Working letters at ND 5 (2002) by NachtdigitalInstitute for Sound and Music
Oschatz, Börln, Schöna, Cavertitz—welcome to North Saxony. For 21 years, right on the tranquil border with Brandenburg, one of Germany's most high-profile festivals was held here: Nachtdigital.
Summer after summer between 1998 and 2019, the partying went on for two nights (and a bit more) in and around the Olganitz holiday park and education center. This was a chance for people to celebrate a brief escape from the stresses of their everyday lives. Even though a whole armada of music festivals make the same clichéd claims, the Nachtdigital approach was and is revolutionary:
DIY and independent, doing as it pleased instead of following the latest trends, strictly opposed to the neoliberal dogma of growth at all costs—but never lackadaisical or unprofessional. It all meant that the festival had an amazing reputation which kept opening doors that would always remain closed for other festivals.
No one in the early days would have expected it all to turn out like this, and the two people behind the festival probably least of all.
Leo and Michel—they all only know each other by first names—both come from this often overlooked area, one of them from Luppa, the other from Grossböhla. It all began in the 1990s when they used to meet up with other young people from the area at a youth club that consisted of not much more than an old building site trailer. "We were all totally obsessed by this new sound," says Leo. They moved from the trailer into a container and then into a grain store:
"We were 18 years old and spent all our time at parties and in record stores. It felt as if our whole lives revolved around this music. We had already organized a few raves in an old grain store in the village, that we called the Granary Rave. Now we wanted to do something outdoors, without ever having actually been to a music festival. No one in the region had a clue about techno and so we wanted to present the kind of music on our home patch that we always had to travel great distances to hear."
It didn't take them long to find the right venue: in his youth, Michel had often visited the holiday park in Olganitz, and it wasn't long before Leo fell in love with it, too. The name came to them as they went along: the German word for the nightingales that are found there (Nachtigall) became Nachtdigital.
However, it took a while for the festival to turn into a proper music festival. In the early days and years, bands played from the balcony of the main building to the audience down below; the party spirit was created by a small sound system. Gradually, though, Nachtdigital took shape: Steffen Bennemann took responsibility for booking bands; the facilities grew; space was found for a stage and later on even a circus tent, and an ambient aerial act.
The lake at Nachtdigital (with art installation) by NachtidigitalInstitute for Sound and Music
However, because in the early years they only sold tickets for specific days rather than for the whole festival, the event was extremely weather-dependent. People would only make the journey from Leipzig and Dresden if it wasn't raining. Then in 2005 disaster struck: the weather was miserable, and the partygoers stayed away. The festival was virtually at an end.
Others might have buried their heads in the sand, but at Nachtdigital they staked everything on one card: joint festival organizer Leo took out a private loan, and that motivated the core team of 20 people to go the extra mile.
The slogan for the 2006 festival was Long Live Number 9!—and it was a huge success. The festival site was packed, which was why the following year they decided to limit the number of tickets: since 2007, all 3,000 tickets have been sold out every year.
Suddenly people all over Germany (and soon elsewhere in Europe) were talking about a festival that took place once a year in the east of Germany and was fantastic not only for its well-curated program but also for its family atmosphere. Whereas when other festivals sold out, they concentrated on getting bigger, here they always focus on getting better.
The performers rewarded the festival in that they kept coming back, even though other festivals had been paying significantly higher fees for a long time. So the record label Border Community founded by superstar James Holden (Canada) became just as much part of the family as Kompakt from Cologne and of course all the producers and DJs from Leipzig, Dresden, and Jena—and later they were joined by the young collective from Weimar called Giegling.
Nachtdigital also became famous because there were so many silly stories associated with it. As Leo tells us: "One of the legendary years, of course, was when James Holden performed twice, because André Galluzzi's cat had died and he had to go home.
DJ Koze playing ND 6 (2003) by NachtdigitalInstitute for Sound and Music
Or there was the set by DJ Koze in an extremely dusty marquee which meant that the needle kept jumping.
And Erobique, who fell asleep in a dinghy and got sunburn. And then there was a performer from the USA who ran up a 1,000 euro (roughly 1,175 US dollars) bill at the hotel by making phone calls home…"
The festivalgoers experienced all this at first hand, because one of the special features of Olganitz is that most of the musicians also live, sleep, and chill out in the cabins on the festival site. Parties large and small alongside the festival itself are all part of the experience.
For the organizers of the festival, the trust placed in them by the public was one of the main rewards:
"Even though the lineup wasn't announced until after the tickets went on sale, we always sold out. We very much appreciated that trust in us and were very grateful for it. But we tried not to take it for granted and never lowered our standards for the lineup," recalls Leo.
The homemade food and little games that were organized throughout the festival were all part of the family experience. As were the services for people who had perhaps rather overdone the partying; the whole concept of safer use was an important element from early on. As Leo says: "Michel and I were always able to see the problems from the outside, as we don't have any experience of that kind of thing ourselves. Then you see things that other people perhaps don't notice, and that's why it was important to us for people to be able to come to us for help and education. Initially we were skeptical, in case this kind of service created the wrong impression, but the opposite turned out to be true." People who had had too much could recover over a refreshing green tea in a quiet environment and rest in a comfortable dormitory.
Over the years leading up to the last festival, which took place in 2019, they kept trying new things in terms of bookings and equipment: in 2015 they concentrated on B2B combinations, some of them for the first time, such as the legendary meeting between the handsome London-based superstar Ben UFO and Prosumer from Berlin.
In 2018 the focus was on concerts and live moments. And, in between, not only did they start to organize tours to German clubs with friends of the family, but in November 2015 they did a big trip to a park run by a well-known Dutch holiday park company and put on the first Nachtiville there—a project that was completely crazy but suited the Nachtdigital organizers down to the ground.
All the festivalgoers slept in their own bungalows, equipped with saunas and whirlpools. Instead of children splashing around, there were DJs like Job Jobse ripping through six-hour sets, while hundreds of people danced along in their swimsuits. Bass guitars thumped in the bowling alley while the park supermarket aisles were packed with happy festivalgoers day and night. In between, there was an ambient house curated by the Pudel Club in Hamburg—and more than a few after-hours celebrations in private bungalows. For the festivalgoers it was completely mad, and probably for the experienced Nachtdigital organizers, too?
"It was an incredible amount of hard work in a short time, but for us it has become a legend because it showed us that we can also create something amazing away from our Olganitz bubble. Everyone who was involved with it found that very inspiring and motivating. How crazy was it? Very!”
Nevertheless, it was announced that 2019 would be the last Nachtdigital festival for now. It was the end of an era for a team that had been together for over 20 years. But festival organizer Leo is keen to emphasize: "Yes, of course I miss all that, but I'm entirely happy with the decision. It was the right one, and it still is, and it brought that era to an end in the best possible way. It's always hard to let go when something has been so great."
But even after the big goodbyes and the end of the festival, it's not all over. The festival community can look forward to another Nachtiville, this time at the Weissenhäuser Strand holiday park in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. And so it goes on, luckily: Nachtdigital is over, long live Nachtdigital/Nachtiville.
