30 May – 9 June 2024
Arts for young audiences, over eleven days, at eight venues in Zurich, Switzerland.
With a variety of artistic forms and current themes, the Blickfelder Festival demonstrates how education for children and young people works not only in the curriculum but also outside the classroom, captivating adults as well.
What are we giving up? What can and do we not want to give up? Is a fairer world possible and what weapons are allowed for it? Is it up to you to determine who you are? What do adults actually do all day long? Do they fix the world? Or do the children have to clean up everything themselves later? These and many other questions will be addressed at this year’s Blickfelder Festival.
The festival is a festival of arts for young audiences. And since good pieces for children and young people are just as exciting for adults, the festival is also particularly suitable for families. The program ranges from international theater/dance productions to projects with artistic participatory approaches, as well as concerts, workshops, and interactive activities at the festival center. The development processes in the projects between artists and schools from the city and the canton of Zurich often span several months. This year’s venues include Schauspielhaus Zurich (Schiffbau), Tanzhaus Zurich, GZ Buchegg, Theater Stadelhofen, Musée Visionnaire, Birch secondary school, and the Bühl Foundation in Wädenswil, a school and residential facility for children, adolescents, and adults with intellectual disabilities or learning disabilities.
The range of aesthetics at the festival could hardly be greater: a multi-year dance project between the Zurich Opera House, a secondary school, and The Zurich University of Teacher Education; an object theater where a puppet takes control by the Belgian group Une Tribu Collectif; a jazz concert by children and musicians Nicole Johänntgen, Pius Baschnagel, Victor Hege, and Lukas Wyss; a dance theater on the theme of friendship by Cie Beweggrund and choreographer Tabea Martin, who stages dance pieces with artists with and without disabilities; a robot ballet by Ugo Dehaes, who breeds organically looking machines reminiscent of insects in his basement; readings with 80 young authors from a school; concerts with Laurent & Max, Tim & Puma Mimi, and Kommando Pöpperle or a chip stall by artist Roshan Adhithetty. But that’s just a small excerpt of what festivalgoers can expect.
Would you like to get to know more about the festival? Visit Blickfelder Festival’s website.
