Interview with Michael Gugelfuss, Festival Director of the Obstwiesenfestival
One festival, three days of music, nearly 30,000 visitors – and completely free of charge. The Obstwiesenfestival is one of Germany’s longest-running “free and open-air” festivals. Since 1990, an orchard in the quiet town of Dornstadt near Ulm has been transformed every summer into a place where generations come together, including many loyal regulars who have accompanied the festival for decades.
What began as an improvised project by various local initiatives has become an integral part of Dornstadt’s cultural life. Supported by more than 400 volunteers and a firm belief that culture should be accessible to everyone.
In this conversation, festival director Michael Gugelfuss talks about how the festival came into being, the challenges it faces today, and why the orchard is far more than just a festival site for so many people.
The Obstwiesenfestival looks back on a long history. How did it come about in 1990 – and what was the original idea behind it?
The roots of the festival go back to the 1990s, a time when “free and open-air” festivals were popping up all over Germany. Karlsruhe already had “Das Fest,” Bonn had “Rheinkultur,” and in Vlotho there were formats like the “U&D Festival,” which can now be seen as pioneers of this movement. The founders thought the idea of making culture truly accessible to everyone was great and wanted to create something similar in our region.
The first Obstwiesenfestival was small and improvised. In 1996, there was a generational shift and I joined the organization. We wanted to continue the festival, preserve its core idea, but at the same time work more professionally. A few good summers gave us some breathing room, allowing us to develop the festival step by step. That meant setting aside a bit of money, investing in infrastructure the following year, and gradually expanding the festival. Of course, there were always setbacks along the way.
What do you do when you’re not running a festival?
I’m self-employed and run a printing company with around 40 employees. I organize the festival purely on a voluntary basis, just like the entire organizing team. I do try to keep the two strictly separate. Festival planning is a hobby for me, something I do after work.
The festival has developed enormously over the past decades. What have been the biggest challenges in recent years?
Until the pandemic, costs for technology, artist fees, and infrastructure were relatively balanced. After that, everything changed completely and prices exploded. Many technical service providers lost staff, equipment became scarcer, and everything became more expensive. And because many artists now earn the majority of their income through live performances, fees have also increased. For a festival without an entry fee, that’s a real challenge.
Then there’s the weather factor. At ticketed festivals, people usually show up even when it rains, because they’ve already paid. For us, it’s different: if the weather is bad, many people stay at home. And since the Obstwiesenfestival is financed almost exclusively through food and beverage sales, we feel every rain cloud immediately. If only 12,000 people come instead of 20,000, things can quickly get tight. This combination of rising costs and dependence on the weather is probably our biggest challenge.
Could this pressure eventually lead to the festival no longer being “free and open-air”?
In theory, yes. In practice, we hope it never comes to that. If we were to have several years in a row with bad weather while costs continue to rise, we would eventually have to ask ourselves that question. And if infrastructure prices keep exploding in the coming years as they have recently, it could become difficult.
But the festival’s identity is closely tied to being open to everyone. Charging admission would change the audience. We would especially lose families who have been coming on Saturdays for decades. That’s why we fight hard to preserve this model – and so far, it has worked every single year.
How would you describe your audience?
Our audience is incredibly diverse. Over the decades, several generations have grown up with us. There are people who have been coming every year for 20 or 30 years, and at the same time young visitors for whom the Obstwiesenfestival is their introduction to festival culture.
Saturday traditionally begins with a white sausage breakfast accompanied by a brass band and then flows seamlessly into the children’s program. A real magnet for young families. In the evening, the atmosphere changes: the audience becomes younger, louder, more energetic. It’s exactly this mix that defines the festival. It’s not something you can plan – it’s grown organically over time.
You work entirely on a voluntary basis. How do you organize yourselves internally?
Our core team consists of around 30 people. We meet regularly – sometimes digitally, sometimes in person – and organize everything a festival of this size requires. Everyone has clearly defined tasks: some are responsible for beverages, others for food stands, others again for infrastructure such as electricity, water, or sanitary facilities. Then there’s booking, press relations, social media, and of course countless coordination meetings. After each meeting, minutes are written so everyone stays on the same page. This clear structure is absolutely essential.
What’s the secret behind having more than 400 volunteers support you year after year, many of them for decades?
I think it has a lot to do with the atmosphere. People don’t help out for the money, they come for the sense of community. They want to be part of the festival, see the people they’ve been working with for years, and support the event.
A nice detail is our volunteer T-shirt, which is redesigned every year and comes in a new color. You see it all the time at concerts or events around Ulm. It’s a small symbol that says: I belong to the Obstwiesen family. That strengthens the sense of togetherness enormously.
You can really feel that our volunteers are there by choice and genuinely excited about the event. That creates a completely different energy than professional catering teams.
How important is sponsorship for you?
Sponsors are still indispensable for us but they no longer cover the program costs the way they once did. Even if the poster looks full, sponsorship alone can no longer finance the program today. Artist fees have risen, many companies have to cut back, and marketing budgets are often the first to be reduced.
That makes our long-standing partners all the more valuable. Some have been with us for many years, and with a few there’s a genuinely personal relationship: you check in briefly to ask if they’ll be on board again. And often the answer is an immediate “Yes, of course.” That provides stability, but it doesn’t replace the level of income that was possible in the past. Gaining new sponsors has become truly difficult.
How does the festival program come together each year in August?
As soon as one festival ends, preparations for the next one basically begin. From October onward, we officially start the new cycle – alongside all the follow-up work, accounting, and administrative tasks that aren’t very visible from the outside. In the past, booking only started in January, but today artists plan much further ahead, so we have to start conversations much earlier.
We’re in constant contact with agencies, checking what’s feasible, and we work with a kind of “old-time favorites” list: artists we’ve always wanted to see on the orchard. That list keeps growing.
At the same time, we receive an enormous number of applications from bands and solo artists every year. I try to listen to as many as possible, and in recent years we’ve actually added one or two acts to the line-up directly through this route. By May, the program is largely finalized.
