Heidelberg / Berlin (MH) – The 25th “Heidelberg Spring” has been canceled. The music festival planned from March 20 to April 18, 2021 could not take place due to a lack of planning security, the organizers announced on Friday. “It is difficult to cancel the anniversary year of a festival that you have helped set up from the first year,” explained Artistic Director Thorsten Schmidt. The latest resolutions of the Prime Minister’s Conference on combating pandemics are fraught with so many imponderables that “we have no other option.” 92 events with 475 artists from all over the world were planned.
Heidelberg Spring
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“It is bitter that the federal and state governments still do not offer a reliable perspective for culture,” said Heidelberg mayor Eckart Würzner (non-party). “It is no longer enough just to prohibit things.” Cultural events in particular can be safeguarded with close-knit hygiene concepts, for example with a combination of visitor registration and voluntary contact tracking via an app.
After the cancellation of the 2020 festival, they fought hard to implement a program for this year “that is artistically convincing under pandemic conditions and can be carried out in a sound business sense,” emphasized Schmidt. For an institution that has to cover 73 percent of its budget with ticket sales and sponsorship, this represents a particular challenge.
For artists and organizers, it is a devastating experience to always be put at the end of opening scenarios as dispensable, affirmed Schmidt. “You could think that culture is dangerous to health.” He expressly welcomes all measures used sensibly to combat the pandemic. “However, ignoring studies on the hazardous situation in theaters and concert halls when formulating opening scenarios reveals statements on the political stage about the importance of art and culture for society as pure lip service.”
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