My friends, i reply in english as I have a translator here
but still I cannot write in GERMAN!!!
Ok, I have been planning things for some time now and I'd like to share my ideas with you as you are obviously interested.
I see 2 options.
1) sea side location, like the one suggested above. Great idea. Leipzig: beautiful area as it is in the middle, but Berlin or Dresden would have more public (never think small...). Anyway in this case I would do a german-only festival, like Surfer Joe's was in the beginning. Germany not only has the biggest number of surf bands in Europe (I could not get the post before...
) but also the best around in terms of show. Probably the other competitors following are Netherlands, Spain, Italy, north Europe, France and Croatia/Serbia area. So VIVA LA GERMANIA!!!!
So a festival that starts FROM German bands is good. It can be a meeting point for all the fans.
Then you see how it goes and eventually you can put in some international bands.
2) an event in a big city, like Berlin, that can attract people. We are talking about $$$ here as a large venue is needed and time. I am talking about something more like the Surfguitar101 Convention, but more towards the festival idea. Ticket to get in, bars managed directly by the organization, but surely a more controllable situation. Period for this: definitely winter time.
I made contacts and ideas already since long time and there will probably be very soon something steady going on in the name of Surfer Joe in Berlin. But cannot say anything right now.
I can help finding supports, at least for the backline (like Fender, at least try...), and I can support directly some logistics problem, from transportation, to accommodation, to preparing documents, to talk to potential sponsors, music stores blah blah blah.
If the festival is done properly there must be a Cultural Association/Verein to be able to deal with the accounting, sponsoring money, write and get invoices. On this I can also be helpful... I can do it as Surfer Joe Music.
Again about the location. Leipzig is a fantastic city but it is one of the places with less attention to Surf Music in general... again Berlin or Dresden (talking about East Germany) have constantly surf bands touring... so some clubs can be supporting in terms of gigs for the touring bands coming to the festival...
And another comment: openair fest is great, perfect, I agree. But do you have an idea about doing something outdoor? it is 99% problems and the remaining 1% is headache.
Lorenzo Surfer Joe
. 
