The 2021 KunstRasen festival was not worth it financially: there were more staff for controls and significantly fewer visitors. The strict Coronavirus prevention regulations were to blame. However, Ernst-Ludwig Hatz has no regrets. "If you look into the eyes of the visitors, you can see that it was worth going ahead with it”, says the organiser of the open-air festival in the Rheinaue. For the coming year, Hartz assumes events will be 2G+ (vaccinated or recently recovered and additionally tested). In summer, the park in Gronau will once again be ready to rock, with a series of shows from 20 June to 14 August. At the end of June, there will be two concerts with the punk rockers from My Chemical Romance. They’ll be followed by Lionel Richie and Billy Idol. It July it will be Sting, Deep Purple and Toto. In August, we can look forward to The BossHoss, Sarah Connor and Roland Kaiser. Hartz is planning another series of open-air concerts in early summer: the Fantastischen Vier, Robbie Williams and the pioneers of the techno group Kraftwerk are scheduled to perform on the Hofgartenwiese from 12 to 15 May. In June and July, hard rock greats such as Uli Jon Roth (Skorpions), Patti Smith, and Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) will pay a visit to Grafenwerth Island. Patti Smith will be awarded the Beethoven Prize on the occasion. Nick Mason will perform the epochal piece "Echoes" there for the first time as a solo artist on the drums. Further information: www.kunstrasen-bonn.de.

A lockdown can even present an opportunity for entirely new events, as demonstrated by the agencies Fünfdrei and RheinEvents who joined forces to create BonnLive. With just a few weeks’ notice, BonnLive stamped the Kulturgarten out of the ground when the first wave of the pandemic subsided in 2020. That year, the open-air festival took place in the Rheinaue and this year at the Römerbad. Over the course of eleven weeks, 75,000 visitors attended the concerts. Younger genre preferences in particular were catered for: the palette ranged from ska-pop to rock, rap and danceable beats to “Kölsche Musik”.

In addition to Fünfdrei's main business of corporate events, they are planning the next edition of the Klangwelle as well as the Green Juice Festival, with the Antilopen Gang as well as the Orsons as headliners. RheinEvents will also present the postponed techno festival in the Rheinaue in 2022 as well as the Bonn brass-pop formation "Querbeat".

As usual, BonnLive managing director Julian Reininger is full of surprises for the coming year. "There's no point in planning now, the situation is too unsettled for that. But we will definitely do something in the Kulturgarten again. It's will come with a big bang and people are going to be excited!" More info at: www.bonnlive.com.

Jürgen Harder has been on several emotional rollercoaster rides. Almost two years of the pandemic have taken their toll on organisers and restaurateurs. "It gets to you when you don't know what's going to happen next. I find myself brooding over it every night," says the managing director of the Brückenforum. He has set up a vaccination centre and a testing centre, as well as what he describes as one of the "best ventilation systems in the city". Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has not received one single call from the health department telling him that someone was infected with the Corona virus in his event centre.

Nevertheless, ticket sales have been going downhill since November, and events have been cancelled by the dozen. According to Harder, the Brückenforum had a deficit of 100,000 euros in December alone.

But there are some hopeful signs on: www.brueckenforum.de/alle-events/. Alongside many cancelled dates, there is at least the musical "Cinderella" on 4 January, the comedian Sven Hieronymus on 14 January and Torsten Sträter on 19 March.

The Harmonie in Endenich also had a rough time this year. In autumn, things had started to look up again and manager Bert Jackwerth was happy about the number of concerts. But in November the number of visitors again ebbed away. His personal highlight for 2021 was The Killers, a local Iron Maiden tribute band from the Rhein-Sieg area. While concerts were cancelled in November, December and also for January, Jakwerth is placing a lot of hope on falling incidence rates as well as state aid for organisers. In 2022, the Harmonie staff is looking forward to Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, an R'n'B formation from Copenhagen, as well as singer-songwriter Stefan Stoppock and Fred Kellner and the famous Soulsisters in February. "Neue Alpine Volxmusik" - three bands from Bavaria who are apparently "traditional, innovative and wacky" - will take to the stage in March. In April, the British jazz rockers "Colosseum" will pay the Harmonie a visit. Further information at www.harmonie-bonn.de.

The theatre, cabaret and concert venue opened for the first time in August this year as a result of the spring lockdown and subsequent summer break. Since then, it has been putting on regular performances, says artistic-director Martina Steimer. "You get the feeling that people appreciate culture even more now than before," she enthuses. For example, the Variety Spectacular with 15 shows in August was sold out shortly after the announcement.

The level of optimism depends a lot on whether or not there will be state subsidies for darker days. On bitter blow for the Pantheon is the cancellation of numerous carnival events, especially the "Pink Punk Pantheon" series. But the theatre will open its doors for the "Science Slam" on 18 January, the live podcast by David Kebekus and Jan van Weyde on 2 February and the 108th WDR Cabaret Festival on 7 February. Tickets are also still available for Rüdiger Hoffmann on 13 March. Tickets and further information at www.pantheon.de.

Originalartikel: Simun Sustic

Translation: Jean Lennox