Zappanale

Zappanale is an annual music festival held outside Bad Doberan, a German town previously part of East Germany. The festival was first held in 1990, and the program features various bands performing the music of the late composer and guitarist Frank Zappa. Many musicians who have previously played with Zappa have performed at the festival over the years.
Many of the festival's organizers originate from East Germany, and grew up in a period where Zappa's music was considered unacceptable by several Eastern European communist countries. One of the festival's founders, Wolfhard Kutz, was persecuted by the East German secret police, the Stasi, for being a Zappa fan. When all Stasi files were declassified by the German government in 1992, Kutz learned that his file stated that he "knows how to influence the youth with Zappa". When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Kutz could openly enjoy his passion for Zappa's music, and he founded the fan club "Arf-society". The Zappanale premiered the year after, as what was just an extended party with only one band playing some Zappa songs. Since then, the festival has grown, and more than 2,000 attend the festival in a weekend in August. The Arf Society became an officially registered organization in 1993.

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