#ok new development: soon as i left the house. got hungry. was soooo ready to eat when i got home. got home. can’t eat.

[faarkas]

[heilewelt]

Wander Landes Festival, 21-24. September 2017, Seignosse, France

So, basically I was missing to see Sunset Sons live so much, I booked some flights to see them in their hometown during their very own surf, food and music festival, The Wander Landes Festival. Plus I've seen a lot of movies about surfing and the ocean this year on several festivals, so going to a beach with surfers sounded pretty right. As soon as I arrived and set my foot in the sand I knew I made the right decision. No matter what will happen, I'll be fully relaxed by the end of the festival.

It all started on Thursday, 21th of September 2017 with the Opening Party at Heads Beach Brewery with some DJ's and a tiny bit tired band called Consolers, an surprising amount of disposable packaging for food and plastic cups for drinks and after the gig some 90s/2000 Hip Hop which apparently still works for parties – who knew? I didn't. That's because I basically only go to concerts. Tina Turner still works as well with young people. Astonishing.

On the second day I realized I'm in a small village and am probably the only one who doesn't know anyone – except for four people who I don't really know. It's basically some sort of extended family event I stumbled into. Everyone got up pretty early in the morning and we were all waiting for some coffee, croissants and surf boards to arrive. Most were quite impatiently waiting for the Foam Froth Surf event to start. I was there, too. Waiting for I don't know what – I can't surf and am pretty afraid of drowning in the waves but the coffee was great. It almost seems like a small torture to make surfers wait until they can go to the beach when the waves are crystal clear. When there was finally a 'go' I could see some guys basically running. I was following slowly to the beach. There are things for me to do as well. I can quite surely watch surfers from the beach, can read a book on the beach, listen to the calming sound of the ocean, ponder about my work out plan for the next 12 month, how to overcome fear of drowning or something like that, so next year I won't feel that out of place.

(Here is the difference between Dörte walks up to the water and a surfer walks up to the walker. Hint: My footprints are not the straight ones)

After a few hours I left the beach – the weather wasn't that great, I took an extra long way to walk home – getting lost in Seignosse on purpose. Seignosse is – once you left the beach a great place to discover architecture from the 60/70ies, pine trees and more pine trees. I imagine every house has a little tiki bar. They should. The one I stayed in surely had a little tiki bar. Can I have one for my flat?

Well, by the time I started to get hungry again it was already time for the Street Food Festival at Louvine with live music and DJ's (the DJ's were very often someone and Rory of Sunset Sons who magically didn't repeat himself too much musically). One thing that surprised me was: No crêpe! In Germany there is a crêpe stand on basically every festival, no matter what kind of festival actually. Do they sell food? Yes = one crêpe guy. Not in France. In France I had the pleasure of eating Italian waffles with Nutella. Ok, I didn't take Nutella – I got a little experimental with dark chocolate spread. In my head I was laughing when I said that out loud ordering a waffle. I started to recognize some more faces, too. On the next morning I was greeting people I didn't knew I know. It's a small town. I'm not used to this.

The whole festival smelled soooo good. The poulet teriyaki bowl, basque dog, fish fingers, the greek whatever, the burgers, everything. I wanted to eat all of it, even the fish although I don't eat fish. I thought I started with something small, some delicious Peking duck pancakes. And that was that. Next time I won't eat for two days beforehand so I can really eat everything. The later it got the more busy the small street was and I found a place to sit inside Louvine's with some good cafe latte to wait until Haunt The Woods would play. Well worth the wait. I loved the band instantly. They reminded me a bit of Dry The River – the vocal harmonies, the melodies, the guitar play of Phoenix Elleschild all of it but without being a copy of Dry The River. Since Dry the River called it a day some time ago already, it's really good to have finally found such a wonderful replacement. Rory of Sunset Sons joined the band for the song “Beautiful Catastrophe” from Haunt The Woods latest EP “The Line”. It was beautiful. It might be possible that I bought their CD that night and then – since it would have been too long until I would be able to hear it – downloaded it from Bandcamp two days later when I had some free wifi. It would be the soundtrack to the rest of the vacation. Haunt The Woods can sound huge and at the same time very intimate and it doesn't matter weather it's the small stage of the Street Food Festival or a day later as the first band one the big stage of Salle des Bourdaines. The main event of Wander Landes Festival.

