Africa Festival

This year I started my festivalseason with the Africa Festival in Würzburg. Usually it's a four-day festival taking place at the Mainwiesen in Würzburg - celebrating international afro music - but this time everything was different. It was the 25th anniversary of this festival starting on thursday (30th may) and everything began as planned but then the rain came and changed everything.

When I arrived there on friday I found the festivalarea deserted and was a little bit confused until I saw the overflowing river.

I hadn't heard the news of the flood and was kinda shocked as I heard all the details. The whole campingarea had to be evacuated and the festivalarea had to be cleared. There was no possibility for the festivalorganizers to proceed as planned.

I didn't expect the festival to happen under these circumstances and was really surprised when I heard that the concerts were moved to a big hall (Posthalle)

and that every camper had the chance to sleep at a local school till the festival is over.

So I walked around town and photographed the emergency solutions of the festivalorganizers and the festivalvisitors

and then headed back to the Posthalle to take some photos of the concerts and of course take some portraits there.

One of the portraits:

Africa Festival 2013


All in all I think it was an extreme situation which was well handled. The festivalorganizer didn't just cancel the festival but found good solutions for nearly everybody and made it possible to continue the concerts and most of the visitors kept their good mood up and welcomed this new experience.

Stay tuned ;) my next post will be about the Freqs of Nature Festival!