Freakstock is a Christian Alternative Festival organized by the German JesusFreaks and held in Borgentreich Germany. Freakstock started in 1995 and was held in Wiesbaden but since 2009 in some old barracks in Borgentreich. The festival presents many varieties of Christian music, workshops and seminars. But the festival has more activities to offer including paintball, a soccer competition, tattoo artist, different shops, art exhibition and more.
It was our second time to attend the festival. Last time was a year earlier in 2010 and I must say I liked the line-up from that year a little bit more. But this year had also some interesting artists. Freakstock started Wednesday 3 Augustus. We drove from home around 16.00 and we arrived around 19.30. We had a ride of about 2 and a half hour. But we ate some delicious “Brattwurst” and potatoes on our way. 🙂
When we arrived we set our tent and made everything ready for a long weekend camping. We had a nice quiet place but everything was close enough. After we were ready we were a little bit too late to follow the main seminar. So we explored the festival ground a little bit. After that we danced a bit in the “Knüppelkeller” which is a basement painted with allot of awesome graffiti. In this basement there are DJ’s playing there music every night (mostly alternative electro, drum’n bass and dubstep) from around 21.00 until 4.00 (2.00 on this Wednesday). Around 01.30 we went to our tent and called it a day.
Next day we started with a workshop from the ‘Christian Peacemaker Teams’ about the situation in Iraq and especially the Kurdish people. This was very interesting and opened my eyes to things I didn’t know about.
After that we ate some and went to a service held by the JesusFreaks from Munster. The music was really funky and most of the people seem to know the songs but we didn’t. The sermon was about keeping our eyes on Jesus. This was also the whole theme off the festival. “Kurs auf Jesus” which means: Course on Jesus in a term mostly used on ships. (Explains the artwork a bit)
After some pizza we went to see Burning Nations a very young hardcore band from Germany. This was in the “Turbinehalle” a gym changed into a concert hall. It wasn’t very crowded but the band played a nice show for a beginning band.
So now we went to JFI room (Jesus Freaks International) to see the Psalters playing an extra intimate show. It was lovely to see the headline act play in such intimate setting. The JFI room is a place mostly run by Dutch people so it was nice to speak some Dutch and they had some nice cheap coffee! 😉
UP!Great was next on the mainstage (Herzstuck). They did really surprise me on a positive note. I had never heard from this band from the Czech Republic. They played an awesome set of female fronted alternative hardrock.
So now it was time for Doyle a French post-hardcore band. I saw them in March with The Chariot. So I did know what to expect a little. The band played with allot of passion and energy. Maybe the singer should focus more on his clean vocals than all the energy and stuff. Because they were pretty off key most of the time.
Icon Clan the band from Miika Partala and Janne-Jussi Kontoniemi from Deuteronomium. While they play Death ‘n’ roll in Deuteronomium it was now time for Punk mixed with Rock’n Roll. They played a awesome set and the audience went crazy. After some dancing with DJ Kenny Mitchell from the UK the first full day was already over.
We started the Friday (after a breakfast) with a seminar/discussion about power structures and mostly power structures in churches. We did focus on a type consensus decision making and how to adopt that in churches. https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/
In the afternoon we did some shopping in the nearby town. After that we decided to start the day calm with Jonas David a singer-songwriter from Germany playing at Mainstage. I prefer to see such bands in a smaller venue but it was nice. About An Author was next. They play post-hardcore in the vein of Underoath.
After their show we could pick some song from the set of John Coffey’s guitarist Borgaard. Who played in a full “quiet ‘n’ riot” (a barrack where most of the calmer bands played).
Stay Strong was next in the “Turbinehalle”. This no nonsense hardcore band from Germany played a nice set. Then we saw some songs from Triplet a female fronted punkrock band from Portugal. This wasn’t really our thing. So we waited for the first real metal band. Thy Bleeding Skies, a doomy death metal band from Germany. They played an awesome set and allot of people where banging their heads.
Psalters was next in a crowded “quiet ‘n’ riot”. Everybody was dancing and it was just an awesome show. Now back to the “Turbinehalle” for the show of Today Forever. One of Germany’s best hardcore bands. They did an awesome job. Everybody went nuts, screaming along with the songs. At the end they invited everybody on stage for the last song. It was an awesome ending of this Friday at Freakstock.
We started the day early with the Turbo Hatchet Worship Band playing there worship set on Mainstage. They play worship in metal style which is awesome! After that we did attend a seminar from Alan Nord about the theme of the festival focused on praying and caring for each other.
In the afternoon Listener was planned with extra set in the JFI room but instead Wilukas from the band Lingby was playing. He did a great job but it would have been cool to see Listener play. Then John Coffey played a short set of acoustic songs. One new song, a cover and two from there debut album. After that we went to our tent because a storm came over. After the storm we had some food and it was already time for FORYOUMYDEAR a hardcore/metalcore band from Germany. Their show was really awesome. Especially at the end when the played two cover songs. One being How He Loves from John Mark Mcmillan and the other one Tithemi from the latest Sleeping Giant album. The crowd went nuts everybody was screaming along and the stage was full with people.
The Psalters had the privilege to end Mainstage this year. Another great show with fire dancers at the back of the field which added to the great atmosphere!
Feel the Aftermath was next in the “Turbinehalle”. This Norway band played there very last show. One of their guitarists went to vocals. This was a big difference from the last time we saw them on Nordic Fest 2010. There old style fitted better.
Next we had to choose between Dyst (a Norwegian hardcore band) and Listener. We went to see Dyst because Listener plays also on the Xnoizz Flevo Festival some weeks later which we also went to. Most of the people went to see Listener. So it wasn’t really crowded. But never the less Dyst played an awesome set. The crowd was a bit tame but the band went totally nuts and did everything to get some participation. It was an awesome show from these young Norwegians.
The next day the festival was ended with a sermon. After the sermon we packed our tent and went to home.
Overall we had a great festival with a lovely atmosphere, awesome people, nice food and some in depth seminars/workshops. Last year we went to see the bands mostly. But this year we had a more full experience of the festival and it really did not disappoint. Until next year!
Weblinks: Website
More pictures can be found HERE
