibility, which is great.
Even Dave – even if he plans everything, he is still reliant on the rest of the team.
As we tend to say: You have to take the measurements during construction.
And that’s when it starts.
The blueprints for a building aren’t enough on their own.
So we work hand-in-hand with one another.
The structures that I know always have a "leader" in one way or another.
And for me that is a kind of logical consequence, because there is always one person that had the idea.
You always have this kind of root where everything started.
But I think you can deal with such a postition in this or that way.
You can consider it as a position that you strive to overcome.
Or you work yourself into a position where you constantly think that you are irreplaceable.
"Dare less Eule"
The democratic ideal requires responsible citizens, requires people to take responsibility...
For example here, very often we hear't: "Eule, the alpha!"
It took me a while to get it, but I got it: Without subjects, there is no king.
There is also something developing around Eule or past Eule. Not everything is Eule.
The guy hasn't done anything else for 15 years,
he's been putting 100% of his energy into this for 15 years.
Of course there were always other people who did a similar amount...
I mean, in the end, all these creative processes are about ego
and of course there are crazy ego frictions, permanently,
that alone would be too much for me...
But there you go again.
There are a lot of people who find it far too exhausting, they don't want to do this.
That is why there is no culprit here, it is simply a very fundamental social issue.
Then there would be a way out.
Otherwise, it would be possible if there were real discussions,
if there were real spaces in which everyone could participate,
but that is...
A good friend of mine has just the term holiday Stalinism...
so this is the danger that the holiday communism becomes the holiday Stalinism...
but I think Eule will also learn and realize that it is also about giving up ...
and that the others must take over.
It’s always loud and dusty.
Yeah, this is our metal workshop.
Since 2014, it’s just been the metalworking workshop in here.
The wood workshop has now moved and has its own area.
Here, we work on everything that involves metal.
For example, we build steps, everything that has to be stable for lots and lots of people.
We do all the planning, assembly and everything here.
- Morning Captain!
- I need nails, short nails.
- Short nails...how many?
- Just a pack...
- That’s what I thought. Short nails. 2.5 kg – that’s 3000 nails. What are you planning to do with them?
- We have to cover something in material. So we probably only need 50 to 100 nails.
- That sounds better!
It’s not looking great...
...with the nails.
- What’s your name?
- Sailor.
- Sailor. Ok, then let’s do it like this...
I always say the workshop hangar is better than any DIY store.
As we have all the standard stuff, but then we also have loads of unusual things too.
We try to be tidy, but we’re also a bit punk and a bit rock ’n’ roll.
Sometimes there’s a beer bottle flying around.
But we try to be orderly at least in what we’re doing.
When people are into punk and whatnot, and they have a problem with structures and so on,
then that can cause friction.
But overall...
I’d say that 95% of the people here are really passionate about what they’re doing
and want to do it for Fusion and the festivalgoers.
Everyone tries to do good work and puts a lot of emphasis on safety.
And that has been an important change in the last few years.
That people get that organsiation, safety, the budget questions and all that...
that that compensates a bit.
Things that were totally in Nirvana up in people’s heads before...
Now everyone concentrates more.
You can tell and I think that was a really important change in people’s mindset here.
There’s a light crew, an IT crew, and this year a pyrotechnics crew, I make the sketches,
and everyone’s thinking about what kind of things they can technologically improve and how they can pimp things up a bit.
Over the years it’s become more and more organised and planned.
There were years where it was just getting more and more stressful and everyone was plugging away until the last minute
and of course this can lead to friction within the group.
That and due to the organisational problems, food being scarce because there were too many people again.
In order to escape the cliché that there’s a difference if you’re part of the logistic crew or take care of the utilities...
in these areas you have different scopes of work or claims.
And what Susi calls Mischpoke are people who work in completely different areas.
They are collectives who have a certain potential for chaos
and - very often because of their creativity or artistic spirit - lack a certain structure that of course we need here to make it all happen.
