It was purely a precautionary measure: at the “Parookaville” electro festival in Weeze on the Lower Rhine, the gig of the popular Cologne band Kasalla was prematurely cut short.
Weeze – The appearance of the Cologne band Kasalla on Saturday evening at the electronic music festival “Parookaville” in Weeze (Lower Rhine) was canceled by the organizer because of too large a crowd of spectators.
“It was very full and very tight,” said the police spokeswoman from Kleve, Manuela Schmickler, on Sunday of the German Press Agency. “But there was no panic, no one climbed over fences or barriers. We had a view from an elevated position with our forces,” she said, emphasizing that the police did not break it off. The WDR and the “Rheinsche Post” also reported.
We wanted to prevent worse
On the other hand, the organizer decided “prophylactically” to end the band’s concert after a few songs due to safety concerns, as event spokesman Philip Christmann told dpa. “In front of the relatively small stage, there was a combination of large crowds of fans and through traffic from other visitors.” In addition, Johanniter forces had already treated some guests in the area with minor injuries. We didn’t want to take the risk that something worse might happen.
According to police spokeswoman Schmickler, the demolition was not mentioned at a later briefing. However, the organizer wanted to change some organizational processes. As a reaction, the organizer moved the performance of the currently very popular singer Mia Julia on Sunday from the small “Brainwash” stage to the second largest festival stage.
“It hurts that we had to stop after less than 3 songs because there were just too many of you in front of the stage, but safety and health always come first. Thank God you are all doing well!” wrote the band Kasalla themselves on their Instagram channel on Sunday. “Dear @parookaville! It was probably the shortest gig in our history, but definitely one of the most energetic. Thanks for hugging us like that!”
According to the organizer, Europe’s largest electronic music festival “Parookaville” on the site of the former military airport near the Dutch border began on Thursday. By the end of the festival on (today) Sunday, the 12th anniversary of the Loveparade catastrophe in Duisburg with 21 fatalities, the organizers expected a total of around 225,000 visitors over the four days. Around 300 artists performed on more than ten stages. dpa
