Open Beatz Festival celebrates a comeback: Ferris wheel in operation despite a fatal accident last year

Created: 08/03/2022 05:42

By: Nikolas Pelke

Nathalie and Veronika at the Open Beatz in front of the main stage with the Ferris wheel in the background.

© Nikolas Pelke

Around 35,000 visitors celebrated at the weekend in Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg at the largest festival for electronic dance music in southern Germany.

At the last "Open Beatz" a visitor fell to his death from the Ferris wheel.

Herzogenaurach – House, Trance & Co: At the “Open Beatz Festival” the techno community transformed the rural idyll just behind Herzogenaurach near Erlangen into an “electro Woodstock” over the weekend.

Around 35,000 visitors celebrated three days and nights between forest, pond and meadow.

Kai and Lisa have fun at the Elektro-Woodstock in Puschendorf near Herzogenaurach.

© Nikolas Pelke

Over the colorful sea of ​​lights of the futuristic main stage, which is reminiscent of a galactic alien castle made of blinding strobe lights, a Ferris wheel made its circles to the beat of the pulsating bass this weekend.

At the last festival in summer 2019, a visitor fell from the Ferris wheel from around 25 meters to his death.

At first it was assumed that it was a tragic accident.

Prison sentence against showman after fatal Ferris wheel accident

Investigations later revealed that violations during the construction of the Ferris wheel were probably responsible for the fatal crash of the 31-year-old Colombian.

A showman was sentenced to 14 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter this winter.

A TÜV employee had previously been sentenced to probation because he had apparently admitted that he had not properly checked the Ferris wheel before the festival.

This time, according to the police, the authorities insisted on closed Ferris wheel gondolas to avoid fatal accidents like at the last festival.

© Nikolas Pelke

This time the police insisted on closed Ferris wheel gondolas

According to Reimund Mehler from the Herzogenaurach police, the authorities would have insisted on closed gondolas this time so that a Ferris wheel could turn again on the festival site in Herzogenaurach, Franconia, when it started again this weekend.

This measure obviously paid off immediately.

According to Mehler, there were no problems at all with the Ferris wheel this year.

In addition, the music festival took place this year without any major incidents.

"We only had to arrest two visitors," said Reimund Mehler, head of the Herzogenaurach police inspection, on request.

A visitor smashed the windows of a car and had to spend the night in the drunk tank.

Another festival visitor, drunk on drugs, tried to sexually harass women and had to be admitted to the nearby district hospital.

Four incidents of assault on Open Beatz

Overall, however, the many festival visitors behaved peacefully.

The police only had to register four incidents of physical harm and two thefts.

Even the volume level was meticulously maintained by the techno heroes on the open-air stages.

At the weekend, however, around 30 callers complained about the loud bass at night.

The paramedics had recorded around 500 missions.

Mainly, according to Mehler, the patients were simply exhausted because of the merciless techno sound.

“The festival is definitely a highlight for our region.

Walking across the grounds really gives you goosebumps,” even the head of the local police department enthused about the exuberant atmosphere at the electronic dance music festival grounds.

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Open Beatz: Around 35,000 visitors from the Elektro-Haus

Only the 35,000 or so visitors were over the moon.

"The festival is just amazing," said Lisa from Erlangen during the performance of "Harris & Ford" on Saturday.

"The main stage is simply megagalactic", Nathalie and Veronika were looking forward to the appearance of "Mausio" at the grand finale.

You can read more news from Nuremberg and Middle Franconia here.