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Nature One, Germany's Burning Man Like Huge Camping Party with A Bonus 2 Day Festival At a Former Nuclear Ballistic Missile Base
Yes, the title is a mouthful, but Nature One is a lot all at once, so I had to capture that :)
Welcome to Pydna Former Ballistic Missile Base!
Pydna had Nuclear-equipped MGM-1 Matador, MGM-13 Mace, MIM-14 Nike Hercules and BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missiles.
Nature One Part 1: Huge Campsite Burning Man-like Bring Your Own Party
The reason I mention Burning Man here and below, is because many parts of the Nature One huge Campsite reminded me of burning man. The amount of things people brought to build multiple thousand sound camps and fun little camps definitely brought back that feel for me.
Joining an existing campsite (in my case F12) on thursday, didn't really work well. There was no indication I could find on the map on which road to take to enter each side of the festival and campground. After starting from the wrong side, and being sent around, the other side sent us to a long not much moving line to the wrong campsite (F12 was full by then, and everyone was in line for another location). The main thing that was not ideal is that there was no one to direct traffic and help people get to the correct site.
camp ticket checking was efficient
people didn't really know what to do
As we got closer, one of the security guards told me we would not be allowed to drive towards F12 where it was located, because F12 was full, that was non negotiable and we had to drive back out. I didn't really take no for an answer and eventually they let us through. From there, we made it to United Nature One pretty quickly.
This is were I have to express my sincere gratitude to United Nature for being so kind as to invite us in their camp (which has been going to Nature One for almost 20 years in a row). Niko, aka DJ of Silence, was super nice and helped us out with a tent onsite, which really helped.
I did bring a few offerings which are legal currency at burning man ;)
My original plan was to stay at a hotel 30mn away (not counting driving in and out, no idea how long the daily lines were), but they rightfully convinced me to come a day early and camp, as the campsite was really a significant part of the party, and that sure was true.
United Nature had a very nice setup:
very useful camp kitchen during the storms especially
hiding from more rain :)
I did bring enough chargers to setup a couple of charging stations for everyone
private toilets
real generator to power the stage and the entire camp
and it was a big crew indeed
also well setup for food
big team :)
The United Nature one stage was actually really impressive:
the camp was filled with DJs, including some who played trance. Yeah!
smoke bubble machine
smoke machine
LEDs and lasers
lasers in the rain
but yeah, it was lots of rain at times
it was a real nice setup even if it got quite muddy later at night
What was unexpected is all the camps and parties at the campsite, that some people never even went to the festival. After setting up, went for a walk to see some of the other camps, of which there were many. Walking the entire campsite end to end would probably take 1h, although the central parts had all the sound camps and end to end was about 30mn:
as I mentioned, the area is big
lots of smaller camps, almost burning man-like. Bier Garten!
also lots of drinking going on ;)
Snow in July ;)
it does stretch out quite a bit :)
lots of games were centered around drinking somehow ;)
K@noc, was the only camp I found outside of Nature United, to have a nice selection of trance DJs. Much thanks to both :)
woohoo, a whole day of trance, but it was indeed rare
Many camps looked similar to what you'd see at burning man, but without the corrosive playa dust:
The one thing is despite the many many camps, most of them, played techno, techno, and also techno :)
The camps did keep going at night of course, some literally went 24/7, especially some next to where I slept :)
The campsites had toilets and water of course, and other things like:
for pay showers
vending machines
drink options if you didn't bring your own
water delivery for camps
the campsite had food vendors that thankfully accepted real money (although you could bring all the food you wanted to your site)
one great thing they had were 3 cell towers from the 3 major providers in Germany. Cell coverage was excellent despite an estimated 50K people
ample medical help, and they seemed busy :)
this was a pre-set camp for people coming by bus
lockers
While Parookaville was busy preventing use of gas and solar generators (which basically means solar panels and batteries), even preventing batteries that were the size of what I use for my outfit (and are allowed on planes), Nature One allowed all of these and even had a full bigger battery rental setup:
89E is not bad for power power stations and replacements all 4 days
Part of the time was spent hiding from the rain, which thankfully did not hit during Nature One festival hours themselves:
Since the whole place did become a muddy mess, they did cover some areas with hay to make it more bearable:
Since it did rain a fair amount on Thursday and Friday, so I was able to hide in camp, and used the time to fix broken bits of my outfit :)
did fix my LED shoe, but it was so muddy, I never actually used it
Somehow rain did not stop people from shooting personal fireworks from the camp :)
some were quite good
While it's clear that some people never left the campsite, but for those who went to Nature One, you could get your festival wristbands, as well as load up some of the fake but required festival money on said wristbands (more on that later)
you could top up from machines, or on your phone
adding money was easy, of course getting back the leftovers, a lot lot less. Shocker! :(
With all the fun happening at the campsite, it wouldn't be difficult to forget there is an actual festival (running from 20:00 to 06:00, or 18:00 to 08:00 if you go for extended hours):
let's go from here
to here :)
There was a fairly long walk from the campsite to the festival (or twice as long or more depending on how far you were camped):
it's unfortunate that they didn't find a way to open the festival on the side closer to the campsite
eventually made it
Right here, I need to state that just like campsites, 80-90% of the music was some kind of techno, hardcore, hardstyle, or acid. I realize that there are lots of kinds of techno, but given that I'm not a huge fan of techno, some of the nuances were lost on me ;)
Thankfully there was one psytrance stage, and a bunker that played some trance mostly on saturday:
Hi Talla 2XLC
And Alex Morph
Also got to meet Ed Lynam who closed saturday night
The festival had lots of food options, putting aside the fact that they didn't accept real money:
unfortunately way too many people still smoke in Germany and those lovely people were there pushing cigarettes as hard as they could ;(
extra needs were taken care of :)
Mainstage actually played various kinds of music that were other than techno:
The highlight cool factor-wise was of course all the former bunkers with huge concrete blast doors, where nuclear ballistic missiles were stored and could be taken out and fired within minutes in case of need:
how cool is this?
Also each bunker hill had stages on top:
Sunset was late, a bit past 21:30, but Nature One went all night:
definitely took work getting up and down
All in all, many stages to get around:
Thanks Talla for the trance
Day 2 had fireworks, but those were sadly a huge waste of time, barely managed to stay on a steep hill and wait patiently for fireworks that were shot behind the hill, so I was barely able to see them. Sad :-
So after wasting all this time for a fireworks show that was mostly not visible, went to see the rest of Alex Mprph who played great trance:
Soon after that is when Paul Van Dyk played mainstage. A nice mix of trance and some techno to make the Germans happy :)
Hi Mom :)
PvD's set where I'm visible a few times :)
And after PvD, finished in the Heaven's Gate bunker for more trance (well, a mix of trance and techno):
Videos Summary:
Instagram Videos Summary:
How did this compare with other German Festivals, i.e. Parookaville?
Getting in and out of Parookaville was bad, even if you biked, there was a required shuttle with huge lines
I never went to the Parookaville campsite, but I know it's nowhere close to N1 in terms of fun and party. They have a long list of not allowed stuff, including generators and even solar generators that are as safe as can be. They even restrict USB battery packs to what can fit in your pocket (mine barely do, but I have very big pockets)
Parookaville festival was 3 days vs 2 for N1 but of course N1 wins by far on all the campsite parties
Both festivals require unnecessary fake money with cumbersome refund procedures
N1 did not require privacy invasive personalization and denying entry on perfectly valid 500E tickets like parookaville did
Parookaville had so many silly rules like disallowing camelbacks or any water container except their 0.5l pouches that failed and leaked, but they did provide free water inside while N1 did not.
Parookaville had fewer stages but they were of better quality
N1 wins by 1000x due to the coolness factor of the venue :)
N1 wins by plenty on the burning man-like campsite atmosphere and all the parties, that was unique and very enjoyable
So there you go, hope this helps and clearly for me N1 was a winner.
