At the “Jamel rocks the Förster” music festival in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, around 2,500 visitors, together with musicians and artists from all over Germany, took a stand against right-wing extremism. As in previous years, the line-up remained secret until immediately before the performances.
Due to storms, the festival in the village of Jamel near Wismar in northwest Mecklenburg could only start a day later than planned and had to be shortened accordingly. Because of the constant rain on Friday, the performance of the well-known Hamburg band Meute was literally canceled.
The rainy weather presented a particular challenge this year, admitted Markus Ameln, honorary meeting leader from the co-organizer German Trade Union Confederation. On Friday, all concerts had to be canceled after it rained for six hours and the festival site was so waterlogged that trucks could not bring the sound equipment to the stage.
“We got the problems with the mud under control, we distributed a lot of bark mulch,” said Ameln on the second day of the festival. In addition, mats were laid out to give spectators relatively safe access to the concerts. It was still muddy, but the visitors took it calmly: either in rubber boots or sometimes even barefoot, they braved the rain, which kept coming at least briefly at the start of the concerts.
At the end of the event, the organizers also organized tractors to get stuck cars out of the mud. In many places, the festival guests also simply helped each other with pushing.
The first group to start was the Schuman Band - a project by Rainer Schumann, the drummer from Fury in the Slaughterhouse. Highlights included Soffie and your cousin. The well-known actor Bjarne Mädel was also on stage.
According to the organizers, “Jamel rocks the forester” is not just about good music. With the festival, which has been held since 2007, the organizers Birgit and Horst Lohmeyer also want to make a political statement against right-wing extremism. It is a counter-event to efforts by local neo-Nazis to transform the village of Jamel into a model right-wing extremist community.
The couple has repeatedly been the target of right-wing attacks in the past. In 2015, the Lohmeyers' barn was set on fire. On New Year's Eve 2024/25, unknown perpetrators fired fireworks and rockets at the property. The attackers shouted Nazi slogans. But the Lohmeyers stayed. The festival became increasingly popular and attracted more and more visitors.
“Year after year it feels more like you’re coming here for support,” said festival visitor Katharina, who comes from Wismar and now lives in Hamburg. She couldn't imagine living here and fighting the daily battle against right-wing hostility. “But of course I want to support that, just as I support everything left-wing in my right-wing homeland.”
This year, the Lohmeyers awarded the European School Rövershagen near Rostock with the Democracy Prize. The school has been running a war graves working group (AG) for years, which also deals with the fate of the victims of National Socialism. In the schoolyard, the AG built a freight wagon as a memorial, the same one that was used to transport Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution to the concentration camps.
The concerts are also flanked by political workshops and information stands. Shortly before the state elections, Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig also came by in the evening. Schwesig is the festival's patron. “Here you can experience how much power there is in music and in shared places,” she told the German Press Agency to justify her commitment. Such places served as cohesion. “Jamel is a small village with a big signal and an example of what is possible when we stand together,” she added.
During her speech on stage, Schwesig called for no room for right-wing radicalism. “Your home is our home,” she assured the Lohmeyer couple.
There are state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on September 20th. The right-wing populist AfD is leading in polls. The festival organizers have always emphasized that they do not make an election call for a party. However, several artists called from the stage to vote in such a way that the AfD does not come to power.
The spectacle attracts thousands of visitors every year. This year the tickets had to be raffled off. In the past, very prominent artists have appeared again and again, including Herbert Grönemeyer, Campino von den Toten Hosen, Die Ärzte, Fettes Brot and Deichkind.
The organizers traditionally keep the names of the musicians and bands performing secret until the start. According to reports, there are already a number of commitments for the coming year.
