Wolfie's ticket winners experienced Rod Stewart in Munich

Wednesday, 3 December 2025:

The lines were buzzing between the United Kingdom and the Belgian North Sea coast as the marketing team at Wolfie's Whisky and the editors of our little Rod Stewart website busily exchanged emails. The topic: a possible collaboration on a Wolfie's promotional campaign to boost sales of Wolfie's at Lidl in Germany. Ideas were exchanged and then discarded. Then they agreed on a spontaneous ticket raffle for Rod Stewart's concert in Munich a few days later and discussed how to proceed. By 7 p.m., everything had been discussed and the competition went ‘on air’.

At the same time, Manuel Steiger sat relatively desperate in front of his computer in his hometown of Bad Wimpfen, a community of 7,000 inhabitants located about 80 kilometres from Stuttgart. After the die-hard Rod Stewart fan had attended the singer's concert in Mannheim at the end of November, he had been gripped by fever and was trying to get tickets for the show in Munich the following Sunday at the last minute.

But all his attempts were unsuccessful; the concert in the Olympiahalle had been sold out for weeks. Tickets were no longer available.

Just as he was about to give up, he stumbled across the Wolfie's Whisky campaign, which was giving away two tickets for the Munich show in cooperation with Lidl Germany and Storyteller.

Last chance

Manuel seized what was essentially his last chance to get tickets and ordered a bottle of whisky from the Lidl online shop via the link provided on the Storyteller website. This put Steiger, who describes himself as a Stewart fan ‘since I was born’, into the prize draw.

‘I didn't really expect to win,’ the Kraichgau native admitted in an interview with Storyteller. ‘But I wanted to at least give it a try.’ And in the end, he was lucky enough to be picked as the winner from the well-filled lottery drum. Let's take a look back at the event manager's experiences over the last few days.

Friday, 5 December 2025

5 p.m.:

Wolfie's Whisky's ticket campaign ended at 5 p.m. sharp, and from then on, nothing more could be done. All participants registered up to that point were now entered into the prize draw. The Wolfie's team then proceeded quite quickly with the draw. A few minutes later, an email popped up in Manuel Steiger's inbox. Sender: Wolfie's Whisky. The prize notification. At first, Steiger, who had just finished work, had no idea how lucky he was. It was only about an hour later that he noticed an unread email in his inbox. ‘Oh my God. Did I really win? I had to fight back a few tears,’ the Stewart fan replied to the team at Wolfie's, adding that he would love to travel to Munich with his partner.

The two names were immediately added to the guest list, with a note that Manuel would have to pick up the tickets on Sunday at the box office at the Olympiahalle.

8 p.m.:

Sir Rod Stewart took to the stage in Zurich and played his show to a sold-out Hallenstadion. In Bad Wimpfen, the overwhelmed ticket winners were still winding down the evening with a glass of wine. The anticipation for the trip to Munich grew by the minute.

Saturday, 6 December 2025

8 a.m.

Bad news early in the morning from Bad Wimpfen! Manuel's partner Verena had fallen ill overnight, making it impossible for her to travel to Munich. Manuel immediately contacted the organisers and asked if it would be possible to transfer the second ticket to another person.

Sunday, 7 December 2025

5:33 a.m., Bad Wimpfen: At the crack of dawn, the smartphone rang in the Steiger household. The transfer of the second ticket to another person was confirmed by Wolfie's and added to the guest list. Nothing now stood in the way of the trip to Munich. The Steigers now entered a hectic phase. The fan shirts had to be found, as they wanted to adhere to the correct ‘dress code’ in the Olympiahalle. Once a Rod fan, always a Rod fan, and Manuel and his father Kurt, who was now going to enjoy the concert, wanted to show that. Father Steiger was particularly excited, as he is a percussionist in the cover band SROF Revival, which has been performing Rod Stewart songs for 32 years. Seeing the man whose songs he plays time and again live filled him with great pride.

3.30 p.m., Munich: Rod Stewart, who had flown in from Zurich the day before, left his hotel in Munich city centre and made his way to the Olympiahalle quite early. Once there, he immediately retired to his dressing room and turned on the television. A technician from his crew had set up the Celtic TV stream on the television, so the die-hard Celtic fan could now watch the top match of the Scottish Premiership between the Hoops and the Hearts of Edinburgh. At this point, Manuel and his father Kurz had just set off from Bad Wimpfen on the 300-kilometre journey to Munich.

