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[Carn82]

Due to a terrorist threat the police have advised us to interrupt the festival.

We ask all festival visitors to leave the festival site in a calm and controlled manner towards the exits and camping grounds.

We have to support the police investigations.

All visitors will be kept informed about any developments on all Rock am Ring Social Media channels, radio and the speakers.

We hope that the festival will continue tomorrow. Thank you for your cooperation.

http://www.rock-am-ring.com/2017/news/wichtige-information

Info: Rock am Ring is one of Europe's biggest (rock) music festivals, with almost 100.000 visitors. This years lineup includes Rammstein, System of a Down, Gojira, Alter Bridge, and many others. The festival takes places on and around the famous Nürburgring (in Nürburg) racing circuit in the Eiffel area in Germany.

small update. Been there myself a few times and it really has one of the biggest main stage crowds in Europe:

 

[GavinUK86]

Ugh, not again. Hopefully it's nothing.

 

[Carn82]

well, apparently the evacuation of the main festival area went smooth. German discipline ;P I hope it's just false alarm and that the festival continues for all the people who are there now.

 

[Metalmarc]

Fuuuucks sakes, i have met a lot of people along the way that have attended this festival a few times.

From sky news

The Koblenz force said the event had been suspended due to "concrete leads, which do not allow us to eliminate a possible terror threat".

It added: "We are currently conducting a very intense investigation."

 

[Carn82]

Some quickly translated statements from Marek Lieberberg (organiser), seems that he isn't agreeing with the assesment made by the police.. my german is a bit spotty, so if Germany-GAF wants to translate some quotes please go ahead: https://twitter.com/waesterpicture

"There was no terror warning" Lieberberg criticizes the assessment of the situation on the part of the police. "I just feel empty. The signal that Germany is sending today is catastrophic"

 

[Metalmarc]

Some quickly translated statements from Marek Lieberberg (organiser), seems that he isn't agreeing with the assesment made by the police.. my german is a bit spotty, so if Germany-GAF wants to translate some quotes please go ahead: https://twitter.com/waesterpicture

"There was no terror warning" Lieberberg criticizes the assessment of the situation on the part of the police. "I just feel empty. The signal that Germany is sending today is catastrophic"

Ahhh thanks for that

 

[RoKKeR]

Scary, hope everyone stays safe.

 

[Carn82]

Ahhh thanks for that

I don't really know If I agree with Lieberberg.. my guess is that he clearly is upset, and I can imagine that cancelling everything because of a still unverified threat might anger him.

 

[venomenon]

Some quickly translated statements from Marek Lieberberg (organiser), seems that he isn't agreeing with the assesment made by the police.. my german is a bit spotty, so if Germany-GAF wants to translate some quotes please go ahead: https://twitter.com/waesterpicture

"Mutmaßliche Gefährder haben auf dem Festival gearbeitet", "Gefährder hatten die Aufgabe, Zäune aufzustellen" --> Allegedly/potentially dangerous people (not sure if there is a direct translation of "Gefährder", it has the connotation of potential terrorists, specifically islamistic ones, literal translation is "endangerer") worked at the festival, they were tasked with assembling fences.

press conference

The organizer (Marek Lieberberg) appears to be outraged because the decision is disproportionate or overhasty in his eyes. He's also upset that muslims don't demonstrate against the violence that is exercised in the name of Islam and he's bashing German politics because "Gefährder" are able to roam freely. (applause after that) His main concern seems to be that the area is declared to be safe asap.

 

[DoubleYou]

I don't really know If I agree with Lieberberg.. my guess is that he clearly is upset, and I can imagine that cancelling everything because of a still unverified threat might anger him.

Imagine working your ass off all year only to end up with a situation like this.

That said, I don't think he would just say that if he wasn't very sure of himself.

 

[Carn82]

"Mutmaßliche Gefährder haben auf dem Festival gearbeitet", "Gefährder hatten die Aufgabe, Zäune aufzustellen" --> Allegedly/potentially dangerous people (not sure if there is a direct translation of "Gefährder", it has the connotation of potential terrorists, specifically islamistic ones, literal translation is "endangerer") worked at the festival, they were tasked with assembling fences.

press conference

The organizer (Marek Lieberberg) appears to be outraged because the decision is disproportionate or overhasty in his eyes. He's also upset that muslims don't demonstrate against the violence that is exercised in the name of Islam and he's bashing German politics because "Gefährder" are able to roam freely. (applause after that) His main concern seems to be that the area is declared to be safe asap.

Not really sure if I agree with his choice of language here.. I don't really think its a great idea to use the festival as a platform to vent his own political opinions. But man, RAR has had some bad luck.. last year over 80 injured because of lightning strikes (and cancelling the festival on the last day because of the bad weather), now this :/

 

[Massingberd]

Yeah, was watching the online stream waiting for Liam Gallagher to come on stage and then notice of the cancellation came on.

He just did a benefit gig in Manchester a week after the bombing there. Shit times. Sounds as though everyone was evauctuated safety, but the authorities must have been pretty spooked to order the evactuation.

 

[Carn82]

Yeah, was watching the online stream waiting for Liam Gallagher to come on stage and then notice of the cancellation came on.

