Walter Schnabel could tell many more stories too. As program and event manager, Schnabel, who is now 70 years old, has not only been in charge of Jazz im Biergarten from the very beginning, but also of the Summer Festival concert series, which was launched five years later. The two successful formats are now celebrating their 25th and 30th anniversaries, respectively. In 2019, the summer before the Covid-19 pandemic, a total of around 57,000 visitors came to the concerts. Last year, attendance was cut in half due to Covid-related admission restrictions and rainy weather.

This year's double anniversary begins on Sunday, July 4. Jazz im Biergarten will then start with the band The Bad Goats, serving up rock'n'roll and cover songs, before Los Manolos opens the summer festival on Monday with their rumba and flamenco sounds. Until September 26, 58 more concerts will follow, bringing lots live music to the Rhine. "Last year we had a rather weak start, but that got better from the second week of the event," recalls Dirk Dötsch, owner of the Rheinaue Park Restaurant. "Now we hope that people are so starved for the arts that they come from the very start." A maximum of 800 guests are allowed in the beer garden at any one time. "We've left the hygiene concept a little stricter than necessary," Dötsch says. He is aware, he says, that there will always be a need for information on the part of the public. "The live music means we're no longer just an outdoor restaurant, and they have to have higher standards because of that.”

For example, every guest who leaves his or her seat in the beer garden must wear a mouth-nose protection. To be admitted, one must be fully vaccinated, recovered or tested negative - all with appropriate proof. For the past five weeks, there has been a test station directly in front of the Park Restaurant, which offers free rapid testing with a result after 15 minutes. As in the previous year, dancing is not allowed in the beer garden. A maximum of eight people from a maximum of five households may sit at a table. Dötsch: "But people can sing along with us and are also allowed to sway. Swaying is the new dancing." These restrictions worked surprisingly well last year. "By and large, the guests complied, with a few exceptions," explains the restaurant director. "And if they didn't, our popular festival would be on the rocks.”

At the beginning of June this year, Walter Schnabel got a green light - and set up the huge lineup of 60 concerts within ten days. In doing so, he has a special way of booking the bands. "I don't go about it as a professional booker, but with my heart," says Schnabel. As a drummer, he played in the Blue Out Jazztet for 20 years. So the 70-year-old event director not only has a musical background, but he also knows how artists feel on stage. At the concerts in the beer garden at the Park Restaurant, he is the first to arrive and the last to leave. Schnabel has been there from the beginning. In addition to the magnificent venue, it is largely his work, both as artistic and technical director, that has made both concert series a fixture in Bonn's summer. "There are guests who want our event dates as soon as possible so they can plan their summer vacation," Dötsch reports. "Our social media channels are already red-hot again.”

Among the new bands performing for the first time at Park Restaurant are, for example, "Vier gewinnt," a group that covers hits by German rap icons Die Fantastischen Vier. Says Walter Schnabel, "We're proud of our excellent reputation, which extends as far as Cuba." Because as recently as 2019, four bands from the Caribbean island came to the Rheinaue in Bonn before the pandemic broke out. And extreme flexibility was required on the part of the event manager. On the night of July 15, the beer garden burned down, and a few hours later a temporary stage had to be set up on the terrace. Christian Meringolo played his "Notte Italiana" there in the pouring rain, Schnabel recalls. "During the concert, I had to constantly mop up to keep the amplifiers dry.”