Our opening day 2024!
26. October 2024
Our program for the opening day of the 34th euro-scene Leipzig.
On the occasion of the presidential elections in the USA, the festival programme starts on 5 November with WAS AUF DEM SPIEL STEHT (WHAT IS AT STAKE) in the Nikolaikirche Leipzig from 12 noon to 6 pm with free admission. Texts will be read every 15 minutes, documenting how people have struggled for centuries over values that underpin our understanding of freedom, democracy and human rights today.
Pastor Bernhard Stief starts the reading marathon with the 'Bergpredigt' (‘Sermon on the Mount’). This will be followed by performance artist Hermann Heisig, Leipzig authors Marie Gamillscheg, Lara Hampe, Matthias Juegler and Andreas Lehmann as well as pupils from Leipzig's Kurt Masur Primary School. In total, almost 30 readers will present various declarations and constitutions, e. g. the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens’ from 1791, the ‘Constitution of the Republic of Poland’ from 1997, the UN Agenda 2030 with 17 sustainability goals as well as texts by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Christian Fürchtegott Gellert and Heinrich Böll.
Festival director Christian Watty thanks all those who read for free at WAS AUF DEM SPIEL STEHT and check the facts on the history of freedom, democracy and human rights for euro-scene Leipzig. Finally, at 6.00 pm, he will hand over a donation to the painter David Schnell as a board member of Land in Sicht e. V. This Leipzig-based organisation supports cultural and social projects that promote cosmopolitanism as well as humanistic and democratic ways of thinking. The audience will also have the opportunity to donate directly on site.
Afterwards, our dance competition UBUNTU CONNECTION will open this year's euro-scene Leipzig at 7.30 pm on the main stage at Schauspiel Leipzig. UBUNTU CONNECTION was once again curated by the Berlin-based Somogo Kollektiv. The internationally recognised choreographer and hip-hop dancer Raphael Moussa Hillebrand will host the event again. Eight outstanding participants break through all dance style boundaries to the live music of the band Sonic Interventions, creating an artistic dialogue as a total work of art.