He just did a benefit gig in Manchester a week after the bombing there. Shit times. Sounds as though everyone was evauctuated safety, but the authorities must have been pretty spooked to order the evactuation.

yeah they wont make that call lightly. To be fair, one of the times I was there I had to ask a security guard to pull me out of the crowd (this was before the excessive use of barriers to break up the masses); people just kept pushing and I got squeezed against a barrier. I can't imagine what would happen if there was full out mass panic; the number of casualties of people who might get crushed or trampled would probably be higher than those of the 'attack' itself.

 

[Carn82]

tomorrow at 11:00 there will be an announcement if they will continue the festival or not.

 

[Carn82]

statement: https://vimeo.com/220071256

anyone willing to translate? I think it boils down to "we got informed by the police that they saw a risk of a terrorist attack. we evacuated the premises, and I applaud the people present for the calm way they evacuated the area"

 

[Dictator93]

statement: https://vimeo.com/220071256

anyone willing to translate?

22.30 - the police see a terrorist threat, and the (organisers) were advised to interrupt the festival, clear the festival areas and the camps of people. It happened in an astonishing, and wonderful manner... people did it without protest... etc. etc. (he is happy that it happened so well and how great people were).

No info about it being cancelled as of tomorrow.

 

[nacimento]

Fuck, and I had thought about going there this year...

 

[Myriadis]

Yeah heard about it, my sisters are there, but they are doing fine. Just hoping that nothing bad will happen on the other two days.

 

[Carn82]

Latest statement:

The organizers of Rock am Ring and the police are working nightshifts to take all necessary measures to guarantee a safe festival. More detailed information will be announced tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the press conference of the Ministry of the Interior of Rhineland-Palatinate. We will inform you as soon as we have confirmed information about the possible continuation of the festival. Unfortunately we have to rely on external sources for these information. We all hope to rock on together tomorrow. Despite all difficulties we are grateful for this fantastic teamwork we all showed today.
Your Rock am Ring Team and your Guardian Angels

 

[El Topo]

Didn't notice this thread.

I don't really know If I agree with Lieberberg.. my guess is that he clearly is upset, and I can imagine that cancelling everything because of a still unverified threat might anger him.

It's clear that he is very upset, understandably so, but that doesn't (at least fully) excuse some of his statements.

 

[brian577]

Latest statement:

The organizers of Rock am Ring and the police are working nightshifts to take all necessary measures to guarantee a safe festival. More detailed information will be announced tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the press conference of the Ministry of the Interior of Rhineland-Palatinate. We will inform you as soon as we have confirmed information about the possible continuation of the festival. Unfortunately we have to rely on external sources for these information. We all hope to rock on together tomorrow. Despite all difficulties we are grateful for this fantastic teamwork we all showed today.
Your Rock am Ring Team and your Guardian Angels

So expect absurdly long wait lines and extra invasive security. Fun. I hate airport security, but flying is kind of a necessity for a lot of people. Events...not so much. I can already see a future were festivals, concerts and conventions are no longer a thing.

 

[brian577]

.

 

[Frankfurter]

Rock am Ring is back on. Nothing found apparently.

People were doing really well yesterday. Singing songs while leaving the festival area:

https://twitter.com/waesterpicture/status/870720907786035201

https://twitter.com/waldfee123/status/870730596120764418

 

[Zaru]

I can already see a future were festivals, concerts and conventions are no longer a thing.

Nah. You'll sooner get a pogrom against anyone remotely muslim-looking than an entire country just accepting "I guess we can't meet in large groups anymore"

 

[Carn82]

Rock am Ring is back on. Nothing found apparently.

People were doing really well yesterday. Singing songs while leaving the festival area:

https://twitter.com/waesterpicture/status/870720907786035201

https://twitter.com/waldfee123/status/870730596120764418

Good stuff.

Statement:


These are the news we all have been waiting for:
Rock am Ring 2017 will go on! After intensive searches and sweeps of the complete festival site by the police the suspicion of a potential terrorist threat has not been confirmed.
Set up for day 2 of Rock am Ring has commenced and the program is going to be resumed in the early afternoon. The incredibly disciplined fans deserve all our respect and gratitude.
We keep you posted.

 

[Tetsujin_MK]

He's also upset that muslims don't demonstrate against the violence that is exercised in the name of Islam

Insinuating they don't do that. =/
(Spoiler alert: They do)

 

[Carn82]

Sooo... it ended up being a writing mistake. Some names of the employees did not match a pre-approved list;

http://www.ksta.de/region/euskirche...e-terroralarm-bei--rock-am-ring--aus-27793608

quick google translate:

Nürburgring - Writing mistakes with the names of two construction assistants triggered the terror alarm at the music festival "Rock am Ring".

"The names of the suspects were misspelled, but they had a phonetic (similarity) to the real spellings," said Johannes Kunz, Mainz's General Newspaper (Wednesday), President of the Rhineland-Palatinate Regional Criminal Investigation Office (LKA).
Festival had to be interrupted

"Rock am Ring" with 87 000 visitors in the Eifel had been interrupted and cleared at the beginning of June because of terror suspicion. The names of the two construction assistants of a Frankfurt subcontractor did not fit into the personallists of the organizers because of the write errors.

The Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior at that time confirmed the suspicion of a connection to Hessian Salafists.

LKA chief Kunz now said: "The situation was very serious, because we could not rule out concrete preparations for an attack."