Thoughts/Conclusions
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it was August in Germany, but it was quite cold. Thankfully it didn't rain during the actual Nature One Festival Hours:
So, what were my thoughts? I'll start with what wasn't ideal:
Weather was poor, everyone was prepared for rain and mud, but doesn't mean those were fun. I didn't even bother using my LED shoes in all that mud, and my LED pants are covered with mud I'll have to carefully clean at home. Thankfully that was the last festival of that trip. Yeah, call me sheltered and afraid of rain, that's fine :)
The required fake money BS. Sure, it's not parookaville joke plastic money, but it's still a completely unnecessary system that I am convinced is geared against the festival goer more than help. "Cashless" they call it? It's too bad that I don't have cashless plastic cards in my wallet already or a phone that can pay to tap for almost 10 years. This really has to go, but it won't unless enough festival goers complain loudly.
Unsurprisingly, just like virtually every festival that does this, getting your unused money back is somehow manual and designed so that enough people don't bother and lose their leftover money. As I write this, no one can get their money back, they have to wait long enough that some amount will forget. Sigh....
On the upside, security at the festival entrance was pretty lax, so it was easy to bring your own food and drinks but that was definitely against their rules. I'm totally fine with having to buy food and drinks onsite, but allow pay by card and phone.
I unfortunately have to add that they did not make drinkable water available inside unless you bought some. Ironically there were huge containers of water to wash your hands next to the toilets, but it was marked as non potable. Of course, now you have people drinking it anyway and taking their chances. That's probably the most disappointing thing on a festival that got so many things right. Come on, this is not Lumi, you are better than that Nature One...
no drinkwater it says, and since they didn't provide another source, people drunk that
They had a pretty useful app, but it was all in german. It's Germany, so it's not like I should complain, but mentioning that thankfully Google Pixel can translate graphical apps by scanning them and translating their output. That helped a lot.
Sadly one of the messages I translated was the one who said to go climb the hills to better see the fireworks, not saying that the fireworks would be half not viewable if you were on the left hills and not at the top of them. I guess I know for next time now, but it sucks to have mostly missed the fireworks after patiently waiting 40mn for them :(
but back to positives, the festival was super permissive on what they allowed. In the campsite you could bring anything you wanted, even fireworks in the campsite, hence the burning man feel I mentioned
festival entrance was also quick and painless, no huge lines and security was pragmatic and looking for real threats. Good for them.
it's obviously not a trance focussed festival, I guess Germany is mostly about techno nowadays, but if you knew where to look, there were other kinds of music, although that was a lot of walking to go find them, almost as much as EDC Vegas :)
More generally there were around 15 stages at the festival (even if 1/3rd of them were small in bunker holes), plus probably over 30 in the campsites, so even if a lot of is was techno, you cannot complain that you can't find music you like, although you have lots of places to check out :)
I said it before, but I'll say it again, cell phones worked remarkably well. That was impressive.
N1 forwent a fair amount of unnecessary stuff that Parookaville felt the need to do, liked forced personalization of tickets required for entry, while N1 was just happy to just scan your barcode and you were in. Nice, thank you.
While most things were in German, most relevant staff spoke English well enough to help. I was actually surprised to find out that many German speakers spoke fairly limited English. I didn't expect them to speak English like the Dutch do, but being French myself and the French are not known to be great English speakers, turns out the Germans aren't much better than us :)
The crowds were all super nice and happy to have extra lights and cheers brought to the event :) but it's true that only a small percentage wore cool outfits, although this is typical for European festivals. Still, I'd say people had more outfits than average for Europe, so that was nice.
Music was loud but not overly loud, which was nice
I mentioned it above, but I'll say it again, the venue itself was amazing and definitely unique. It has a cool and slightly eerie factor that I haven't experience anywhere else
I was worried about huge lines driving in and out (like parookaville saying it could be up to 6h wait getting in the campsite), but despite the lack of proper routing issues getting in, it took less than 1h to make it to camp, and about 45mn to drive out dealing with all the roads they had closed and the big detours to get back to Koblenz. Not bad, considering.
It is also fairly cheap. Honestly just raise the price a little, provide drinkable water and stop the fake money and profits from keeping the leftovers that people end up abandoning. The festival is really good and worth extra ticket money.
Definitely they are doing plenty of things right, because 30 years! The communities that have made Nature One their home, is an impressive sight.
And it's probably the only music festival I know of that you can go to, not even go to the festival, and have a great time at all the campsite clubs, multiple dozens of them.
Here, I need to make sure to express deep gratitude to United Nature One for the invitation to their great camp, it made the whole experience much more enjoyable and complete.