That’s the difference here in comparison to the logistic crews.
The moment I achieve some sense of order, where I set limits so no chaos ensues.
Well, then there’s no room for chaos.
What is chaos? Chaos is uncontrolled, chaos is actually what excites us!
So it’s what’s cool.
If everything is calculated, it’s completely tedious, no fun anymore,
and exactly these kinds of spaces live of the fact that there can always be a little more chaos…
but it’s been society’s direction for hundreds or even thousands of years to regulate more and more, more and more and more and more
and because of that we lose our creativity, spontaneity and emotion. We’re just bored to death.
- The emails kept going for a bit so the rule was lifted about what the opening day is about.
We actually wanted to decide that today.
Not sure if it’s clear for everyone or not…
- For years now Wednesday has been a day of programme.
What’s changing is that we’re having a bit more partying and concert as part of a more demanding programme.
We’ll just have to ackknowledge that there are developments of such a festival that we cannot fully control.
And when you look at how other festivals as big as us and with such a story behind them have lasted for 20 years and more,
you see they all started with 2 or 3 days and now go on for much longer.
It’s probably not because they all say: “yeah, cool, we want to do more – we want a longer festival”,
but rather because there are logistical constraints in the development of such a huge event.
60,000 people want to come, they all want to come as early as possible, and everyone has to get in – somehow.
And then only when they are all in can everyone relax. And then the party starts.
We have to manage this process somehow.
Everything has to take on a lovely little spot and that itself of course has its limits.
As you quite rightly said before, we found the right limit in 2010.
The right number of crew, visitors, those without ticket too.
It’s a big topic this year.
To make it all come together well: that the number of people in the area is right for the days of the festival.
We’re talking about a small town of 80,000 people bouncing around here.
All this has to take place in a sensible way.
For all fusion guests who have just arrived at the platform: Welcome to Neustrelitz!
Please follow the signs to the tunnel, just follow the Fusion-Shuttle signs.
When you come out of the tunnel, just go straight ahead, just follow the construction fence and get in line.
The best would be that everyone who wanted to come, could and they each paid what they wanted.
But sadly, it’s just not possible anymore.
We don’t have the infrastructure for it and we don't have the power to do this anymore.
At some point there is the end of growth.
People tore their hands open and even lost fingers trying to climb the fence.
Last year we were so preoccupied with driving around the fence perimeter shouting at people: Don’t do it!
Please don’t climb over the fence. Don’t do it because you don’t have a ticket, but don’t do it as it’s really dangerous and you can injure yourselves.
There was not one person within our team who was like: “Cool, double fence! Cool, let’s get watch towers. Security lights, brilliant!"
It was actually the point to ask ourselves: shall we just leave it?
No one wanted it, no one wanted to do it.
We come back the point again and again: to what extent shall we let this play out?
And to what extent can we represent this and stand behind it?
But knowing at the same time, sure, we can spend all the time in the world criticising ourselves and just going:
it’s all shit.
But what are also the options we have?
And then there were the debates in the groups which took the line of: “well what options do you think we have?”
There was a lot of criticism and then the question: “How would you implement it?”
And then it turned more often into: “hmm… ok.”
And the people who work outside here didn’t really criticise it much. That’s always the thing:
if I work in the bar in here I don’t hear what’s going on with the fence.
But what everyone notices is when it’s overflowing with people and completely full,
and when the whole place is bulging.
It’s then that the at some point the atmosphere is a lot more stressful and tense.
Yeah – luckily an engine for the region.
Where’s the bad in that?
I hear time and again the accusation of commercialisation from people who don’t understand that growth is not commercialisation.
But it annoys us as well.
We’d also be happy if only around 50,000 people wanted tickets and no one more.
The crews all do it voluntarily and to support their projects.
And they do it once per year and you can’t do it any more than that.
You can’t really do it bigger.
