No. 7: 4-6 July 1997

Some love it, others found it terrible - the concert of the Pakistani hip-hop-agit-prop group Fun <Da> Mental in Heinepark divorced the spirits. Many were offended that they had missed Bela Fleck and a similar anger was mounted for the appearance of Chandralekha and her ensemble - the Indian woman is the local counterpart of Pina Bausch. Among the indisputable positive surprises of the festival were Berrogüetto from Spain and the Breton Erik Marchand in collaboration with the Romanian Taraf de Carancebes. India was the 50th anniversary Country in Focus, the Magic instrument was the saxophone, and the Folk Award was won by Trio Keychain (before Aquabella and Schnaftl Ufftschik). Like any top product, the festival survives by word of mouth, and actually no longer needs advertising, this is the best kind of image building, Thomas Spaniards observed in the Ostthüringer newspaper, and formulated the decision in the festival teams minds that posters were superfluous and only a limited amount would be required as a reminder of the date (excluding the flyers and advertisements already in the relevant publications and clubs). Otherwise, the most important point of the feel-good factor of the audience, was confirmed by two young men in a survey of festival goers: Actually, we hate folk, but we have been invited by friends and did not know what's going on here. What do we like? Why, many women of course!

 

For seven years Rudolstadt has been acquiring a cult status similar to Roskilde and Glastonbury from Folk fans all over the world. (Hendrik Lasch, New Germany)

The Rudolstädter Festival overcomes, and this is its appeal, the boundary between bourgeois people and, alternative folk music. (Jan Kuhlmann, Westfalenblatt).