Offering "new old folk music" – that's the concept of the Burgfolk Festival. Taking place for the 5th time in 2006, it was held again at Schloss Broich in Mülheim an der Ruhr, an old castle which appears to be an appropriate venue for different events like the Mediaeval Market, the Castle Rock Festival – and last but not least the Burgfolk Festival.

This year's edition had to offer eight bands:

Lyriel – Claymore – Omnia – Korpiklaani – Schelmish – Oysterband – Saltatio Mortis

Being set in the midst of a fortress yard the festival location was more than a perfect setting for bands of all kinds of genres playing an ancient style of music - the folk music. The whole atmosphere carried a feeling of long forgotten ages and also the crowd, partly dressed in ancient clothes, delivered a feeling of being pushed backwards in time.

This magic veil was held up by the mediaeval background music that was constantly played from a tape within the festival area and stopped when Claymore entered the stage. The partly Scottish, partly German group combines traditional Scottish music with rock, forming kind of a harder version of the aforementioned traditional music without forgetting about the - for the writers of this webzine mostly dealing with metal - unusual instruments like a transversed flute for example. Of course the stage impression was the music's equal in every way and the obligatory kilt (worn by singer Volker) wasn't missing. So what could have been more appropriate to end Claymore's set than a song with the name "Highlander"? Nothing, thought the audience, and sang the refrain along eagerly. A solid performance of the band but there surely were a bit more outstanding acts to come...

Outstanding indeed was Omnia's stage decoration. Leaves, flowers and fur around the microphone stands and also rather outstanding clothes worn by the band members including feathers, fur, animal teeth and I cannot remember it all – made the whole scenery look quite African. Already the soundcheck was pretty amusing as singer, guitarist and player of various other instruments Sic knew how to entertain the audience, overshooting the mark at times but we all had some good laughs anyway. The whole story took much longer than expected until Omnia could start their set full of folk songs from different countries adapted to the band in style and lyrics. Sic was of course never at a loss for the stories behind these songs, which turned out to be quite funny when told in such a deadpan way. A song from Afghanistan found its way to the setlist as well as a story from the Celts, accompanied by the probably most various instrumentation of this festival. Different flutes were featured as well as a harp and various drums, not to forget the didgeridoo/guitar duells between Luka and Sic. Musically Omnia's performance surely was one of the rather calm ones at the Burgfolk Festival (though interrupted by Sic's often very long announcements) but also one of the more unusual ones – to be seen in a positive way. And before the organisers could be tempted to make use of the big gun they had with them to shoot bands that are playing too many encores according to Sic, the Irish/Dutch/English/New Zealand band left the stage voluntarily.

Already quite some time behind the schedule the competition for the fanciest microphone stand went on. Omnia's leaves were replaced by Korpiklaani's already kind of legendary antlers and again it was time for another chapter of Finnish folk metal. After their appearance at Wacken Open Air it was nice to have them back to a cosier location, which I usually prefer to huge festivals, especially in Korpiklaani's case. Despite the somewhat limited playing time they offered everything important from "Journey Man" to "Ii lea voibmi", though the end of the set drowned in the German rain – but the heck with it, no one came here for the nice weather but for having a good time anyway. Meaning not only the audience but also the band, which seemed to be in a pretty good mood once again. Noone could challenge Cane, the Ever-grinning, but even accordion player Juho appeared much more confident than usual.
At the end I only can quote someone attending this festival, mentioning the “at least one week lasting happiness” after a Korpiklaani gig. This person really hit the mark. (Socke)

After the short journey through the Finnish noise forests the listener was led towards another demanding experience of sound. And for the festival was announced to be a folk music festival of the heavier sort anyway, the masses of instruments brought onto the stage left no one wondering anymore. Quite exemplary: the band Schelmish. During the redesigning of the stage the amount of instruments employed by this upcoming act looked quite promising. All in all round about twelve instruments found their way to the stage, distributed among seven musicians. Though I have to admit that many of those instruments out of the mediaeval times period were hard to identify. The arrangement of the stage belonged to the more impressive ones of the day for sure. However, the biggest role played the bagpipes, which built as well the cornerstone of the music. Concerning the music this big number of bagpipes and their predominant sound wasn't advantageous at all: unfortuantely it was rather annoying, and the vocals drowned a bit in such a wall of sound. However, the stage presence of the whole group was really fun to watch. Striking comments and the announcement about the band impersonating the “fattest Middle Ages band” established a harmonious atmosphere among the crowd as well as in the band and strengthened the impression of Schelmish being the 'punks' within the scene.

After such a turbulent show with so many artists on stage at the same time the need for something more calm and conservative was executed very well by the guys of the Oysterband project. Nice to welcome those experienced Roots Rockers from the British Isles, which can, by the way, look back to approximately 20 years band history. Their music inspired by Celtic traditions and the use of instruments like mandoline, bouzouki, accordion, cello and of course electric guitars in a way followed in the footsteps of the previous acts but not quite. The vocals were unfortunately not as striking as they should have been and left much to be desired. It was, however, nice to watch the band enjoying their gig although the bigger part of the crowd seemed to be occupied with everything but listening. Maybe the band didn't really fit in the whole concept of the festival, but still their music isn't bad at all. Maybe one should give it another try next time.

Due to the rather advanced day the venue was finally veiled in darkness when the crowd was introduced to the final act Saltatio Mortis. Also the band's name was able to cope with the dark atmosphere, meaning “dance of death” and underlining the motto which the band is often represented by. “Who is dancing, does not die” - more than suitable for the band believes in the old mediaeval saying that even Death is a musician. And therefore the band endeavours to play better than he does and convinced with pure and pumping mediaeval rock. The band can look onto a history of six albums so far, which promised a various set and left the fans hoping for some older songs from the Tavernakel period as well as tracks off the Des Königs Henker album. Death seemed to have some beer himself anyway as he was in no way recognizable among the crowd. The people were singing along the songs eagerly and drinking beer without a single indication of being tired. And the band had fun as well... later they were joined by the guys of Korpiklaani and Schelmish, who were kindly ordered to come back on stage to 'sing' (or something alike) the encores together with Saltatio Mortis. Everybody seemed to totally enjoy him/herself, and in the end Saltatio's vocalist asked the crowd to carry the band's drummer to the beer delivery - and so they did. The party was really fun to experience and to watch. Songs like "Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt", "Licht und Schatten", "Palästinalied" and many more were really well chosen. The band wasn't even allowed to leave the stage and was demanded back for more and more encores. (Sankarihauta)

Excluding the so called “aftershow party” here (still I have no idea why the DJ didn't get shot) the Burgfolk Festival turned out to be a nice small festival in a more than the whole idea fitting setting. Also the offer of food and drinks was rather wide for such a small event. However, there are always things to complain about. Firstly, the method of payment for drinks appeared to be pretty confusing. I don't know who invented these things but buying vouchers somewhere (and different vouchers for different drinks!) and then buying drinks with them somewhere else makes things just more complicated than they really are. Also the performing bands lacked a bit variety. Naturally this kind of location and festival requires acts from a certain genre but if you – after taking a break from listening to the bands – wonder if it's still the same band playing or already the next one or if this song wasn't already played before, a bit more diversity wouldn't be amiss.

Nevertheless the Burgfolk Festival turned out to be an event with such a cosy atmosphere that it could serve as an excursion for the whole family on Saturday afternoon – which indeed led to an audience with a wide age range and some picnics on the grass outside the area in the early afternoon. (Socke)

>> Burgfolk Festival Website <<