That August

Highfield had one of those lineups that year. Placebo, Billy Talent, NOFX, Blink-182 mixed with German bands like Fettes Brot, Unheilig, and Wir sind Helden. It was the kind of festival bill that came out every summer—significant enough to pay attention to if you followed the scene, but not so massive that it demanded the kind of pilgrimage a major festival would.

That was when festival season still felt distinct. Each announcement mattered because there weren’t five hundred alternatives competing for attention. Highfield, Hurricane, Rock am Ring. If you cared about live music, you knew these names. You watched the lineups, maybe went to one or two, at least thought about them.

I don’t remember if I actually went, and I don’t think I did. But it doesn’t matter. The festival happened, those bands played at Störmthaler See that August, and that’s what the music scene looked like when compressed into a single weekend. Some moments you’re there for, some moments you just witness from a distance. Either way, they’re part of the snapshot.