h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last night, as Gnomon has just reminded us, was the Summer Solstice. And where were Mr and Mrs Trillian's Child?

As usual, I have to explain a lot before I can put you in the picture.

Firstly, the State of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate) holds a series of loosely connected summer festivals. Our town, which is small but has a thriving Music School, takes part with a very high standard of concerts and extremely original ideas.

Secondly, the town has been a military base since Roman times, the last fortifications were built in the mid-19th century, but by the time the building work had finished, the wars were over and, anyway, technology had moved on and the system the structures were based on (in the style of defensive architecture first devised by Vauban) was outdated. There has not been an invasion or attack since. So the entire town is surrounded by large brick fortifications, which were never used for defence purposes. From the 1870s or so, right up till today, however, the town has been populated by the military, using it as an arsenal and training base. The fortifications, still largely intact, have been recovered from weeds and ruination and are being put to various administrative and cultural uses. The music school is in a magnificent horseshoe-shaped section of the fortress. The inside is an open courtyard – the parade ground – and the buildings surrounding the "horseshoe" are soundproof, cool, and austere in design. But …….. underneath them is a spooky and endless labyrinth of passages and ammunition storage spaces.

Thirdly, back in 1972, some enterprising local lads organised a festival, Woodstock-style, on an island in the Rhine. The 50+-year-olds of today still remember this event and their eyes glaze over as they remember……… http://www.germersheim.de/kultur/popfestival/inselgruen.html (link in German – no translation available, as far as I could find) Just a glance at the poster and the big names listed will make you gasp. All that for 22 DM in a gnat-infested one-horse-town in an area that is to this day practically unknown to the rest of Europe.

Fourthly : Each year, as part of the summer festival, the music school holds a series of events in its catacombs, called "Walk – don't Walk". This originally actually used a New York pedestrian traffic light, but there must have been technical difficulties, and after about the second year, it just stood there, unlit. Now it's disappeared completely and just the name "Walk – don't Walk" (yes: in English) remains. The audience is divided into 5 groups and each starts at a different location (usually one of the ammo storage spaces, which are larger openings at intervals along the narrow passages) . The groups remain at each station for 10-15 minutes, and listens to music of all sorts – chamber music, jazz, recorder ensembles….or some other performance art (dance, poetry, literature, improvisation) The performers stay in their stations and repeat their little 10 minute act five times (some vary them). The evening continues with a gathering in the horseshoe or outside in the old trench – now a grassy slope with a Mediterranean atmosphere. Food and drink are provided. This is followed by a single event of about 45 mins in the main courtyard.

Now to get to what went on last night.

The "Walk don't Walk" was a "special". There was an extra station, and there were also performances by larger groups before and after the event. The music school puts no little emphasis on jazz and big band music, and the evening started with their Tango Ensemble (with strings and brass, double bass, piano) playing three tangos – the best-known one being Piazolla's Libertango (think Grace Jones singing "Strange, I've seen that face before, seen him hanging round my door).

The performers are always a mixture of teachers, pupils, and a few professional musicians who are friends of the school.

Walk don't walk offered a mixture of

- a saxophone quintet, playing really lively music,
- some piano pupils (11-year-olds performing excellent
renderings of Chopin Nocturnes)
- an artist who did some painting accompanied by one
of the music school piano teachers playing Gymnopedie by
Erik Satie.
- Some friends of my youngest son were also performing some
70's guitar music by torchlight. The audience
didn't want them to stop (probably mostly
glazed-eye 50+-year-olds!)
- a recorder ensemble playing some jolly pieces
on a fairground theme

After the break (this is a small town, everyone knows everyone else, so plenty of conversation!), we came to the highlight of the evening. The stage filled with all the musicians present that evening and, as it got dark, we were given a performance of four Pink Floyd songs, in memory of that festival all those years ago, complete with big screen effects. The brass players all got to play solos, the string players came really into their own in "Money", and the guitar teacher (Sören who taught my son to play the blues) had worked really hard to get the sound right. The lead vocalist was a local hero in the gospel and pop music scene. Even the gnats must have been in awe - I hardly got stung at all. Right up till the end, it was warm and dry. All round, an amazing experience, especially when they brought out miniature paper hot air balloons, about 2ft in diameter, open at the bottom, with little candles attached, which members of the audience could hold until they rose up into the clear, starry night sky.

To all my friends on h2g2: Wish you were there.

Thanks to your journal, we were

Great journal, TC, thanks for sharing.

I forgot to mention that, as we left the music school, we were nearly deafened and bowled over by convoys of cars blowing their horns. (it was nearly midnight). The Russians were out in force, waving flags and cheering, as they'd just won their match. We got home safely, somehow!

What a lovely evening. I was out to dinner on the first hot weather warning of the year. Walked home at midnight with the sweat running down my elbows. In many ways I'd rather have been with you.

Yes - normally when it gets hot here, it's unbearably humid, but we were in the coolness of the underground passageways for most of the time, and the rest was quite bearable.

Do you really have hot weather warnings? We have ozone warnings here when it gets hot; they tell you not to go outside if you're prone to heatstroke and not to do any strenuous work in the open.