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Bornaische Straße 210, Markkleeberg
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This is the main venue of the festival, and the Campsite
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LOCATION FROM LEIPZIG HAUPTBAHNHOF
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The Agra is located to the South of the City Centre, the best way of
getting there is to jump on the number 11 Tram and get off at 'Am
Eichwinkel' about 25 minutes from the centre of town.
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DESCRIPTION OF VENUE / HISTORY
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The Agra Messepark is Leipzig's old exhibition Centre. Its not a pretty site, being made up
out of a number of very large metal warehouse/hanger buildings and some older brick
buildings probably dating from the early communist era. There is also a large grassed
area that is used as the campsite during the festival. Apparenatly there are 12000 sq m
of floor space and 50000 sq m of grassland.
At other times the Messepark is used as a Agricultural Exhibition Centre, a Flower
market, a Heavy Plant exhibition, a Dog Show and various other exhibitions and shows.
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This is the main venue for Wave Gotik Treffen, the site is huge and offers just about
everything you could ever want from a Goth Festival. The biggest bands will play here in
Halle 2, the Campsite is located here as is a huge Gothic shopping market and there is
enough food being served to allow you to eat from a different stall each day.
ARRIVING AT THE AGRA MESSEPARK
If you come by tram then you will be dropped off right outside the Agra (you will know this
as the tram will empty). When you enter you will pass through a security area, they will
want to check your bag for drink and food (if you’re camping you will be OK just so long
as you have the right colour wristband), else you will lose your drink and/or food (if you’re
a diabetic I would advise having a card or something as I once heard of somebody losing
their chocolate bar here). Once through just follow the crowd forward. The first building to
your left is where you are heading, this is Halle 1 and the Shopping Halle.
HALLE 1 - SHOPPING
The first building is where you will find the a huge Gothic Market (imagine a large
supermarket sized building full of Goth clothes, music, jewellery, and people all dressed
up wandering around). Bands may also be doing autographs just inside the door so
keep an eye out for posters with this information. Probably the main shop to look out for
in the shopping hall is the XtraX store (if you want clothes), a gothic emporium with some
wonderful clothes, if you’re after CDs and music then head to the ‘Out of Line’ stall. Your
shopping experience will only be curtailed by your money limits and the weight of your
luggage (always a good thing to remember if you are already at your weight limit).
However you will find so many stalls that it will probably take you a few days to get around
them all. You can enjoy the food café between Halle 1 and Halle 2, else head outside for
food and drink, where you will find just about every food kind on sale.
Its quite easy to get lost in here if you are with friends, I suggest using the fountain
outside as a meeting place at a per-arranged time, as its almost impossible to find
somebody once you lose them.
- WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN STORE - Right in the centre of Halle 1 you will find the
Official Wave Gotik Treffen store. They sell the official T-Shirts and other WGT
merchandise, if you need a venue map they always have spares and you can also
buy the official WGT book/diary that normally comes with a free CD. T-Shirts
normally go very quickly so when you see them I would advise buying one (they
never seem to print enough, and you cant buy them afterwards as they are not for
sale on any website!). Its a shame there is not more merchandise, personally I
would like to see other products such as hoodies, jackets and a variety of t-shirts
(very much like other festivals).
- XTRAX - The largest store within the Market, they travel around all the festivals as
do many of the stores. Personally I find it really hard to find anything that I want to
buy, mainly because there are so many items on the rails thats its almost
impossible to look at a single item with any ease. Its also worth checking the
clothes over before you buy them as some could be damaged from festival travel.
The store also employs a rather fine gentleman in a wheelchair with some
fantastic tattoos (although I didn't see him in 2008) to stop too many people from
entering (when the store is too full), he will place a piece of sticky tape around the
handle of your carrier bag when you enter, and may halt you if the store is too full,
its quite common to see a queue of people waiting to get in. The store is now
happy to take credit cards. There may also be another XTRAX bargain store, worth
checking out for some bargains.
- OUT OF LINE - A great store for CDs and Band T-Shirts, it may take a while to get
to the front of the store but its well worth the effort. They have a great range of
music and more importantly they have great knowledge of each CD, if you are
looking for a single song from a group they normally know what album its on (just
ask). The T-Shirt selection is also fantastic, well worth visiting. Good prices too,
check out their Store in Berlin if you have time.
- CALEIDOLEX - A wonderful Gothic store specialising in Gothic home textiles and
furnishings, they sell everything from candles and bathing foam to candle sticks
and rugs. There may also a couple of people from the store offering to do your
make-up for you, an excellent service if you want to look extra special.
- EMSO Band Merchandise - Another wonderful store, very much like Out of Line,
they have a great selection of CDs (probably slightly cheaper than elsewhere) and
probably an even bigger selection of T-Shirts and other band clothing.
- QUEEN OF DARKNESS - Looking for Clothes and a great bargain then head to
the Queen of Darkness store. Some excellent original clothing both female and
male as well as a great selection of accessories. If you see something buy it, it
wont be there tomorrow.
- HORSNORM - So this is also a great store, they sell New Rock Boots and other
clothing with some gothic home furnishings. They normally have a Coffin
standing at the side of their store that you can stand in and have your photo taken
(missing from WGT 2008)
- ADERLASS - A great clothing store (if a little expensive) and probably the loudest
sound system in the Halle. They sell Male and Female clothing along with a
selection of Aderlass CDs that are well worth checking out, with some great re-
mixes of your fave songs on them.
