My absolute highlight at this years SWR3 New Pop Festival: Jeremy Loops. Years ago I was loosely following the vlogs of Ben Brown, a friend, and former roommate of this South African musician. I can clearly remember the behind the scenes vlog about filming Jeremys’ video to Down South (check the result out on YouTube here). Over the years I forgot about him, until I re-heard Down South sometime last year, and got hooked on his music again. You can’t believe there excitement I already had when he got announced as one of the newcomer acts at this year’s new pop festival. Other newcomers this year? Mabel, Tom Walker, Lauv or Alma to name a few. SWR3 New Pop Festival is an annual event, in early fall, to support new and upcoming musicians and bands. In the past, Bruno Mars or Ed Sheeran played at the festival as well. And everyone knows how successful and well known they are nowadays. SWR3 New Pop Festival definitely is, still, a launcher for careers. Of course not necessarily every time for every artist, but anyway, the Festival is a great opportunity for fans to attend concerts of already known bands for small money. The concerts aren’t completely free of charge, but prices of 16€ for Alma or 23€ for Jeremy Loops is definitely stellar!
My 24 hours in Baden-Baden for SWR3 New Pop Festival 2018 with Audi
Everything started by being picked up at the train station of Baden-Baden in a brand new Audi Q8. Is there possibly any more suiting colour for this Car?! What a look!!
Next up on the agenda, a nice stroll around town. Baden-Baden is such a charming city, especially, as right now, in soon approaching fall season. The leaves start turning brownish, with clear blue skies and temperatures well in the 20’s celsius. Wonderful conditions for a sightseeing walk.
Soon it was time to head to the hotel in Baden-Baden, the Roomers, where I have previously stayed before. The Roomers, an excellent design hotel right nearby the big Festspielhaus event venue, a bit outside the main city centre. One of the unique highlights is definitely the Rooftop Bar. For foodies, the highlight will be moriki, the in-house Asian fusion restaurant. As a group, we shared various dishes for early dinner, among them various salads and, of course, sushi. I even got my own plate of veggie sushi. The one with something crispy inside and sauce on top, wow, it was SO good!! The caramelized eggplant was very tasty as well, just like the fried mandu I already knew from my Sushi Dinner at moriki.
And off again in the Audi Q8, to the first concert. Jeremy Loops in the Kurhaus. I was SO excited! Among his 11 played songs were newer songs like ‘Gold’, and of course classics like Down South or Freak. His energetic performance was definitely contagious, the crowd danced and jumped. Jeremy Loops gained so many new fans that day, for sure.
Next, Alma with her sister as the backing act in the Festspielhaus. On the radio, I definitely enjoy her chart hits like chasing heights, but her overall performance at New Pop Festival wasn’t that enjoyable. In particular, I got so annoyed by her sister. She was constantly ‘pumping’ the crowds up, which was so irritating and disturbing, as it felt like she was constantly talking while Alma sang. So weird.
My third concert of the day, Deva Mahal in the Theatre. So far, I only knew one of her songs, Run deep. Deva is a talented singer from New York. It wasn’t my kind of music, but she’s definitely a good singer.
Another highlight of the evening, The Night Game. Actually, the band of singer/songwriter Martin Johnson was the perfect ending to three-way lasting SWR3 New Pop Festival. They rock, and I loved it! Honestly, I was surprised about how many songs of The Night Game I actually knew. Once in a Lifetime, Bad Girls don’t cry, The Outfield or It’s the end of the world as we know it is just a few of their songs. I bet you know those songs as well, but did you know they are sung by The Night Game? I got definitely hooked on those 4 songs, and have been playing them on repeat since then. Songs by The Night Game are the perfect examples of road trip sounds, best enjoyed with the windows down and the volume on maximum. Unfortunately, there is one downside, the voice of Martin Johnson is so powerful in reality, on this published tracks she doesn’t sound like that at all. Well, one reason to visit another The Night Game concert in the future 😍😎
After midnight we went back to the Roomers with our trustworthy Audi Q8’s. Once its dark the impressive lights literally and factually shine. Such a sleek car, if there would only be a Q1 looking like the Q8 but the size of a compact car.
The next morning started with an espresso in my hotel room. I really appreciate it when hotels place an espresso machine in your room, ideal for those mornings after short nights 😉 Soon followed by a healthy breakfast at moriki, the hotel’s restaurant .they even serve ginger juice, so indeed, a very healthy offer.
All pictures were taken by me with my Huawei P20 lite and edited on Adobe Lightroom for Android.
