The Wacken Open Air in Schleswig-Holstein is considered a festival of hard sounds. Now a band is performing there that has dedicated itself to the cozy Cologne mood song - the Höhner. A culture break? The band doesn't think they'll be chased out of court.
Wacken/Cologne (dpa/lnw) - Before their first performance at the Heavy Metal Festival in Wacken, the Cologne dialect band Höhner has no fear of alienation from the audience with their music. "Music is a language of its own that everyone understands and that's why we're not worried that the audience won't be able to do anything with our music," said singer Patrick Lück of the German Press Agency before the planned concert. In addition, he emphasized, the Höhners not only have many different styles of music in their repertoire - but also "one or the other High German hit".
The band, which regularly brings festival halls to a boil in the Rhineland with swingers like "Viva Colonia" and "Die Karawane Moves On", is scheduled to perform at the legendary Wacken Festival on Saturday (11:11 a.m.). The panorama that will be offered to the musicians is likely to be a little different than usual. The natural habitat of the Höhner are carnival stages with confetti rain. In Wacken, the dominant color is usually black. However, musicians from outside the heavy metal scene have also performed at the festival in recent years, such as Heino.
Are the Höhners excited? "I think it's more of an exciting tingling and a mega anticipation for this fantastic festival," said singer Lück. "It's a kind of accolade for us to be able to perform there."
But it is also clear that there will be no experiments that are too large. "Of course we weren't booked to play our songs in a metal or hard rock style in Wacken, but to do exactly what has made us the last 50 years," said the musician.
