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Helge Schneider during a performance in Dresden: "I don't want to give a shitty concert"
Photo:
Andreas Weihs / imago images / Andreas Weihs
Helge Schneider canceled a concert in Augsburg on Friday evening after only about half an hour. Apparently, the comedian and cabaret artist felt disturbed by the concept of the open air beach chair, among other things, he was "unable to establish contact" with the audience, as Schneider announced on stage. "Maybe you can get your money back," he said to the audience - and called the organizer on the scene. This has now turned on a lawyer. The spokeswoman for the company for the festival series in Augsburg and Rosenheim, Birgit Gibson, told the dpa news agency. It is now being checked whether Schneider would have to pay compensation.
Schneider was supposed to give a concert at the Strandkorb Open Air in Augsburg on Friday evening, a festival format in which beach chairs are supposed to guarantee a corona-compliant distance between the guests and where they are supplied with drinks on site.
Almost 30 minutes after entering the stage, the entertainer wanted to leave it again.
“I'm going to break off the beach chair concerts at this point.
I'm very sorry, «you can hear Schneider say in a video.
"I also want to inspire people"
Schneider added: “It's really no fun.
You don't get any contact with the audience, people run around here all the time.
Please understand - under these circumstances I as an artist can't do anything anymore. "
And then there is a sentence about which there has been a lot of speculation on social media about what he means: "The system is simply threadbare and stupid." “System” clearly means the way the open-air event is organized. The comedian and author Torsten Sträter wrote on Twitter: "Wisest: half a Helge Schneider concert is better than nothing!"
In a video that can be seen on Helge Schneider's official social media accounts, the singer, comedian and cabaret artist explains again why he canceled the concert. He would not have known that it would be the restaurant staff; he would have understood that only afterwards. He felt distracted and couldn't keep his concentration long. »I don't want to give a shitty concert ... I also want to inspire people. Unfortunately, I didn't succeed yesterday, «he says and plays a small thank you on his guitar for everyone who understood why he had broken off the concert.
The organizer's spokeswoman apparently sees it differently. "The concept is known to every artist in advance," Gibson said.
Schneider had also already performed at the festival in Wiesbaden.
An attempt by the organizer to speak to the 65-year-old after the abrupt interruption of his show failed that evening.
They would even have stopped serving if Schneider had continued, Gibson said.
So far, the organizer has been waiting for a statement from the entertainer, including how things should go on.
"He was booked for eight shows." So six appearances are still pending.
ipp / dpa