The summer festival hosted Cologne in cooperation with Orkus Music Magazine, has become one of the most known and outsold festivals on the gothic calendar. Beginning six years ago with very few artists, 2008 saw the grand expansion with Performances such as Suicide Commando, Eisbrecher and L'ame Immortelle bringing the crowds to 16,000 attendees per day. What makes Amphi Open Air so special is that children from all ages attend. With their partnership with gothfamily.net, it's a usual sight to see music artist such as Gothminister and Mono Inc. giving out autographs and taking picture with the children. The whole venue is situated on a hard stone, so there's no need to worry about mud. There are shops; lounges, restaurants and also an artificial beach where it is common sight see some of the Goths taking a sun bathe!





Friday The festival began on Friday evening with the Amphi new talents concert competition in the Theatre, followed by the Warm up party situated beside Koln HBF in the Alter Wartesaal.





Saturday  Saturday kicked off with the new talents winners Zin taking the Main stage at 12.00. Though midday afternoon was dominated by the appearances inside the newly plaster refurbished Staatenhaus, as last year saw the plaster falling from the roof during Feindflug. Miss Construction started things off with them already packing it up with the jokey lyrics and skin to latex bass. Daniel Myer's project Destroid saw the same attention, showing off his new album and previous' loudspeaker'. Faderhead readjusted the BPM with appearances of JL from Straftanz and Joe & Daniel from SAM, sending the beats bleeding into the crowd's ears. Solitary Experiments saw a flood of listeners with the foursome making them the Amphi band performance of this year. Nachtmahr commanded by Thomas and Massimo, with the addition of four pretty propaganda girls raised the roof again. Going back to the Main stage, Welle: Erdball returning from 2008 showed off their near perfected live music act of bit pop brilliance. The crowd entwined in bit pop while huge blow up balloons and paper aeroplanes were sent into them. Blutengel made their presence known with Chris Pohl's dramatic girls showing their moves on stage as he sat in his skull throne. The main and only disappointment of Saturday had to be given to Ashbury heights who have still to work on their really un co-ordinated appearances at gigs, and given their known performance back at Amphi 2008 it does really show seriousness about their feelings towards their fans.




Sunday  The main stage was the place to be on Sunday. Mono Inc. brought up the crowd to max, as they got a well-deserved welcome for their second appearance at the festival from 2009 as Martin Engler became the mad man of live acts. Rabia Sorda on tour with Combichrist saw their music become trance worthy as the crowed leaned into the heavy but complimenting hard beats. Over at the Staatenhaus Coppelius also making their second appearance had really come a long way with them definitely having the most dramatic and well performed acts on Sunday; as crazy clarinet honking and Double bass thumps, dominated this asylum worthy Victorian band. Going back to main stage, Combichrist did not have the best performance. Andy LaPlegua's project saw only bleeding bass to painful amounts that didn't really live up to his tracks, though had a huge turnout. Frontline Assembly made it out in the showing of tracks from their newest album as they ravaged it up in the dark. ASP made great use of the rain; the crowds huddled over the mushroom roofs of the main stage and roared in synchronous waves all the way to the other side of the Rhine. With the introduction of VNV Nation Ronan Harris kept the crowd forgetting and not caring for the dampness as he made his presence known and made these bodies of tiredness from Saturday night still move, finishing with a thousand voices in black singing the end to Perpetual, with Faith power and VNV lit in LEDs on stage.





Amphi has become a name that can be known for family friendly, high quality and music for the dark masses. The only striking problems noticed at the festival were the cramped areas in between stages which made it hard for passers-by to get from one place to the other and the dear few amount of ladies toilets leading to queues, though these things are usually typical of any festival. With that aside though Orkus Open Air Amphi festival is still a near five star experience for a very reasonable price, which allows for summer to be spent dark!