After our traditional breakfast at Haldern’s Lindenhof Hotel followed by a few cold German Weissbier, we’re readying ourselves for another day full of fun and music. I take a quick peak at the pop bar’s vinyl offering and decide against checking out the act playing in the bar next door – avant garde freejazz is not quite what I’m looking for on a Friday morning. What I am looking forward to though, is Maruja playing the Spiegeltent at 8pm this evening. The British post/art rock band has been on my radar since seeing them live during an afternoon of Dutch 2-day-festival London Calling back in 2023, although I haven’t listened to much of their music ever since. Recently though, I picked up ‘Thunder’ again, an absolutely, well.. thunderous song being packed with noise and madness. I’ve positioned myself right at the front of the Spiegeltent ready for this tune to kick off and right as it does, luck will have it: my glasses get knocked off my face by a participant of the moshpit. I don’t mind getting bumped into in the pit at all but I do quite mind having poor vision so the majority of ‘Thunder’ I’m desperately looking for my glasses, already fearing the worst. Much to my surprise, they’re still alive! I find them about a meter in front of me, laying on the floor with no scratch on ’em whatsoever. Phew! Another pit survived. It sadly meant missing out on the biggest part of this song but at least I secured myself from being able to actually see the acts for the rest of the weekend.

In chronological order, all acts I’ve seen live on the Friday of Haldern Pop 2025:
– Sylvie Kreusch
– Maruja
– Warhaus
– Warmduscher
– J. Bernardt