Burg-Waldeck Festival 1968

The Waldeck festivals were the first open-air festivals in Germany, influenced by the French chanson and American folk- and protest songs scene. The course of the festival in 1968 was influenced by the shooting down in 1967 of the student Benno Ohnesorg, the attack on Rudi Dutschke in April 1968, the student revolts and the May '68 movement in France. Extreme leftist youths, including the extra-parliamentary opposition movement founded the "Basic Gruppe Waldeck-Festival 'and demanded a lot more discussion about the content of the songs. Songs of Reinhard Mey and Hanns Dieter Hüsch were in their opinion, too poetic, had insufficient political content. Therefore, their performances were disrupted. Mey was even carried away from the podium. Discussion was considered more important than music. The soul of the Burg Waldeck Festivals was discussed devastated. Despite more than 4,000 visitors - actually too much for the domain - and the more than 51 artists in 1968 caused the downfall of the festival. The Folk Festival was plunged into a crisis, there were debts due to high flight costs for American artists, ABW criticized the anarchist excesses of the event, and the crowds of "bums" left among the population a very negative impression. The 1969 festival, which no longer by ABW was organized but by a Project Group and took place only in September, was the last one. Talking and taking positions on music were now the key for another 2,000 visitors. The posters had the word 'festival' disappeared.