After Haunt The Woods the only woman performing this night entered the stage: Lee-Ann Curren. Yes, it was a bit of a boy club overall. Anyway. Lee-Ann made a huge step in her musical development. From playing with her band Betty the Shark to being on her own making some pretty electronic music. House with a little extra in form of guitar and her beautiful voice. The more we went into her set, the more she reminded me of my younger years where I was listening to a lot of Techno and House, dancing the night away in Berlin clubs. These days this kind of music is often a tad boring so I was a bit surprised to find someone in a small beach town in France to make me enjoy this kind of music massively.

After Lee-Ann the German band Consolers hit the stage – just like on the opening event they proved to be an absolute party band, hitting the nerve of the audience on both events. On the opening party with a new song about surfing which got them the love of everyone in the audience, during Satuday with their whole appearance. Also it surely has to do with their 70ies inspired easy going Surf Pop and the well fitting moustaches of some of the band members. They should be from California or something but are actually from Hannover, Germany. And yes, Florian, we've all been there: Rory, the white horse, a beach. Some dreams are dreamt by all.

Nathan Ball and his band were a little quieter but only a tiny little bit. One an evening with six bands you need one that gives you a little time to breath, to dance a little slower.  Maybe it was just my tiredness kicking in after a long day at the beach that I thought the music was slower – mind I'm from Berlin and nothing in body is prepared for days of clean, oxygen filled air. I remember I thought he was fucking amazing and some dancing. And many others danced and some sat on the floor relaxing.

The small rest was over as soon as New Carnival hit the stage to make some real shit because that's what they wanna do according to their facebook page. I think my memory is a bit blurry from that set. Enjoyment. Dancing. Powerpowerpower. The energy of singer Max is infectious. My tiredness blown away. Mixing up with the excitement of Sunset Sons going on this stage next. It was already around midnight – not because they were running late, it were just so many bands. The evening just like the whole festival was so well organised and so running smoothly one could think they're doing it for years but it was the first Wander Landes Festival.

So, quickly after New Carnival left the stage it was finally time for my beloved Sunset Sons. The audience went crazy right away and the security had finally something more to do then just checking if everyone had the right wristband. Up until this point I thought they were not needed. Apparently the French crowd is a bit of next level wild – jumping, crowd surfing, a bit chaos and barriers that were not made for this kind of audience, almost breaking a few times. Sunset Sons's concert crowd I know from Germany are actually a bit quieter. This time I was really glad to “work” as it meant some side of the stage to enjoy their set.

Of course they played songs like “Remember” or “On The Road” from their debut album “Very Rarely Say Die”, basically all the tempo numbers, the crowd wasn't into slow at that point anymore anyway. They also played some new songs like “Cherry Red Lips” or however it was called – I personally thought they are ready to be recorded. Especially since the energy didn't differ much from the old songs. Even in the audience – in my experience people are often quieter when there are new songs played in a set. Not during this concert. High energy on every side during their way too short set. Although you could see a bit of exhaustion in some band member faces. You use different muscles when you're surfing and when you're performing. Train more. To my surprise didn't really clap for an encore. Not even the fans I met during a Meet & Greet with Sunset Sons earlier that day. But then again it was maybe 1.30 a.m. Or something. I don't know. I've lost all sense of time that night. They could've played for two hours and it would be enough, especially since I don't know when I'm going to see them again.

For me that was the end of the festival. Happy, relaxed and with a bit of a heavy heart I left Seignosse before the closing party on Sunday. It was an absolute beauty of a festival. I hope it'll all happen again next year. On Sunday morning when I had my breakfast at L'Açaï someone suggested (seriously not my idea but I'm not naming names here) I shall threaten to shave off Rory's beard if they don't repeat this wonderful festival next year. But let's be honest: that would hurt me more than him (or anyone actually)*. Counterproductive. So, I'll swear I'll overcome my fear of drowning until then and just hope they will repeat it next year. I already miss this place.

Thank you Wander Landes Festival,

Dörte

Some more impressions:

When you just want to have breakfast and the bands gather for a surf lesson on Saturday morning:

And then you return from the beach to have a lunch with a great entertainment from Alexis Distraction DJ set:

But seriously tho: There were way too many plastic and paper cups used when there could've been other options, way too many beer bottles and cigarette butts and other plastic shit lying around. I always wonder why you'd trash your own beach, pavement and so on. I thought the festival would have been a good opportunity to point that out as well.

photos: (c) Dörte Heilewelt

(*I shall seek some help concerning this beard obsession tho. It’s a little worrying someone I barely know already knows me so well. haha.)