Tell me, Mr Marquardt, how did your boat become a Wacken star?
Completely by mistake! We wouldn't have expected it ourselves, but we were way ahead of the game. Travelling to the festival in a boat to spend the night - no one had ever done that before us, and we were certainly the only seaworthy boat on the site. The excitement started as soon as we arrived: several kilometres before the access road, the first people started waving and shouting "Ey, great idea" and so on - we heard this countless times over the next few days. Every ten minutes or so we were asked if someone could take a photo or if we could sail on the boat. There are a lot of people from Schleswig-Holstein at the festival and therefore also a lot of sailors, who peppered us with questions about where else we were travelling and told us their stories - as is always the case among sailors.
But surely it's not just the sailors who have their eyes on your "Hedwig"?
No, others too. There was always a lot going on on board. The sea rescuers came by for a group photo and a little chat. We had very special on-board parties with NDR gardening expert John Langley and burlesque artist Eve Champagne, who was very impressed by life on board and came by several times. There were also plenty of chance visitors; we were like a small lighthouse on the huge camping site. We had erected the mast with a flag flying by day and a string of lights at night. More than once we heard: "It's a good thing you're here to show me the way, otherwise I would never have found my spot again." And if you were already there, you could also come on board for a short time. Even the toughest metalheads from the Wasteland camp next door asked to come on board - and then the guys sat in the cockpit of this little boat grinning in their eye-catching frocks. It was somehow surreal, even for Wacken, and it went on like that every evening. Holger Hübner, one of the founders of Wacken, had a photo of us in his status twice, and the pictures were also shown on the screens on the festival site.
So this was all planned well in advance?
No, on the contrary: it was a spontaneous idea of a purely practical nature. My brother and I were sailing in the Danish South Sea and took the "Hedwig" out of the water in Faborg, Denmark. As we had a job at the festival afterwards, it just made sense to extend life on board and head straight for the W:O:A on the way back.
And how does it feel to live on 17 feet of land?
"Hedwig" stood firm and straight. Inside, apart from the lack of a wet room, living is no different to living in a caravan; it fulfils the same function, but is more cosy. And a boat always has one big advantage: it's rain or shine. Last year, the festival was mired in mud and we were often asked whether we feared bad weather. If it had been like that again this year, we wouldn't have minded, as the Leisure is designed to sink into the mud. Let's see, maybe we'll get the chance next year.
