Divided festival: The fusion will probably take place in 2021, but differently

If all goes well, those who have won a ticket will be able to dance at the 2021 Fusion Festival – albeit with conditions, at a higher price and on two different weekends. But to all the hippies who thought it was okay to march next to Nazis on August 29th, the organizers* make a clear announcement: Less drugs and more facts would do them good. In addition, their new allies should just leave them at home or stay away themselves.

Even if it is not quite over yet, it can be said that it was a sad summer. Drum circle hippies marched next to Nazis, who openly displayed their racism, and who were (and still are) in need of culture and subculture, and most festivals, for many the highlights of the summer, did not take place – including the legendary Fusion Festival at the Mecklenburg Lake District. But there is hope for the coming year. The organizers* of the fusion and members of the Dachverein Kulturkosmos have now spoken and announced their plans: If all goes well, the Fusion Festival will take place in summer 2021 – but on two different weekends with 35,000 guests each. That’s half of the guests who are otherwise allowed on the premises.

Fusion on two weekends: Concept with conditions

For both weekends the organizers* want to present a hygiene concept in addition to the security concept. Among other things a mask obligation and on-site corona tests are to be discussed – if there are safe rapid tests until then. In the hangars, closed tents and houses there will probably be no DJs playing and bands playing in the hangars because of the higher risk of infection. In addition, the organizers* are working on ideas and concepts that will make it possible to comply with distance rules on the Fusion site.

In their letter to the guests of the fusion, the organizers also refer to the demo on August 29th in Berlin, where a strange mixture of hippies, esoterics, conspiracy ideologues, neo-Nazis and other right-wingers marched through the streets.

You write: “When we had to recognize in the last weeks who was demonstrating here together with whom on the streets, we got sick to our stomachs. People who seem strangely familiar to us, or who we perhaps sometimes count among our circle of acquaintances or friends, have been demonstrating for months together with corona deniers, vaccination opponents, completely crazy conspiracy fiends, Reich citizens and Nazis of all stripes. The makers of the festival advise all those who marched there to have more facts and less drugs. And that they should decide where they belong: on the left-wing fusion or next to Nazis.

Fusion-makers* against esoteric mask enemies

amit, the members of the cultural cosmos have taken a clear stand against left-wing esotericists who do not shy away from seeking to close ranks with the right.

In addition, they have announced some further changes:

The visitors* have to pay an extra 75 Euro because of the additional costs of two festival weekends – and to help the organizers* and the Kulturkosmos through the current year. Furthermore, the Kulturkosmos asks for donations, because the association, like most other cultural institutions, is up to its neck in water and the government’s aid programs are not sufficient.
The rough plan for the weekends looks like this The program will be vaporized by about 30 percent on both weekends. However, most DJs and bands will play on both dates. However, the organizers* focus a bit more on bands, workshops, lectures and readings during the first weekend with many performances on the Palapa stage, events in the content and almost only ambient on the trancefloor. On the second weekend you can rave on the Trancefloor as usual and in contrast to the first weekend there are Sunday tickets available.
The festival lasts four instead of five days.
All who have a ticket have to decide between November 1st and 14th, 2020 if they want to pay the surcharge and cancel their ticket otherwise. They also have to choose in this period on which weekend they want to go to Lärz, otherwise they will be assigned arbitrarily to one of the two weekends.
All cancelled tickets will be entered into the ticket lottery, which is open to anyone whos registered for the lottery in December.

However: It is unlikely that many tickets will end up in the lottery. After a summer without festivals, probably most festivalgoers long for the experiences that only festivals can offer: Dancing under the open sky and under the trees with loud music, sitting in front of the scenery of the festival grounds after a long night and watching the sunrise, waking up in a tent and getting a hangover breakfast at one of the food stalls on the grounds.

Only few have returned their Fusion tickets

In addition, only a few of the lucky ones who won a ticket earlier this year returned their tickets. Many probably did so in order to provide the members of the cultural cosmos and organizers* of the merger with some liquidity during the crisis. For the same reasons, most people are probably willing to pay more – not to mention the fact that it is logical that two festival weekends cost more than one.

Whether the split festival can take place as the organizers* plan it is not certain, because in the end the authorities have to give their approval. To do this, the researchers must either provide new scientific findings on how likely it is that people will be infected if they do not keep their distance, or the organizers of the fusion must provide a sophisticated concept.

Because especially when one thinks of stages like the Dance Desert or the Tower Stage, which in recent years have often been dominated by dense crowds, the question arises as to whether these stages will be empty enough with half of the guests – measured by pandemic distance. After all, there is no way to prevent a particularly large number of people from wanting to experience a particular DJ or band. Or would it be enough if people did not keep their distances, but danced with mouthguards? A role model could be the “Mild Carrot”, the pandemic version of the “Wild Carrot”, where it was called: dancing with mouthguards. However, a maximum of 1,000 people danced there on five weekends at a time.

Hope that those responsible will find working solutions

Either way, one can only hope that the creators* of the merger will find a solution to such problems and present a good concept that the authorities will sign. This would send an important signal: to the organizers of other major events and festivals, who would then have a role model. But also to the people who already have a ticket and those who might win another one.

They could think in dark, pandemic-pregnant winter hours of the fact that in the summer they might, probably, hopefully sit on one of the hangars on the Fusion, the thudding of various basses and stages in their ears and the many lights, bright colors and people walking like ants across the grounds before their eyes. And the rest could hope that many festival makers* will do the same as the fusion people and find innovative solutions.

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