Though it has been a rather spontaneous short trip to Auerstedt, I really enjoyed being at the festival site and taking part in that huge dynamic of people. What fascinates me still back in Munich is the region’s complex memory landscape: it is there where Napoleon fought. It is there where the GDR finally collapsed some 25 years ago.

Though I tried in vain to interview the busy organizing staff at the site (indeed, they had to work right through to make the whole event happen!), I collected photographic material, short video clips and a few and briefly sketched field notes – in fact, these are all sources I want to bring into article form as soon as possible.

I guess, one of my main interests is going to be this extraordinary entanglement of agricultural landscape and celebration/festivity. In fact, the event takes place at a very small grove of beautiful trees (I still have to identify the species) that is surrounded by the village and vast crop fields, which have actually turned into dust by now due to this year’s extraordinary summer heat.

Do people know about this place before the festival came into being? And what can the relationships between an agricultural landscape and a cultural setting look like?

Source of picture: Auerworld Festival 2015, Adrian Franco (author), 1st August 2015.