Germany’s picnic concert series draws 30k visitors

Germany’s picnic concert series (Picknick Konzerte), which took place throughout the summer across multiple cities, has attracted more than 30,000 visitors.

The series, which was organised by Landstreicher Booking in cooperation with Kingstar, Prime Entertainment and Vagrant Cultural Productions, took place in Berlin, Dresden, Cologne, Leipzig and Münster between July to September.

The 30-show series saw visitors sit on assigned, socially distanced blankets to watch performances from artists including Milky Chance, LEA, Faber, Joris, Helge Schneider, MoTrip, Giant Rooks, Provinz, Meute, Kasalla, Mine, Die Höchst Eisenbahn, Dota, Antje Schomaker and Mia Morgan.

Despite many sell-out shows in the series, the organisers stressed that the concerts are not economically viable and that picnic concerts are not a substitute for concerts with regular conditions.

“Nevertheless, the shows in this series offered an unforgettable, relaxed and beautiful live experience for the first time in months, whether in front of, on or behind the stage,” Landstreicher told MusikWoche.

“The shows in this series offered an unforgettable, relaxed and beautiful live experience for the first time in months”

Martin Vejmelka, managing director at Vagrant cultural productions (Dresden and Leipzig) said: “We are proud that our teams in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin, in cooperation with the colleagues from Kingstar in Münster and Prime Entertainment in Cologne, were able to develop attractive venues in a very short time, have developed hygienic concepts that can be approved and have created impressive productions.”

“Together with our tour partners, we were able to put a diverse program on the stage and, contrary to expectations, enable many people to have a few touching live music experiences in summer 2020.

“We are particularly pleased that with the picnic concerts we were able to provide our long-term production partners with a tiny ray of hope in a time full of rejections.”

Picknick Konzerte is one of many innovative, socially distanced concert formats trialled by German organisers, along with the deck chair concert series, Strandkorb Open Air, and Back to Live, which launched earlier this month and will run until 2 October.

Last month, the German government announced that all major events that don’t adhere to social distancing measures and hygiene protocol will now be banned until at least the end of the year.

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