Amphi Festival 2012 in Cologne

I spent the weekend in Cologne, an interesting city where the locals seem to have a voracious appetite for Kölsch, the peculiar pale ale served in tiny glasses.

But Cologne gets even more interesting during the annual Amphi Festival, where 16 000 visitors dressed in black are invading the German town for an overdose of electronic music.

The first day of the 8th Amphi Festival started with a party in Alter Wartesaal, the old station waiting room at Hauptbahnhof. There may have occurred some consumption of Spießbratenbrötchen, but denial is policy.

The Tanzbrunnen area featured several stages and lots of merchandise. The sunny weather invited for spending hours at the beach club, situated next to river Rhine.

Unter den Svampen.

Some of the favorite concerts were DAF, Project Pitchfork, Combichrist, SITD, Seabound and Spetsnaz. Unfortunately Front Line Assembly canceled their planned gig to work on the upcoming album, but instead we got former member Rhys Fulber with his side project Conjure One.

I also had a look at Sisters of Mercy, Apoptygma Berzerk, Camouflage, Blutengel, The Crüxshadows, Corvus Corax, Nachtmahr, Eisbrecher, Coppelius, Mind In A Box and more.

Black day at the Rhine beach area.

To rest my ears for a while, I walked across the beautiful Hohenzollern Bridge, crossing the Rhine river. It is the most heavily used railway bridge in Germany, since it connects Köln Hauptbahnhof and Köln Messe/Deutz stations. It was also one of the most important bridges during World War II, until destroyed by German engineers during the Allied assault in 1945. The southern sidewalk was crammed with love padlocks that seems to fester on bridges everywhere.

Hohenzollern Bridge.

Had a look inside the Kölner Dom, the largest church in Germany. Construction began in 1248 to store the remains of the three wise men (Melchior, Balthazar and Gaspar), brought from Milan by the Roman Emperor Barbarossa in 1164. According to legend they had previously been stored in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, brought from Palestine by Saint Helena.