Overview

• Courts rejected a county bid to ban alcohol while upholding a glass-bottle ban and extra stewarding, and organizers registered the gathering as a political assembly after the municipality sought roughly €8,000 in land-use charges.
• The county kept the footpath between the campsite and stage open during concert hours after initially moving to close it over anonymous claims about a protected toad in the nature reserve.
• About 3,500 attendees turned out as the secret lineup revealed sets by Die Toten Hosen, Paula Hartmann and Betterov.
• Founders Horst and Birgit Lohmeyer continue the volunteer festival despite past intimidation, including a 2015 arson attack, and keep artists under wraps to foreground the civic message.
• The Lohmeyers received the Solbach-Freise Prize at the festival’s opening, while legal disputes over fees and other conditions with local authorities remain unresolved.