A look back at the Elbenwald Festival

One of the Germany’s most amazing fandom open air festivals is the Elbenwald Festival, organised by leading European fantasy and science fiction online store and retail chain Elbenwald in Germany. It is run by nerds for nerds and I am lucky in the sense of knowing the CEO’s from back in the day – that is, I have known them for 20+ years. They have been inviting me to participate in their festival since 2022. This year I participated with a talk on the adaptations before PJ (inspired by the guest series by G. Connor Salter) and as part of the German Tolkien podcast SmallTolk. Here’s my review.

The festival takes place at the Spreeauenpark in Cottbus, Brandenburg. Yes, the name of the park does translate to (river) Spree Shire Park, if you like. It is an absolute beauty to visit and a perfect place for the festival. And they have a Parkeisenbahn, a 600 mm gauge miniature railway I simply love.

Cottbuser Parkeisenbahn (c) IG flauschkopf_cosplay

But seriously, the festival is amazing. The amount of programming plus concerts plus cosplaying groups on Star Wars, anime/ manga, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park and more you get to see is astounding. The whole atmosphere is super friendly and peaceful and I always feel like saying one of my favourite lines at a truly great event: “Finally, some normal people!”

Given the fact that there is so much original programming happening over the weekend and on several thematic strands all the time Elbenwald decided to give its festival its own app so you can get to grips with what you would like to see (available for both iOs and Android!)

SmallTolk – Fashion in Middle-earth: Ranking

What we did on the Friday afternoon as a podcast was a live show at the Rosengarten Stage titled: “A Ranking of Fashion in Middle-earth.” Yes, our very own Mountain King aka Seppel aka Anti-Elb chose a wide array of characters from Middle-earth adaptations so we could have a chat about them and grade them on a 1-5 scale (1 being best).

These rankings are quite often pretty silly and rather entertaining and our audience that had its umbrellas opened against the rain seemed to enjoy it. Later on, the two of us – the third on our group, Markus aka Fingolfin aka Oppa, could not participate in the weekend and Sebastian Richartz of the Tolkien Days helped out – even had to do an autograph sessions which we both found hilarious. We do not take any interest in the money and the fame, just the fun and the joy that you always experience in meeting fellow nerds in person. But just to show you some proof…

And then there was me doing my talk on “adaptations before PJ” on the Sunday, again haunted by quite a bit of rain.

Me at my talk. Elbenwaldfestival (c) IG laliaoberbuehl

But amazingly enough the rain and the wind – Saturday was absolutely lovely – did not keep the audience away. They simply bought themselves Jurassic Park umbrellas and took a seat.

I would like to believe showing them a number of hilarious and really nerdy adaptations from Finland, Sweden, Russia and the US as well as explaining the background to them was decent infotainment. At least, that was what I was going for.

If you are ever interested in visiting Germany and a great fandom festival that has gazillions of things to offer, some really nice and friendly people, great food and drink, and some banger concerts, all in a relaxed atmosphere that lets everyone enjoy themselves – well, the Elbenwald Festival should be one of your first choices.

I do not make this promise lightly – but I am pretty much convinced it will not disappoint you.

Some of my highlights? The Querbeat concert, Hasenscheisse as well, the gentleman who came as Jean-Luc Picard from First Contact (I am a Trekkie and he was the only Trekkie cosplay I saw!), MooEntertainment (doing a prep session for their live reading, absolutely hilarious), the dinosaurs and the fact that I signed 33 autographs like a hobbit should [about 29 were friends or Hogwarts students ordered by Professors Sprout and Slughorn who are friends of mine]… and the wonderful people I have had the privilege to meet and chat with!

[Transparency note: According to German law I need to note this is an unpaid ad. I have been invited as a guest speaker with the festival for some years now.]