Fehmarn Love And Peace Festival


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= Love-and-Peace Festival = Memorial to Jimi Hendrix at Flügge

The Love-and-Peace-Festival (also Festival of Love ) was a music festival with a total of about 25,000 visitors, which took place from 4 to 6 September 1970 on the Ostseeinsel Fehmarn at the lighthouse Flügge. On the chaotic event Jimi Hendrix had his last festival appearance before he was on the 16th September 1970 at the Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London together with Eric Burdon one last time live.

Preparations of the organizers
The organizers Helmut Ferdinand (formerly 33, engineer), Christian Berthold (then 28, innkeeper) and Tim Sievers (then 30, VWL student) planned a European response to the legendary Woodstock Festival in 1970. Since the concept of the Isle of Wight Festival was a great success on a mainland island, the Ostseeinsel Fehmarn, which had just recently been connected with infrastructures and tourism, was the focus of their interest. In the hope that some artists of the Isle of Wight Festival, which was held in August, would be able to get involved directly afterwards for their own festival and to exploit the sunshine of the Fehmarn Island, which was valid in September as a weather-proof island, the date was set for 4-6 September 1970.

In order to organize a festival in which 30 to 40 music groups were to be performed and to which up to 60,000 visitors were expected, Fehmarn-Festival GmbH was founded. Beate Uhse gave an advance of 200,000 DM to the organizers and provided her 20 sex shops in the Federal Republic of Germany as pre-sale points for the tickets.

A suitable terrain was found: A 50 ha meadow of the farmer Störtenbecker near the Flügger lighthouse with the 55 existing toilets of the nearby campsite were rented. 100 more mobile toilets were concerned; In the school in Puttgarden a 140-bed auxiliary hospital should be installed. A covered sleeping area for 4000 persons was planned. After a contract with the company Dr. Oetker about the overall catering of the festival did not come, breweries and dairies from the environment should ensure the drinks supply. The German Red Cross should provide a mobile kitchen for the hot meals. Around the festival grounds two fences were pulled and some telephone cells were installed on the premises. The organizers rented for 30,000 DM a huge sound system in England, which with 150 Phon from 32 boxes the festival ground should be. A revolving stage with a width of 20 meters and a depth of 10 meters should avoid rebuilding. The Festivaleitung resided in two stacked residential containers about 500 meters from the stage.

Ten psychedelically painted minibuses started from Kiel to hang 100,000 posters all over Central Europe and Scandinavia, distribute car stickers and sell a festival newspaper printed in six-digit format. Big names such as Ginger Baker , Canned Heat , Sly & the Family Stone , Ten Years After , Procol Harum , Keef Hartley , Rod Stewart, and Jimi Hendrix were to lure rock fans and hippies from all over Europe to Fehmarn.

In the meantime, the company's costs had increased to 500,000 DM, while the total of 600 pre-sales offices had sold only 10,000 tickets of 28 DM each. Some artists, such as John Mayall and Joan Baez, said their participation. However, the hopes of the organizers rested on Hendrix, whose management had negotiated a salary of 70,000 DM and a special treatment (transfers to the festival with a Mercedes, a luxury caravan at the festival site). Hendrix was at the height of his popularity in Germany after the Woodstock film had just started in theaters.

On September 2, the authorities and the organizations involved organized the festival grounds with the organizers and identified major grievances: waste disposal was not regulated, the protection and protection of dikes and roads was not ensured. In addition, disastrous news came from the Isle of Wight, where rowdies had provided riots, and fears were that the troublemakers could make their way to Fehmarn.

The Festival
As early as September 3, circa 4000 of the most popular fans of the area, the area and the utility companies opened their doors. On the night of Friday, September 4th, wind and rain came. 180 rockers of the Hells Angels arrived with their motorcycles from Hamburg, compelled free tank fillings in Gremersdorf, and in Petersdorf with hippies and some Persian students envisaged as folders, a brawl broke out in which four Persians were injured. Probably by the establishment of a threat scenario, the rockers managed to be engaged by the Festivaleitung as a folder.

Friday, September 4, 1970
The day was stormy and it rained continuously. At midday, the visitors crowded on foot to the festival grounds, where they had to pass the "entrance control" of the alcoholic and rocket-armed rockers. People were kicked and mocked, cars with kicks damaged, confused by the visitors brought alcohol from the self-titled "folders".

