August 20th, 2021. It is a beautiful late summer evening, and people here in Ruhrort are in an excellent mood. They are standing in groups, talking and drinking. About 20 metres down the road, there is an open door that leads into what looks like a small shop. People keep walking into that shop, and reappear with cables, instruments and chairs in their hands. A young man on bike is approaching at breakneck speed and comes to a screeching halt right next to me. „Sorry I’m late, mate. How can I help?!
Seeing how it turned out in the end, one could be tempted to forget how often we had to bin our plans and start from scratch. One might forget that all of us had been spending way too much time home alone and that it had been way too long since we went to a concert or theatre performance. One might even forget for a minute the terrible shape that artists all over the world had been in for more than a year. But then you would see that people were sitting down on chairs at an open air concert (to maintain a safe distance from each other) and that those carrying chairs and setting up the stage were wearing medicinal masks (to prevent infections), and you would have remembered.
Until ELLA starts gently plucking their guitars and singing in soft notes, giving us a short reprieve from those annoying words that have dominated our lives for so long: Incidence, Infection, Quarantine. And then the Glassbooth-theatre takes the stage, and their play „Der Reichsbürger“ reminds us of the eye-opening moments and healthy discussions that a great performance can mean to us, and that we have been missing for so long.
I hate to say that something was a success „considering the circumstances“, but considering the circumstances, the first Duisburg Fringe festival was a success. We had six nights of music, theatre and comedy, laughter, entertainment and disbelief. We had lucky-last-moments of rainclouds disappearing and artists showing up. We had the attention of the local press, local politicians and, most importantly, the attention of audiences ready and willing to give us a bit of their time. And I’m pretty sure none of them went home disappointed.
Now, in 2022, the world is still not what we knew or would like it to be. Which is exactly why we decided to carry on. The first Duisburg Fringe showed us how important our work is, and how great the things we can achieve. There will be a next time. And that‘s where you come in. On the stage, behind or in front of it, everybody can contribute. Check our homepage or shoot us a message. Let’s do this!
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