52. OPEN OHR Festival

The Open Ohr Festival makes it a point to confront its audience with new things and to bring art to unsual places – i.e. by having an outdoor theatre spectacle late at night on the citadel's main meadow, or by having walking-acts unexpectedly engaging the festivalgoers. The Its non-profit-approach allows the Open Ohr Festival to dedicate a vast portion of its programme to unkown and innovative artists. Although the musical line-up also encompasses internationally well-known bands, the festival strongly champions new, often unsigned bands or singer/songwriters. The festival also dedicates itself to foster emerging talent, saving its very first main stage slot for a local newcomer („Local Opener“) and collaborating for the past 20 years with the german newcomer band-competition „Rockbuster“. In addition, the festival's poster is being created by a local artist, designer or student; a jury views the designs in an anonymous process to chose the most fitting and creative visualizsation of the festival's thematic focus.The nature of the theatre perfomances (mostly drama, sometimes dance) ranges from professional productions of pre-existing pieces to amateur companies presenting pieces they developed on their own. Working on a very small budget, the festival's capacity for commissioning works of art is very limited; still, there have been some commissions for theatre pieces fitting the festival's theme during past years. Recurring rather frequently are comissions for walking-acts shaped to fit the festival's theme and commissions for luminous Installation art to fit the historic outdoor venue.

Adressing topics high on the EU's agenda is the key point of the Open Ohr Festival. So the 52nd OPEN OHR Festival addresses the topic of loneliness under the title "ALLEINSAM" (“Alone Together”.) In doing so, loneliness is to be examined primarily as a consequence of social and political imbalances as well as a structural problem, rather than as an individual fate.