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July 27, 2012

Amphi Festival 2012: Viva Music Review, Jul-21&22, Cologne

Amphi Festival took over Cologne’s Tanzbrunnen for the 8th time! With a very clever choice of acts, and overall perfect organization, Amphi stated once more its position as one of the central events for the electro and industrial scenes. As it often happens, a sold-out event weeks before its start, Amphi Festival provided quality entertainment, very good facilities and considerable fuel for a crowd of almost two score of thousands. With early starts on both festival days, both on Saturday Jul-21 and Sunday Jul-22, the festival comforted the audience with a solid palette of both on the outdoor main stage and in the nearby Staatenhaus, as well as alternative entertainment in the Theater building. If you add to the set of concerts the wide array of stands, facilities, areas (including the famed beach zone), you could have practically spent a whole festival day just digging through bargains and taking your time in front of quite varied meals and still call it a full day. Or day and night! Because after countless concerts in the various venues of the area, DJ sets went on until the early hours of morn. But as a yearly convention of already sufficient stance, Amphi Festival meant, of course, a probe of temperature and color in today’s scene, and if audience reactions stand for anything, we’re all good, the entertainment is still varied, the ethos of the scene is still valid and vivid, people still feel the urge to dress up and make a stand, and the music sounds as good as ever.

 

Viva Music would like to take a minute to thank for the opportunity to be there and enjoy Amphi Festival 2012 to: the flawless clockwork organizing team, to the numberless artists and tech personnel who made concerts happen, and to the beating heart of the audience, which keeps our scene alive and kicking. And if you missed Amphi Festival this year, put these two things down on your to-do list: (1) read our act-by-act review and browse the individual photo galleries; (2) book in time your Amphi Festival 2013 experience: with tickets already on sale this coming week on Aug-01, and the first acts to be confirmed on Aug-13. Amphi Festival 2013 will take place on Jul-20 and Jul-21 in Tanzbrunnen Cologne. (more…)

March 21, 2012

In terms of musical variety, Amphi Festival 2012 stands out a mile

Amphi Festival 2012 news keep on coming, and we are very happy, since it’s one of the events we are really looking forward to this summer. Musical diversity gives the extra finishing touches to the superb lineup of the festival. Already announced, The Sisters of Mercy, And One, Eisbrecher, Blutengel, Apoptygma Berzerk, Project Pitchfork, Combichrist, Camouflage, Front Line Assembly, DAF, Mono Inc., Corvus Corax, Nachtmahr, Assemblage 23, Solar Fake, 18 Summers, Coppelius, [:SITD:], Haujobb, Stahlzeit, Seabound, Aesthetic Perfection, A Life Divided, [X]-RX, Tyske Ludder, Whispers in the Shadow, The Other, Eisenfunk, Schoengeist, Lord of the Lost – and many others. Today’s news? Three more acts, and what acts, if we may say so: mind.in.a.box, Love Is Colder than Death and Eklipse – the latter being the name of the seductive quartet, which loves to clothe contemporary pop music and soundtrack elements into a fascinating dress of compelling classic string sounds on our Theater-stage. Without vocals, yet even more emotional and spiced up with an extra portion of sex-appeal, the four ladies interpret songs by Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Hurts, Depeche Mode and many more, cunningly flavored with a magic note of dark-lascivious romanticism, wit and dreamy melancholy.

Also in the news today:  Amphi Festival warmup parties – they are numberless! and great occasions to meet other Amphi enthusiasts, plan your trips and get in the mood for the festival, if need be. Apr-07: Paris, Apr-08: Amstelveen, Apr-14: Brighton, Apr-28: Stuttgart, Apr-28: Thessaloniki, Apr-28: Antwerpen; Apr-28: Karlsruche, May-04: Manchester, May-05:  Northampton, May-09: Wuppertal, May-12: London, May-16: Heidelberg, May-19: Krefeld, May-19: Zuerich, May-19: Vienna, May-24: Duisburg, May-25: Bonn, May-25: Bielefeld, Jun-02: Frankfurt, Jun-02: Essen, Jun-02: Augsburg, Jun-03: Dresden, Jun-09: Bonn, Jun-09: Bremen, Jun-16: Siegen, Jun-21: Oberhausen, Jun-22: Athens, Jun-29: London, Jun-30: Ingolstadt, Jul-20: Cologne.

Tickets are available via the Amphi ticket shop under http://amphi-festival.de/tickets and also from http://protain-ticket.de, as well in all German CTS/Eventim box offices. For further information please visit http://amphi-festival.de and http://Facebook.com/amphifestival.

February 29, 2012

More Great News about Amphi Festival 2012!

Great news from the organizers of Amphi Festival 2012 – the Orkus Open Air festival – the list of confirmed acts is getting an irresistible contour. Band suggestions were volunteered by festival fans as well, and in the end the new and replacement bands that make Amphi Festival the event to be at on July 21&22 at Cologne’s Tanzbrunnen.

Apoptygma Berzerk, The Cruxshadows, Spiritual Front, The Wars, and Spetnaz are some of the new names that are added to the already gorgeous list of acts that will keep you beaming for two days: The Sisters of Mercy, And One, Eisbrecher, Blutengel, Project Pitchfork, Combichrist, Camouflage, Front Line Assembly, DAF, Mono Inc., Corvus Corax, Nachtmahr, Assemblage 23, Solar Fake, 18 Summers, Coppelius, [:SITD:], Haujobb, Stahlzeit, Seabound, Aesthetic Perfection, A Life Divided, [X]-RX, Tyske Ludder, Whispers in the Shadow, The Other, Eisenfunk, Schoengeist, Lord of the Lost – and many others.

Tickets are available via the Amphi ticket shop under http://amphi-festival.de/tickets and also from http://protain-ticket.de, as well in all German CTS/Eventim box offices. For further information please visit http://amphi-festival.de and http://Facebook.com/amphifestival.

July 20, 2011

Amphi Festival 2011 – 16&17-Jul, 2011 – Viva Music Review

 

Day One | Day Two | The Aftermath


Amphi Festival: Day One, Saturday, July-16: General Review | Mainstage | Staatenhaus

General Review

The fact that this year’s Amphi was going to be a success was obvious from the very beginning: people teemed in large numbers, and arrived to the venue earlier that last year. This meant that the first act, [X]-RX had an impressive audience for a first act on the main stage. A breathtaking experience, the 2011 edition of Amphi Festival made us yearn for next year’s festival already! And, as a side-note, given the enthusiasm and size of the audience, Cologne’s Tanzbrunnen may prove pretty soon to be too small a venue for such an excellent event.

Compared to 2010, the number of 2011 participants was significantly higher – a reason to the point might be the diverse lineup – from electronica to gothic, and from noise to darkwave – add to that the excellent entertainment offered in-between, the 100%-giving, outgoing performances of all acts, and needless to say, the tireless, party-oriented audience – all contributed to the overall success of the 2011 edition of Amphi Festival.

Participants at Amphi Festival 2011 (Day One) – photo gallery (more…)

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