Haldern, somewhere in the Lower-Rhine region. 5000 inhabitants, 3 pubs, a train station, and an internationally acclaimed music festival. “We were 14 altarboys and wanted our own party,” says Stefan Reichmann, artistic director of Haldern Pop. 35 years later, 400 people from the village of Haldern still set up the Haldern Pop Festival and take care of literally everything in order to present the best open-air-music-festival of the summer for 50 bands from all over the world and 7000 devoted visitors. Award-winning bookings and self-installed WiFi go hand in hand. And tickets are are hard to come by.

Whilst in the big cities an individual livestyle is what counts, life in Haldern is more focused on community. And the community has mostly to do with music here. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the festival, because brass music and choir singing are also practiced with love and enthusiasm. So the relationships to music are individually very different, as are the roles and tasks needed to keep village life alive. To find the right place in this cosmos – that is the real challenge.