And if you have to say: “Nice, there are 30 of you now and you can work in a three-shift system and achieve a lot more,
well, it’s perhaps not their perception of those working for Fusion.”
- Sascha listens.
- Are you around?
- Svenno, that's you?
- Here is Svenno.
- I'll come around.
- Super.
- Hi, we’ve just had a call from the main wristband container saying they’ve caught two girls with loose wristbands.
I have the wristbands here. The two girls are outside.
- Right, send them in.
- And you’ll take care of it from here.
- We’ll take it from here. Great. Fine. Thanks.
Thanks again.
- Hello there!
- Hi!
- Are these your wristbands?
- They are.
- Where did you get them?
- From a colleague. A guy I know, and his wife. He said he couldn’t come. We picked them up yesterday.
- And then you bought them. What did you pay?
- Fifty euros.
- Fifty…
- He probably wouldn’t have got rid of them otherwise.
- Alright, listen up. This is something we have to look into. Of course we’re annoyed that someone is selling our wristbands.
- Naturally I’m interested in who exactly you bought them off. You’re going to have to tell me.
You said it’s someone you know.
- Like I said. Last week someone hooked me up with him because he had some wristbands.
- Who hooked you up?
- You just said you met him at a party. Now you’re saying someone hooked you up.
- I met someone at a party who told me about it. I mean... I don’t know. I heard on Facebook that he definitely still has some wristbands.
- So what now?
- Well, that’s up to you. Whether you throw us out now, or…
- The festival is sold out. People have been searching for tickets for months.
- We did enter the draw for tickets. But we didn’t win. Somehow you never...
- I can’t simply let you in now. I think you can understand that.
- Fusion office here, hello.
Fine by me. See you later.
- Over to you. My suggestion is that you do a work shift.
That’s the only way.
- What do you mean, a work shift?
- We have a Supporter Care team, where people check in who want to help out.
And that I would suggest to you as well.
If you’re not up for that, you can leave.
- No problem.
- But you have to commit to it. Not just yeah, sure, whatever. You each have to work a proper shift, otherwise...
- So how does it work exactly?
- You’ll walk up there with someone now, register with your phone number and your other details.
So now you need to wait outside and I’ll ask someone to escort you.
- Ok. Many thanks!
- Could you escort the two ladies to Supporter Care, please? Tell them they need to work two penalty shifts.
- Penalty shifts, really?
- Yes. In a manner of speaking. Then they’ll know the deal. Would you do that?
- Sure. If you give me the key for the water storage.
- Sure, when you get back.
- What?
- Fusion office here, hello.
- We’ll be on our way in a minute!
- Shall I help you unload?
-Yes, please!
And you can put that bottle of schnapps away...
- I’ll be back in 5 minutes.
- No... did you drink it already or what?
- Of course.
- Forget it then, stay here. You’re a fence guard, you can’t be doing that.
So. You’re all from the Duck group? Take it easy.
No pushing! Hop in! I can’t take you all at once.
I’ll make two trips. Or three.
Okay, one after the other. Hop in please. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10..
There’s room up front too. 10, 11, 12...
Everyone from the Duck group! Duck group for a 6-hour shift? Perfect!
- Hail to the bus driver!
- No one’s done that before!
We’ll check them in now that they’re here. They’ve registered already.
Now I’ll take them there and drop them off. Then they get one of these nice little cards.
And they only get their cash if they bring this little card back after their shift.
If they lose it, go off partying or get caught hanging around somewhere they haven’t been posted, they’ll lose their wristband
and not get paid.
- Felix for Ronny?
- Receiving.
- Felix, you said something about rain ponchos. Do you remember where they are? Or have they all gone?
- They are still there?
Your job is to guard the fence from the corner over there, next to the white container - or the white caravan.
See it?
From there to this corner over here, this fence is yours for the next 6 hours.
No one gets in or out past your fence. Got it?
This is the direction things have been moving at the Job Centre.