4 p.m.: Kick-off in Glasgow. Rod's relaxed attitude was gone, and the tension rose with the kick-off in Glasgow. Celtic went into the game in second place and wanted to climb to the top of the table with a win. The match against Hearts was also the first game for new manager Wilfried Nancy.

4:22 p.m.: Rod was satisfied. Celtic were clearly superior in the early stages of the game, playing with determination and creating the first chances. The opening goal for the Bhoys was in the air.

4:44 p.m.: But then: a fixed stare, his mouth reduced to a thin line – Sir Rod had to watch as Claudio Braga scored the opening goal for Hearts. Shortly afterwards, it was half-time and Celtic were behind. The singer's mood had certainly been better.

5:05 p.m.: Referee Don Robertson blew the whistle for the second half at Celtic Park in pouring rain. Rod shifted nervously back and forth in his chair.

5:25 p.m.: Another mood killer from Glasgow. The Hearts scored their second goal through Oisin McEntee. Rod watched in disbelief on TV as the Hearts formed a jubilant huddle on the pitch for the second time.

5.30 p.m.: Meanwhile, on stage at the Olympiahalle, the band checked the sound, without their boss, who was suffering along with his Hoops just a few metres away. After a good 25 minutes, everything was perfect, the sound was right, and the lighting technicians also reported that everything was okay!

5.53 p.m.: A loud cry came from the Stewart dressing room. Kieran Tierney had just scored for the Hoops at Celtic Park, 1,800 kilometres away, reducing the deficit to 1-2. However, it was only in injury time, with only a few minutes left to at least get a draw. And shortly afterwards, the final whistle blew, and Rod trudged out of the dressing room in a foul mood.

6.30 p.m.: In front of the Olympiahalle, the fans' wait is over, the doors open and long queues form at the entrances. The first bags and tickets are checked.

7 p.m.: While Sir Rod warmed up his voice backstage and prepared for the show, Manuel and his father Kurt had arrived at the hall and treated themselves to some refreshments at one of the numerous snack stands. Picking up the tickets at the box office went smoothly, and then they took a look at the merchandise stand before taking their reserved seats to the side of the stage. Kurt and Manuel soaked up the atmosphere, just like the Celtic players had done a few hours earlier when they stepped onto the turf at Celtic Park for the first time. The Olympiahalle filled up more and more with every passing minute.

7.30 p.m.: The countdown was on, and in front of the stage a group of fans, all wearing Celtic jerseys, stood together in a circle and chatted animatedly. Others leafed through the tour programme they had just bought, while others rushed outside again to get a drink or two. Shortly before 8 p.m., the Olympiahalle, where Rod Stewart was performing for the 17th time this year, was filled to capacity. 12,000 fans had come – the Olympiahalle was sold out.

8 p.m.: The obligatory bagpipe music sounded, ‘Scotland the Brave’ blared from the loudspeakers, and then the red curtain rose. Manuel and Kurt enjoyed the approximately two-hour show from the first to the last second (=> Read the concert review here <=).

‘It was a great evening, Rod was in an extremely good mood, despite the football result,’ Manuel told the Storyteller the next day. ‘The set list left nothing to be desired. We had a really great time.’

Father Steiger sang along fervently. Despite the party atmosphere, Manuel didn't forget to take a few souvenir photos with his smartphone. ‘Unfortunately, I didn't get a ball, one landed right next to me with the person sitting next to me.’ But in the end, that was secondary. ‘We are infinitely grateful to Wolfie's for allowing us to experience this show. You never know if it was the last concert in Germany.’

With that, he hurried back to the car with his father in tow through the Munich rain. Leaving the car park at the Olympic Stadium wasn't without its problems, ‘you know how it is in Munich when events at the Olympic Park end,’ said Manuel, but then they got on the motorway without further delays and drove the 300 kilometres back home, where they arrived at around 2 a.m. and sank into bed, feeling elated.

‘We would like to take this opportunity to thank Wolfie's and his partners once again for organising the competition,’ said Manuel the next day. ‘Basically, it still feels a bit like a dream that we were in Munich yesterday.’ But dreaming is allowed, and so the two Stewart fans are hoping that the concert in Munich was not the British singer's last appearance in Germany. ‘If he really does come back, we'll be there again, and my partner will be coming too.’