Culture Senator Klaus Lederer (left) has spent a lot of money to give Berliners and their guests a nice summer. A summer full of cultural experiences, across all genres, from noble to popular, accessible, diverse – and above all free of charge and in the open air.
The Senate approved EUR 8.3 million for the “Cultural Summer Festival” and EUR 1.2 million for the “Outside City”. In addition, the districts together receive a special payment of 720,000 euros for local activities.
The senator entrusted the organization of the two state-wide program lines to the state-owned cultural projects Berlin GmbH, which is why they also share a common website: The Drußenstadt is the large general store where you can find pretty much everything that is currently offered in Berlin in terms of culturally-inspired leisure activities becomes.
Moritz van Dülmen, managing director of the cultural projects, explains that the Outer Town also acts as a platform for the countless small and very small organizers who have hardly any money for their own marketing or advertising measures. “The high access figures show us,” he adds, “that people are also specifically looking for such an open-air calendar on the Internet.”
The cultural summer festival, on the other hand, is a series of extra events curated by the cultural projects. 90 experiences on 90 days and 90 locations are offered – and halfway through, Moritz van Dülmen states with satisfaction: “It’s going well. All events are full, whether it’s the big events, which can attract several thousand visitors, or small locations, for which you have to book free tickets in advance.”
When he talks about “bread and circuses” with regard to the Outer Town and the cultural summer festival, he doesn’t mean it in the ancient Roman sense. For him, “bread” stands for the fact that the freelance artists in the capital have something to bite about.
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Klaus Lederer started both summer campaigns to support them financially. Those in the creative scene who have had a particularly difficult time during the lockdowns can now benefit from government aid, and not as handouts, but as a good fee for their performances.
These concerts, readings, performances are the “games” that van Dülmen speaks of: fun for the people, culture for everyone, everywhere in the city – or at least where the district authorities had the good will to take part.
The next highlights of the cultural summer festival are: A concert with four very different pianists on August 12 from 7:30 p.m. on Walter-Benjamin-Platz in Charlottenburg. Sebastian Knauer plays classical music, Axel Zwingenberger Boogie-Woogie, Martin Tingvall is responsible for jazz, Joja Wendt for entertainment. The following day, the “Long Night of Astronomy” lures visitors to Tempelhofer Feld. The Planetarium Berlin Foundation will bring telescopes through which the night sky can be viewed – and with a bit of luck even a shooting star.
On August 14th, the bread factory on Caligariplatz in Weißensee presents itself in all its facets for a full day: There are readings, spontaneous drama performances, a silent film with live music, workshops, artistry, tango. On August 20th it’s “Ostrock Deluxe”: If you want to reminisce or – as a non-GDR citizen – want to get to know the legendary songs from “Alt wie ein Baum” to “Der blaue Planet”, you can go to Theater Ost am Book free admission tickets at S-Bahn station Adlershof. Further information on the program is available at www.draussenstadt.berlin.