Two years ago we had over 6,000 shifts to allocate, to organise, to supervise, people to check in, bring to their posts, pay them, check up on them now and again…
The way it’s been developing, people who are looking for a ticket have just been taking advantage of the Job Centre as a way of getting in.
So we’ve had an incredible number of people simply not turning up to their shifts, to the point that it was getting ridiculous.
In any case, what we’ve lost along the way is the voluntary spirit.
People who aren’t concerned about financial reward, but are primarily here to give something back to the festival that you’re here to enjoy.
And we cannot reach the firebrigade right now as they are on their way.
The fire service is just arriving at the backstage area with several vans.
- We urgently need more people to direct the traffic!
- Try to get your own people out there! We have other problems to deal with.
Wake your own people up, please!
We cannot contact the first aid helpers.
We have an injured person on camp B1.
B4!
They have to come to B4.
Please come to B4 where the fire service is standing.
I want to know how many people are moving over the field, I want to know where critical zones are,
crazier zones with potentially dangerous shows, as we sometimes get here. Shows involving a lot of fire, for example.
I want to know where there are any bottlenecks.
All of this is crucial to know.
Because emergency medical care is all a matter of time.
You have to estimate how much manpower is needed, how many doctors.
You make certain calculations... For example, there's an extremely low risk of panic breaking out on this site.
Extremely low.
Simply because there's so much space.
Besides, everybody here looks out for each other a little bit. That's a rarity for a festival.
So if you see someone lying there and not reacting, the organisers have been preaching for years
that you should look out for other people, see how they are doing if you get the feeling they're in a bad way.
And people really do it.
There are dark nooks and crannies all over the site. And the night is long.
If festivalgoers weren't looking out for each other, there would be some patients who we simply wouldn't find.
- What’s going on now? Is the power out?
What was that about the phase?
- Sorry?
- About the phase?
- I’m not sure. I didn’t catch that. I wasn’t…
- Did you catch that?
- Didn’t you hear? The power went down for “Our Darkness”.
I can’t believe it. What a time for a power cut. Did you hear that?
- We’re down one phase.
- We only have one phase here.
- Only one phase here?
- You’ve got two.
- So, what’s phase?
- Get people down from the hangar please.
- Is the power down all over the site or do you have an overview?
- You can stay in the Workshop Hangar.
- You can come to the Job Centre.
- Channel 3 to the office, it’s blown over, we’re starting again.
- It’s out of fuel!
- Which one?
- This one, the one that’s been running for so long.
- It’s at 40 amps now.
- To explain to the viewers why our camp looks in this post-apocalyptic state, we built a kind of massive… a kind of trailer park,
and we’re the idiots who’ve been left to look after the mess.
- There were 40 of us here at one point.
- But I think, for the simple reason that they hand out free garbage bags at the entrance,
you can give that back and say:
“Here, you don’t have to do all the work and pick up my chocolate wrappers.”
- But it’s not an equal exchange. They could say to me from the start: “Take all your garbage with you.”
- Okay, so now I’m telling you: “Take the garbage with you!”
- Why? What about the locals who are happy to get some work?
- Well then you have to drive around the festival site and look at all…
- Have a look at all that tiny plastic crap! There’s no way you can pick it all up.
Not on such a huge site. So it will all be spread around the local environment…
- We could agree to meet up in the street every week now to clean up the street.
It’s a crime against the environment.
Unfortunately that’s how it is.
But that needs to be made clear to the festivalgoers.
A word about me: I’m René Muchow. 32 years old. I am the operations manager of ABG.
We're right on top of the landfill here. We've reached the 30m summit.
This is where the waste from Fusion has been dumped for 16 years.
This garbage will probably – no, definitely – stay here forever, unless someone comes up with something,
for example, to dig it out again, the whole body of waste.
Maybe to retrieve all the metals. Maybe to turn it into fuel.
Maybe we'll open it up again sometime. Who knows?