Shortly before the festival began, Beate Uhse appeared with her three sons, made advertising for her company and gave autograms.

Alexis Korner, who was to lead the fans in German and English in the next three days, opened the concert with a half hour delay at 4:30 pm. Cravinkel, whose performance in sound problems was lost , made the beginning. The Danish formation Burnin Red Ivanhoe followed with a one-hour performance and fought against the storm and the tears of the rain-wet technique. The subsequent appearance of Renaissance had to be interrupted because of technical problems.Korner had the ungrateful task of explaining to the audience the further failures of the evening: the key had to leave because of problems in the schedule, Colosseum was stuck in traffic, and Cactus had not even started. Only the electronics formation Kluster completed its appearance. At around 11 pm, the festival was declared a disappointment.

At the same time, Jimi Hendrix , Ten Years After and Canned Heat, performed at the Berlin Super Concert 70, organized by Fritz Rau, in Berlin, which had been relocated from the Waldbühne to the Deutschlandhalle due to similar weather problems. The Fehmarner did not have such an alternative.

The rockers demolished at night a car of the festival line, which was forced to try to solve the "folder problem": the rockers were paid out and should be removed with buses from the festival grounds.

Saturday, September 5, 1970
It had stopped raining, but it was still cold and stormy. The day began in a peaceful mood, as the rockers were still to be seen singly. Punctually at 12 noon Inga Rumpfs Bluesrockformation Frumpy opened the festival day and enthusiastically inspired the audience for the first time. After the English rock band Aardvark , Ginger Baker and his group Ginger Baker's Air Force with their driving Afrorythmen succeeded in getting the fans in the mood. The following Peter Brötzmann and his band, however, met with their free jazz less the taste of the audience, especially since it had begun to rain again.

Alexis Korner tried hard to teach the fans that Procol Harum and Ten Years After would not perform. The crowd demanded the superstar Jimi Hendrix. However, he had just arrived, tired and tired, at the Strandhotel Dania in Puttgarden. It was decided to move Jimi's performance on Sunday.

The shows of Mungo Jerry, whose In the Summertime was just a hit, and Canned Heat compensated the audience for the wait for the Rocklegende Hendrix. The Woodstock veterans Sly & the Family Stone finished the second day of the festival.

At night, the remaining rookers camped under the stage at a camp fire, which they fired with stage boards. The doors of the latrines were dismantled in the dark to serve the visitors as wind and rain protection.

Sunday, September 6, 1970
The day was clear and sunny, but still windy and cold. In order to bridge the waiting time until the appearance of Hendrix, a few hurriedly booked groups such as Witthüser & Westrupp were on the stage in the morning. Korner invited the visitors to come to the stage in the manner of a happening and to make music. At 11:00 am, Hendrix and his followers met at the festival grounds, where he retired immediately in his reserved caravan. At 12:56 clock time, Hendrix entered the stage under the cheers of the audience and played hits such as Hey Joe , Purple Haze and Voodoo Child (Slight Return) with his backing band ( Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox ) . After the performance, Hendrix immediately left the grounds and broke into London, where he died a few days later on 18 September 1970.

Many visitors also broke as soon as Hendrix had left the stage, especially as the following bands promised no increase.But the following band Floh de Cologne from Cologne - with Politkabarett - got a lot of applause, Limbus 4 and Embryoplayed Krautrock . Before the remaining approximately 4000 visitors, Ton Steine ​​Scherben, still under the name Rote Steine , had their first big appearance. Meanwhile the mood among the 500 voluntary helpers had become more and more irritated. The festival management had delayed the payment of their remuneration more and more until the organizers and the day's bank had disappeared at around 7:45 pm. To the sounds of clay shards " power breaks, which breaks you " the organizing center went up in flames. The police succeeded, however, to get the rebellious mood under control. A few hundred visitors stayed on the square before the festival grounds were cleared the next morning.

After
The damage and damage to the site went far beyond the guarantee sum of 5000 DM paid to the authorities. Overall, the festival was a financial disaster, with many creditors remaining seated on their demands. Especially affected were the German Federal Post (telephone charges and installation costs), rental companies and hotels.

Since 1997 a 2.5 m high red-granite memorial, placed on the site of the former stage, reminds us of the Love and Peace Festival and Jimi Hendrix's last appearance (inscription: "Jimi Hendrix - Fehmarn - Love And Peace Festival - 4 - 6 Sept. 1970 ").