Last Friday, December 27, the first official LPU Meetup in Cologne took place from 7pm to 9pm and I was asked to host the event with my fellow LPUer Kai (LPU:RandomHybrid) at the Hard Rock Café Cologne. While Kai has a lot of stage experience cause he is the guitarist and rapper in a band (Random Cubes – check them out), I’ve never hosted anything in my whole life. Thanks to the support of Lorenzo (=notes) and a rehearsal with Kai before the meetup, I was ready to enter the lion den.
Before the official part began, we met a few other LPUers at Starbucks Cologne. Among them were some very close friends I’ve met at the last (unofficial) meetup in Kerpen like Anne and Angie, who traveled to Cologne from the Netherlands, Prici from Switzerland, who had the idea to have a meetup in Cologne, and many others from all over Germany like Cathrin, Tobi, Marcel, Bibi, Fabian and to my great pleasure also my fellow LPFC staff member Jennifer. We had a lot of fun together, but Kai and I left the group around 5.30pm cause we had to arrive at Hard Rock Café Cologne an hour before the meetup was to begin.
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- Kai and Marcel at Starbucks
When we arrived, the Hard Rock Team immediately welcomed us and showed us to the closed up area for the event. Their technician had worked for over 5 hours to get the videos running, so they could be screened during the meetup, which was really great cause in the end everything ran smoothly.
The HRC manager talked to us shortly about the run of event and the HRC staff served us some water while we prepared for the evening. Everyone was really kind and ready to welcome a horde of LPUers.
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- The LPU meetups location at Hard Rock Café Cologne
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- Kai waiting for the Meetup to begin
Around 6.30pm the first attendees arrived. Kai and I welcomed them and introduced ourselves. It was nice to meet some people I’ve only known via Twitter, Facebook or LPU like Nadja, who flew in from Dresden, or Melanie, Giuseppe, Jessi, Vicky and Avani. This is why the meetups are such a great experience. You meet all those people you’ve only talked to online a few times, if at all, but when you get together, you get along with them instantly because they share the same passion.
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- Bibi and Fabian
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- Photo: Prici P.
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- Photo: Melanie S.
When everyone was seated, Kai and I started the event with a short introduction and a few words about Power the World. Considering that I almost felt like puking in the morning, I was oddly calm now and after I was done with talking all nervousness left, cause it was so much fun!
The HRC staff started to serve us their ridiculously awesome burgers and we could concentrate on filling our stomachs and getting to know each other better.
The atmosphere was really nice. Everyone walked around, made photos, talked and laughed together. HRC had a special video channel for the event with lots of Linkin Park videos and many of us sang along to the songs.
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- Photo: Melanie S.
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- Photo: Melanie S.
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- LPFC staff member Angie with LPUer Melanie at the LPU meetup in Cologne | Photo: Melanie S.
At around 8pm, it was time for our second part of hosting. While I introduced everyone to the new LPUXIII, Kai announced the POWERLESS video and the exclusive LPU-TV episode which was over freaking 15 minutes long! Everyone enjoyed that one for sure! We then thanked a few special people like Lorenzo, the HRC Marketing Team, the HRC Staff, Prici (remember she had the idea for the meetup) and the attendees.
After this, everyone went to buy the Linkin Park Signature Series 31 shirt with a 15% “meetup discount” and then we just hung out together. Unfortunately, I had to catch my train at 9.50pm, but some attendees stayed at HRC until around 10.30.
If you ever have the chance to attend one of the LPU meetups, you just have to go there or you would miss a great opportunity to meet new friends. But enough from me, here is some feedback from the other attendees:
It was another great experience meeting more LP fans and LPU members. I’m very thankful to be a part of this awesome community. Also a big Thank You to Hard Rock and to my friend Adie for the great team work as the hosts!
– Kai
I wanna thank LP and the LPU for taking so much care of the fans ! We had a great evening and it was awesome to meet all those Linkin Park fans. You guys rock!
– Giuseppe
It was a pleasure to meet people with the same passion and love for a band. can’t wait for the next meet-up 🙂
– Jessi
The evening exceeded my expectations, it’s great to be a part of LPU community, and especially this evening!I had a lot of fun meeting new people and I’d love to see them again. The food, the staff and the entire location at the Hard Rock Cafe were great! The group picture at the end of the evening was a very special memory for me! Ps: Thanks to everyone who made this evening possible!
– Marcel
It was awesome to meet all the people from LPU. I had a wonderful evening and I hope to see you all again. LPU connects people!
– Jennifer
If you get the chance to join an LPU meetup, do it. Believe me, you don’t want to miss it. It’s always great to meet the other fans and share our love for the best band ever. LPU Meetup HRC Cologne was awesome!
– Prici
It was an amazing opportunity to meet people who love Linkin Park as much as I do and to make friends with them. We all had a great time!
– Melanie