Night Of The Prog Festival
In Times Like These We Should Stay Together

13.12.2023

The Night of the Prog Festival, that has been held on the Rhine River right next to the famous rock of the Lorelei, caught my attention back in late 2019 or early 2020: I had just gotten into Ayreon, and that festival seemed the nearest and most accessible event featuring that project. Without a shadow of a doubt, we booked tickets for the summer 2020 event, which Ayreon was supposed to headline on Saturday, but in a couple of months all my summer plans went down the grain, which can also be said about the majority of mankind. Up to this day, I have not been able to make it to Night of the Prog, and next year will unfortunately be my last chance, as the festival will not continue after that. All this time we have been in contact with Winfried Volklein, creator and chief organizer of Night of the Prog, and the sad news of the festival’s upcoming funeral prompted me to do this interview. We mostly interview musicians, while those who are behind festivals and who hold the entire music industry on their shoulders, get their time in the spotlight on a much less frequent basis. This interview is aimed at fixing this injustice at least to some degree.

Dear Winfried, I’m really glad we’re finally doing this interview. Could you please briefly introduce yourself to the Russian audience? Any facts and milestones of your life that you want to share are welcome.
 
Well, I have been in this business since 1990 mainly as a management / agency and tour promoter in Germany and Europe. Since 2003 I have been intensively working in the genre “Progressive Rock” starting with the tours of the Canadian Genesis clone The Musical Box, but also working with Fish and Steve Hackett. In 2006 I established the Night of the Prog Festival at the legendary Loreley.
 
With a heavy heart I heard that the 17th Night of the Prog will be the last one. I guess it was a tough decision for you, but could you please walk us through the history of the festival: how it started, developed and what are your reasons to end it?
 
The Loreley was very famous in the 70s/80s /90s, as this is where all the “Rockpalast” concerts were broadcast from throughout Europe. Such shows as Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, Genesis, U2 etc, pp. In 2005 I had Fish’s 20th anniversary Misplaced Childhood tour going on and people of the Loreley asked me if I wanted to help to reanimate the status of the venue. This led to the kickoff of the festival in 2006 with a one day event that was headlined by Fish. The result was ok and I extended it to two days having Jethro Tull, Asia etc. on the bill in 2007. In 2008 it became a three-day event, with the highlights of the electronic icons Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Nevertheless, I stepped back to two days from 2009 to 2014, introducing prog metal to the festival audience with Dream Theater in 2011. With the 10th anniversary in 2015 we moved forward to the three-day-event and reached 6,000 people that year. Other highlights following was ARW (Yes) in 2017 and with all the things happening since 2020 we got some troubles.
 
Why now? I mean, we lost lots of festivals in 2020-2021 due to Corona but now the situation has changed.
 
I don’t want to become too political, but all the things that happened in the past 3.5 years caused cost explosions etc., and an economically successful festival is no more possible. To be honest, the situation “after” Corona hasn’t changed, but this is a different story and has to do with ideologies.
 
Talking about Corona: Ayreon were scheduled for 2020 among other bands. The festival was cancelled due to the pandemic. But why couldn’t they make it in 2022 or 2023?
 
I had simply the luck that he didn’t plan his shows he is doing every September in 2020, but not in 2022 / 2023 and 2024.
 
Has the war in Ukraine affected the festival and if yes, then how?
 
In my personal view only economically, and this is a homemade problem! Which government is turning down their own energy supply?
 
Going back to the festival and its history, how do you decide which bands will be playing each year? And how do you work with schedules?
 
I roll the dice … seriously the scene is small and therefore it is not very difficult to get a reasonable line up together. I try to bring a lot of new and young bands and try to get all the heroes of the 70s / 80s, which with some exceptions has been successful.

Which festival year was the best in your opinion?

Musically 2008, economically 2015.
 
Please name top-5 bands and performances in the whole festival history in your opinion.

Lazuli
Three Friends
Camel
Cyan
Steve Hackett 2022

Which band you’ve always wanted to bring to the festival that haven’t played yet? Will you manage to invite them for 2024?
 
King Crimson / Porcupine Tree / Van der Graaf Generator – no chance to get them.
 
Some previous years looked more metal than the recent one. For example, in 2011 there were Threshold, Anathema and Dream Theater. Was it a natural change to step away from heavier bands?

The reason is, and the festival in 2023 showed it again, prog metal is not the taste of the audience who visit our festival.

Do you keep in touch with other prog rock festivals like ProgPower Europe or Midsummer Prog in Netherlands? Is there any community of prog rock festivals managers?
 
Before Corona we had a good relationship to the Cruise to the Edge guys and as well as to Midsummer Prog Fest and the Art Rock Festival in Reichenbach, Germany and finally to the Veruno Prog Fest. But there is no real connection between the festivals in terms of coordinating bands.

Does it take any special efforts to organise a music festival in such a place as the Lorelei rock?

Indeed, cause it is a huge venue and a lot of regulations by the authorities. Next to that it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage, which limits us to realize our ideas of making the festival more attractive for the fans.

As far as I understand, it’s your festival from the beginning. Haven’t you received any offers to sell it? I know that some festivals were bought by big event companies when they grew from small to medium size.

A very good question, I was indeed in negotiations with the Wacken Festival guys before Corona, but then plans were cancelled.

What do you think about the future of musical business, especially festivals and live shows? It seems that the world has changed and will never be the same.
 
Honestly I have no clue, but as the past shows, things are going on, whatever crisis is there. We are in the full process of “THE NEW WORLD ORDER”, “THE AGENDA 2030” and “21” by the UN etc pp. Wars are the daily business, the “woke” moral discredits freedom of speech, etc. it could lead into a dystopia. Above this, the type of music I am into, most likely will die in the next 10 – 15 years. Maybe not….
 
What are your own plans for the future? Will you stay in the music business?
 
The next 6–7 months or more will show… I have been working since a couple of years on two projects which have nothing to do with the music business. As a graduated economist this could by my future, although “Music was and is my first love”!

Finally and traditionally - please say something inspiring to the readers of our webzine.
 
In times like these, we should stay together, no matter which country you come from. Music was the element that brought people from all over the world together and celebrate peacefully happenings – started way back in Woodstock and hopefully will never end.

Night of the Prog Festival on the Internet: https://www.nightoftheprogfestival.com/en/home-2/

Interview by Pavel Vlasov
Photos courtesy of Winfried Volklein
November 21, 2023
(с) HeadBanger.ru