It all started with a simple question. Some time ago I got talking to Sascha Franke and asked whether he might not put on another R&B and 90s party in Geesthacht. The reason was mundane and telling at the same time: for years there had simply been nothing of the sort here. Anyone who wanted a night out to that kind of music drove to Hamburg or Lüneburg. On 31 July the question turned into an event. And one that worked.
The location does half the work
For a format like this, the Beachclub on the bank of the Elbe is almost without competition. You stand in the sand with the river in front of you, and on this particular Friday the sun sat exactly where you would have ordered it for a summer evening. Add the beach volleyball courts right next door, played on all afternoon, not as a scheduled item but simply because they were there.
There is no need to make too much of it. But anyone who has ever tried to conjure up a summer mood in a strip-lit multi-purpose hall knows to appreciate the difference.
Music that takes everyone with it
Across the evening the live DJ ran a mix that did exactly what it was supposed to do: it shut nobody out. R&B and 90s is a rewarding field musically, because it works across the generations. The forty- and fifty-somethings know the tracks from their own youth, the younger ones know them from samples, remixes and TikTok.
The result was a crowd of a kind you rarely see mixed like that at local events. Young people, middle-aged couples, older guests, and families whose children played in the sand into the evening while the music ran. Nobody looked out of place.
Organisation without friction
What stood out: it worked. Drinks and food, with a cocktail list above average for a beach club, no noticeable shortages, no queues that slowed the evening down, no situation that got out of hand. The way people treated each other was right too, and the mood stayed relaxed throughout.
Organisation is the part of an event that nobody notices when it is done well. Which is precisely why it deserves a mention here. Sascha Franke and the team on site did a clean job.
What that says about Geesthacht
It is not a grand thesis, but it holds: this town has places, and it has people who turn up. What happens too rarely is the step in between, someone taking hold of a format and seeing it through.
31 July was the proof that the demand is there. It took no six-figure funding, no working group and no multi-year feasibility study. It took an organiser, a DJ, a beach and good weather.
Which leaves only one argument against doing the whole thing again next summer: that nobody asks.
So consider this my request for 2027.
