After the premiere in 2019, the second Kessel Festival opened on Saturday: It offers two days of music, sport, culture and sustainable ideas.
Four adults and three children? “No, two adults and five children! The others are still small too.” Well, when two families who are friends from Stuttgart go to the Kessel Festival at the Cannstatter Wasen, you have to expect teasing. That doesn’t bother four-year-old Neea. She was just pulled by her father on a snowboard on a belt on a reel aka riglet reel through a parcour. “Great!” she says and laughs. “Especially the hill!” Before that, they had been to “handball, baseball, football – she enjoys sport,” says her mother Denise. Natalie, the other mother in the family double pack, nods. It is “absolutely mega” here.
The two have a criticism. They were there on time for the opening at eleven o’clock, but were only let in at 11.40 a.m. “The organizers can’t help it – the Office for Public Order had to take the place. Then you wait with the kids in the heat.” Otherwise, everything is great. “Lots of sports and other things to get to know!”
concerts and sustainability
The Kessel Festival describes itself as a sustainable music, sports and culture festival on the Cannstatter Wasen, in the Reitstadion and on the Neckar in Stuttgart. Also present: stars, sports clubs from the city and region, initiatives and more. While music acts such as Silbermond, Joris, LaBrassBanda, AnnenMayKantereit or the Orsons are popular on the main stage over two days, a newcomer contest is on the culture stage or DJs set the tone on the playground in the riding stadium, everything revolves around the day after tomorrow market sustainable living. There isn’t just a clothes swap party or second hand and vintage for 40 euros per kilo at Vinokilo. Pro Familia also educates and informs about aid projects, for example in Bangladesh or at “Children First”. You can also find out how new garden areas are created in cities or how the economy for the common good works. Peter Jakobeit from the initiative confirms that the Kessel Festival is a good setting for presenting the topic.
This diversity is well received, especially by young visitors. “Great mix” mean Anna, Laura and Lina, who came from Reutlingen because of AnnenMayKantereit. They are also impressed by the 16 young winegrowers from Stuttgart and the Remstal, who offer their wines under a circus tent in the “young wine village” – and that there is free water when it’s hot. Long queues formed at the fire hydrants on Saturday afternoon, especially at the entrance. “Fill up the water bottles,” said one couple. “There could be more hydrants. But it’s good that it’s there at all.” They also praise the many buckets for separating waste and recycling the dance carriage. Others like that some booths and seats are made from recycled materials and pallets.
Many stations invite you to join in
According to the organizer, 12,600 people are at the festival at 4 p.m., 50,000 are expected. They are not only distributed in front of the stages, information and food stands, but also at sports and art stations. At the street newspaper Trottwar you can make sculptures out of stone or wire accompanied by the artist Murat Taskin. If you have smaller children, you can practice balance games with them at the gymnasts – or do handicrafts at the creative stations of the Stuttgart youth center in the riding stadium. There, the Circus Circuli invites you to join in, or a make-up station tempts you. There are also those for the grown-ups: In front of the Beauty Lounge on the Wasen, some are waiting for a make-up.
A large audience gathers around the slackliners, who show their tricks – jumps and somersaults up to seven meters high – on the elastic band: The Trickline World Cup takes place at the Kessel Festival. After all, from 2007, slacklining, as practiced by millions of people today, was carried out into the world from the Stuttgart basin thanks to Gibbon founder Robert Käding. There was also a storm of enthusiasm at the motocross ramp at Germany’s first E-Freestyle Motocross Show. The Swiss Mat Rebaud – world champion and overall winner of the Red Bull X-Fighters – shows backflips, somersaults and more on a machine with an electric motor.
“I want to do that too,” exclaims eight-year-old Max, who came from Fellbach with his mum and grandma. But he is also interested in ball sports, such as practicing baseball with the Stuttgart Reds. With the Stuttgart Silver Arrows, some boys and girls try their hand at throwing or – running at figures over pillows – tackling à la American football. “At the festival we can present our sport and win new fans,” emphasize Nico Plapp and Finn Hansen, who have been involved in the sport for several years. Dennis Krug, who has been a “rookie” for a year, enthuses: “I’ve never had so much fun in a sport.”
In the early evening it gets crowded on the Wasen – because of the concerts. “We were with canoeists on the Neckar, tried bag jumping, street racket and stand up paddling. Great at the temperatures! And watched the beach volleyball players, part of the national ROCK the BEACH series – awesome,” said a mixed group of four from Tübingen. They want to be back on Sunday. “Keep watching volleyball,” is confirmed. A young woman emphasizes that she then also wants to see the “Best of Streetdance-SHOW Baden-Württemberg 2022”. “With dance crews from all over Baden-Württemberg.”
