After lockdowns, liberalizations, renewed rule tightening and numerous event cancellations,in the second half of the year the cultural landscape is slowly but surely picking up speed again – as long as the incidence remains as low as it is now.
We have compiled the highlights. What you can look forward to in the coming months and our tips.
POP MUSIC & FESTIVALS
Whether it’s pop, rock, hip-hop or punk: concerts are starting again! Mostly outdoors, though – a plus point given the summer temperatures.
For example, there is the “Picnic Concert Series” in various cities in Germany, which already proved itself last summer as a festival alternative for music-hungry freaks and concert fans. This year, acts such as Provinz, Joris, Faber, LEA, Mine and Grossstadtgeflüster will be performing in various cities. The concept envisages groups of four visitors sharing a picnic blanket and staying in their respective assigned area of the audience area – a simple and effective hygiene concept as a Corona measure.
In the context of pop music, of course, the Hamburger “Reeperbahn Festival” should not go unmentioned. Here, streaming and live performances mix at this year’s edition. The festival focuses on pop music, networking and conferences. Whether labels, publishers or promising newcomers; in the three days of the festival you will meet the pop decision-makers and white hopes of the country in Hamburg. This year’s concert program includes RY X and Alice Phoebe Lou.
– 19.09., Hamburg
The Popkultur festival in Berlin annually hosts the country’s pop avant-garde as well as an audience that can look forward to concerts, workshops and talks. While last year’s Popkultur was held entirely online, this year’s edition will also feature a program divided into live and onlinestream, with a limited number of participants and a strict hygiene concept for the live concerts at the Kulturbrauerei Berlin.
This year’s Popkultur will feature Anna Calvi, Drangsal with his album release concert and Apex Anima, among others.
August 25-28, Kulturbrauerei Berlin
ART & EXHIBITIONS
We continue to look at Berlin: while the Gropius Bau attracted a diverse audience with the exhibition of artist Yayoi Kusama after the liberation of the second lockdown this spring and summer, and the exhibition of the Japanese painter and artist caused a real rush for tickets, the exhibition “The Cool and the Cold” starts at September 17th. It will feature American pop art and art from the Soviet Union, juxtaposing them with a critical eye.
September 2021 – January 9, 2022, Gropius Bau Berlin
Another highlight is the art show “A Genius Mind – The Mystery of Banksy”, which is already taking place or will take place in the cities of Munich, Berlin, Heidelberg, Dresden, Mainz and Linz. The political graffiti artist Banksy, who has remained anonymous to this day, is one of the most important street artists of our time, who manages to blur the boundaries of art with actions, works and new ideas and thus inspires a cross-generational audience. For example, he had the Walled-Off Hotel built in Bethlehem on the wall between Israel and Palestine, which is intended to draw attention to the Middle East conflict and represents a kind of non-violent resistance. The exhibition in various German cities shows over 100 works by the Bristol artist. In Dresden, Mainz, and Linz, the exhibition will only begin in the fall months of this year, while Munich, Berlin, and Heidelberg have already exhibited since the beginning of the year and will end in late summer until fall 2021.
OTHER EVENTS & SHOWS
Just like concerts and theater, numerous readings and literary events have had to be cancelled in recent months. Now the balls are slowly starting to roll again in the literary field and, as was the case last year, the small but fine reading series of the Hamburg book bar under the title “Literature in the Park” provides a Corona-safe event concept with a series of open-air readings.
The “International Literature Festival Berlin” takes place this year with about 200 artists from the 08th to the 18th of september. Premiere readings, an extensive children’s and youth program and various project performances will take place live and under distance regulations.
This year the ever-popular “Festival Of Lights Berlin” will take place from 03.- 06.09.. Every year, the light art festival transforms the capital into a luminous backdrop. This year’s motto of the spectacle is “Future”.
The coming months allow cultural and creative professionals to take a breath and finally, after so many months, open their doors to the public again. Without hygiene concepts and precautionary measures to protect everyone, it will not work. But the organizers are well prepared and look forward to numerous visitors and guests.
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