Wednesday, May 27, 2020

German Festival: Cancellations, postponements, Winzendorf wants to play


"Winnetou" Joseph Schützenhofer in Winzendorf (Photo: Festival Winzendorf)

After most of the Karl May Festivals - including Bad Segeberg and Elspe - announced weeks ago the corona-related shift in their summer season to 2021, there is now news from Dasing and Winzendorf.

The South German Karl May Festival Dasing (Bavaria) recently announced the postponement of the performance of the play "Winnetou and Captain Kaiman", which was actually planned for this summer, "probably" until 2021. However, according to festival manager Volker Waschk, there is "a plan B to hold the Karl May Festival this summer - but this is deliberately very different from the usual and therefore not comparable". Depending on how the situation develops, one might want to bring "an exciting event with significantly fewer spectators (approx. 1/5) and a significantly smaller ensemble", "which remains in the Wild West theme, Karl May and Winnetou, but should and will clearly differ from a normal festival play”. Waschk calls this an "alternative festival".

At the request of KARL MAY & Co., the Karl May Festival in Winzendorf in Lower Austria confirmed the intention to hold the summer season as planned on August 8 with the play "Winnetou and the Oil Prince". "According to the current requirements, we can let our production take place with a reduced number of visitors as planned from August 8th, 2020," said Helene Exel of the Festival. And further: “Of course, all legal requirements only apply as long as the infection numbers are under control. The burden only falls off our shoulders when the Dernière on August 23, has successfully passed the stage”. For a few years now, Winzendorf has been playing in a hall-like building and no longer on an open-air stage, as was the case many years after the festival was founded in 1994.

Just a few weeks ago, the western town of Pullman City Bayern announced that the Karl May games Pullman City Bayern would definitely be held this summer; however, the premiere was postponed by a month to July 11th. However, the organization of the festival, which wants to show the play "Winnetou and the Secret About Old Surehand" by October, should pose challenges for the organizers, because "a minimum distance of 1.50 meters from other people must be observed", as is the case on Pullman -City website called for.

It is still unclear whether and if so when the festival in Burgrieden (Baden-Württemberg) will start with "Old Surehand".

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