Music festival planned in Lost Place: Residents frustrated again?

The electronic music festival “An Extraordinary Event” wants to turn the old sewage treatment plant at Oldenburg Harbor into a dance floor. But some residents are unlikely to be happy about that.

Oldenburg – Since 2021, the old sewage treatment plant at Oldenburg harbor has been turned into a dance floor twice. After a year’s break, it will be back from September 13 to 15, reports the Nord-West-Zeitung (NWZ). 17 DJs from different genres “from house to techno and trance to disco” are expected to create a great atmosphere.

Numerous visitors dance to electronic music in a former sewage treatment basin during the “An Extraordinary Event” (EAE) 2022 festival. © Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa

In recent years, up to 1,000 visitors have danced in the plant’s disused sewage treatment basin, into which wastewater from Oldenburg flowed until the 1990s. The electronic music festival is now set to take place again in this “lost place”, a forgotten place that is no longer used – with the support of the site owner and approval and funding from the city of Oldenburg.

But this may not please all residents.

Music festival planned in Lost Place: Local residents criticise – “taken into acoustic hostage”

At the last edition of the event, in 2022, residents from the Donnerschwee district had already complained about the noise, reports the NWZ. In a letter to the editor of the newspaper, one affected person spoke of “unbearably loud bass” that lasted from Friday and Saturday from 2 p.m. to 5 a.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

“We have been used to a lot of noise in Oldenburg for years, but this commercial event, partly sponsored by the public sector, was the worst,” wrote the resident. “To be held hostage to the noise like that for three days and nights” was truly outrageous.

It remains to be seen how residents will react this year. The organizer had announced that there would be street food stands next to the dance floor in the sewage treatment plant during the three-day event. There will also be large tents to protect against sun or rain.

Various light installations and video art will ensure that “Extraordinary Event” lives up to its name.

The largest rock’n’roll festival in Northern Germany also took place near Oldenburg.