Most of the events including concerts on large and small stages, theatre, art performances and readings will be held outdoors. The itinerary also includes festivals lasting several days, exhibitions as well as film screenings for children and youths. The venues range from town halls, public squares, church gardens, parks, steamboats on Lake Alster, pontoons on the Fleet to shop windows. The organisers will post the events on the Kultursommer website gradually. Plans are also being laid to host many other cultural events, but without special funds.
Hundreds of events to send city into cultural frenzy
Hamburg is gearing up to host a "Summer of Culture" featuring hundreds of events all over the city from July 15-August 16, 2021. The cultural revival comes after months of pandemic-induced restrictions dealt a severe blow to the sector. Under the theme of "Play it Loud", artists, organisers and cultural institutions are to receive plenty of support for their businesses. An independent jury has selected over 100 out of 220 multifaceted ideas for funding. The events, entered by event organisers across Hamburg, will unfold in all of the suburbs.
Artists returning to stages
Support for Hamburg-based artists
To qualify for funding, the organisers must ensure that Hamburg-based artists based are involved in at least 75 per cent of the events to help those who have long awaited opportunities to perform again in front of live audiences. Promoters from the music and club scene, theatre, the performing arts, cinema and film, museums, the visual arts as well as off-culture and literature are planning inter-disciplinary cultural events.
Prelude to full relaunch
However, the "Summer of Culture" is only a prelude to the full relaunch of culture in Hamburg. Other cultural events this summer that are not receiving funds e.g. Elphilharmonie Summer, get underway from July 26, 2021 and the International Summer Festival at Kampnagel from August 4, 2020. The Elbphilharmonie will launch its 2021/22 season in September while the Harbour Front Literature Festival will host readings in the port from September 9-October 24, 2021. The Reeperbahn Festival from September 22-25 brings live music back to the area and Filmfest Hamburg should attract lots of movie fans to cinemas from September 30-October 9, 2021. Other highlights include the fifth anniversary of the Elbphilharmonie in January 2022 featuring many musical and cultural events throughout the city.
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Sources and further information
Funds for culture
The events are being financed by the senate’s New Start Fund (Neustartfonds) which has made an additional EUR 22 million available for art and culture in 2021. The "Kultursommer" is only one part of this funding. Numerous other cultural projects and institutions will also receive funds, as well as corona aid, which proved its worth last year.