Maybe in a hundred years. Or even longer. We'll see.
Well, the alternative scene is paying more and more attention to things like the environment, broadly speaking.
If you listen to their views, they should be used to doing things differently.
But I don’t believe alternative thinkers are the only ones who attend.
You get all sorts. I don’t think it’s particularly alternative any more, is it?
I could be wrong, I’m no expert, but...
Sara, you got a minute?
So I wrote the beginning and then we can go over it together.
I brought in the fusion-free year: The rumors are already going around and some sparrows have already whistled it from the rooftops.
Those who are busy full-time with festival planning have been running at the limit for years.
We want a year in which not one festival chases the next, in which we don't have to start something new, while the last one is not even finished yet.
A year in which we have time to re-organize among ourselves, also to intensify the contact and communication with you, the groups.
- I think that's pretty cool. - Is it?
Next item is Supporter Crew: Besides the registration for the ticket raffle, the registration for the Supporter Crew will start these days.
The idea for this project came from the question of how we get there,
that the fusion receives so much support that it can continue to be realized in its size, versatility and beauty.
We started thinking: how much longer can we do this? How can we afford to keep the festival going at this size?
And for the kind of project we're running here, there should really be more voluntary work.
So then we thought it would be cool if people also had the chance to pay nothing for their ticket and simply become a part of the crew.
What's really crucial for us is that people's voluntary work is appreciated.
But our project, the Fusion project, also deeply relies on it. So what we're attempting to do now is to take voluntary work a step further,
and you're now a big part of it, along with the Supporters themselves.
Right. It's also my expectation that you'll be able to tell us that we have an idea of how the merger will go.
What's going where.
Hopefully, in 4-5 years, we'll be down to super reliable people who'll do their shifts and be totally buck-wild and come back.
Flower, flower, flower...
- This feeling of “I’m not on out here on my own, you didn’t simply leave me here for 8 hours to fend for myself…”
Because maybe I'll stay ten minutes longer than the eight hours because I know: "Ok, the person will definitely come get me."
- We’re all one festival, everyone takes responsibility, and I’m not blowing my own trumpet because I’m from the Supporter Crew.
Or any crew for that matter…
- I would like the flow of information to be improved…
- So that people realise when it’s getting too much and say something in time.
- Solution-focused communication…
Transparency belongs up there too!
I can definitely feel a sense of calm again. It's cool to have this space back without all those thousands of people.
As a culture, we're programmed to follow a certain logic.
And if we don't overcome this logic, nothing can change.
We've learned a certain way of ordering the world around us.
And that's what we do.
You see it in everyone. For example, when people have children you suddenly see programmes kicking in that weren't relevant before,
but now they have children they start doing precisely those things they hated to see in their parents.
And there's nothing new anymore in terms of social discourse.
We’ve been programmed to an extreme extent.
What we haven’t quite grasped yet is that if we don’t engage in active deprogramming,
if we’re not looking to actively dismantle the whole thing…
Look! There we have this building up and dismantling theme again.
All we’ve been doing is building up!
So you do an internship here, a degree there, then a master’s until you’re 30, 40.
We learn, learn, learn. But it’s not learning, it’s programming. We keep on programming.
And we think it’s making us competent, which is ultimately not the case...
The sky’s even nicer over there...
If free minds work together, things can change.
But since we’re hardly free in the first place, even those of us in the Résistance, who see ourselves in opposition to the old system…
If we don’t start the transformation from within – and that means using precise language as we communicate on a daily basis –
less violence, more respect, all the things we know already, we’ve all heard it all before.
But so long as we’re not acting it out, nothing will change.
I think one of the most exciting directions for us – as hyper-civilised people –
is decivilisation, de-structuring, less industrial and more animalistic, in a positive sense:
I move around when I build something myself.
If I grow my food in the garden, I’m also moving around and I don’t have the problem of getting too fat for lack of exercise...
Yeah – there they are, the animals!