- MORE STALLS - OK so I cant remember any other stores, if you know of any
others, or if you run a store at WGT then send me an email with the details and I
will include it here, thanks.
The Shopping Halle is open from 12noon on Friday/Saturday till about 1am
Sunday the Shopping Halle will close earlier and Monday the Shopping will finish at 10-
11ish...apparently it all depends on the amount of people still shopping at that time of
night. If its raining the shopping Halle will be doing well and may stay open longer.
BETWEEN HALLE 1 and 2
If you walk past all the stores heading towards Halle 2 you will come to the area between
the Halles. You will find a permanent café here, toilets (a long queue) and normally a
large amount of Goths sitting on the floor in various states of consciousness. If you are
walking out of Halle 1 then right in front of you, you will see a large doorway leading to
Halle 2 and the main Band stage. Don't even try to get through here (security wont let you
through), its not allowed, the flow of people is from the other side of Halle 2.
HALLE 2 - MAIN BAND STAGE
From the area between the Halles you can see the Main Stage through two large doors,
security won’t let you pass, you will need to walk around the building and enter from the
other side. Walk outside past the food stalls and turn left, follow the building around. You
will find security gates and a large amount of security staff; they will want to check you for
food/drink, cameras and weapons. A full pat down is not uncommon and they will check
your bag quite well (although on the last day you may just get waved through). Once
through you are at the main stage (Halle 2), to your right is the stage, and to your left are
the bars (toilets can be found towards the middle of the left hand side; however they will
be quite horrible with 7000+ people using them, still if you have got to go you have got to
go...
All the biggest/best bands will play on this stage, the headlining act normally come on at
10-11pm with another smaller group playing a Midnight special.
If the weather is hot then this Halle is going to get very hot as the evening progresses. If
you want to see a headlining act then you will need to be here at least one band before
them, preferably two bands. Unfortunately you will probably need to push a bit if you get
here late, its going to be jammed solid with people, just take your time and have a little
patience. If you want to get to the far side and its solid with people then head towards the
back of the Halle,it will be less packed here and you will be able to follow the path of
people around.
For 2008 there was a major improvement, the area between the two sets of doors (on the
opposite side of the Halle from the stage) are now connected, with a large area outside
where you will find the toilets, room to smoke and a small bar. This is an excellent area
to grab some fresh air between bands (apart from the smokers puffing away) and is now
a great way of getting from one end of the Halle to the other when its really packed.
Sound quality has in previous years been quite poor here, square box, metal walls
equals poor acoustics. However from 2006 the sound quality has been very much better
and you could hear the sound of the band from every corner of the Halle. My tip for the
best experience is to get here early and get yourself between the two large metal pillars
that dominate the stage area preferably towards the left hand of the stage (its less
packed). Ensure you don’t need to leave, if you leave the Halle you will need to go right
around the outside of the building again, this has been known to take 30-40 minutes
once bands start playing. Eat before coming in, there are a couple food stalls, but they
don’t sell the best food. Be prepared for a large number of people, and if the headlining
band has started playing and you are still outside then I would advise finding something
else to do (even if you get in, it will be hard to get into a good place to see the band).
Band Merchandise will be on sale at the far side of the Halle from where you enter.
Toilet issues now located on the 'WGT Improvements' page.
HALLE 4.1
If you have just come out of Halle 1 into the area between the Halle's you can turn left and
walk into a largish student union type of bar. This is Halle 4.1. This room has a couple of
bars and seating (look for seating upstairs too). Bands can sometimes play in this very
pleasant room. Toilets are also based in this room to the left, and are normally more
empty that the ones between the Halle's. There is normally a stall selling simple food,
and some sort of art exhibition on the floor above (opposite the upstairs bar area).
HALLE 4.2
If you continue to walk towards the back of room Halle 4.1 from where you walked in, you
will find in each corner a half hidden doorway. You will find a security guy standing here
and he will perform the normal search of your bag, once past you will find yourself in
Halle 4.2. This room is very large,there will be bands playing in this room (some years),
normally from the evening onwards till very late. The sound quality is normally very good
and its quite easy to see the band from most of the room.
When the bands have finished the centre of the room becomes a dance floor where
some of the worlds best Goth DJs will be playing every night until the very early hours. If
you like to dance but have found it hard to dance in other venues then I suggest heading
here, the dance floor is huge and you will always find space, although the venue has no
atmosphere in comparison to the Moritzbastei or Darkflower.
HALLE 4.3
Apparently there is a Cinema past Halle 4,2, however I have never been into this room.
EATING AND DRINKING AT THE AGRA - OUTSIDE
So you need to stop and eat at some stage, head outside and you will find that there are
a large amount of stalls selling various different food types. You will find stalls selling
sweets, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, Chinese, Indian, vegetarian and pasta. Personally I
always eat here and have always found the food to be excellent quality (for festival food
that is). There are a couple of stalls also selling beer and other drinks here. Seating can
be hard to find, make sure you sit at the stall you buy food from or go and sit on the near
by wall (or grass if the weather is OK).
CAMPING
I have detailed the info on the CAMPING page.
CASH POINT
So you need some more cash. Many of the stores do not accept credit cards so come
prepared with cash. Should you need a cash point then you have two options, right
opposite the Agra Messepark there is a Total Petrol Station, head inside and there is a
Cash point just inside the door. If its not working cross back over the road to the same
side as the Messepark and head up the road back towards the city centre, about 200m
up the road you will find a 'Sparkasse' or bank, that has a cash point inside the foyer.
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