The 35th plaster spectacle from July 20th to 22nd will once again make Linz a Mecca of international street art. 111 companies and solo artists from 29 nations offer acrobatics, fire shows, music, comedy, samba, clowning, magic and everything in between around 300 times a day from Thursday to Saturday. “More than half of the actors are in Linz for the first time,” said City Councilor Doris Lang-Mayerhofer (ÖVP) at a press conference on Monday.
The “Spektakelzelt”, in which a revue from all performances is performed several times a day, moves with the children’s spectacle from Urfahr to the Donaupark next to the Lentos. Cultural director Julius Stieber saw it here as “optimally placed, in the countryside and by the water”. The six-strong women’s team of Linz culture under department head Gerda Forstner strives to “create a setting that the artists find good conditions for their performances and the audience a great festival,” said festival director Kathrin Böhm.
The spectacle oases introduced last year with seating and shade, where you can enjoy the performances a little away from the hustle and bustle, and the quiet island, also with seating, in the inner courtyard of the Old Town Hall bring comfort to the guests. “Some groups of visitors want to relax in between, we want to take this need into account,” says Böhm.
The diverse program with 111 acts selected from 800 applications offers something for every taste, the festival director – like Stieber a big fan of the spectacle tent – presented Cirkus Trochu Jinak from the Czech Republic and FeuerWer? from Germany, who are offering breathtaking aerial acrobatics at the Lentos for the first time this year in Linz. The duo Ka’gua from Argentina dances, does gymnastics, makes music and paints a picture in “Pintorica”, sand animation brings Ermelinde Coccia with “Life” and a selected dance and theater experience the Feet Theater Company Monsieur David with “Apriti alla Gioia”, both from Italy. Lang-Mayerhofer are fascinated by the local combos Blechsalat and Flying Freaks.
Böhm gave the audience in Linz special praise, because the plaster spectacle was one of the few street art festivals that functioned purely with hat money, without a fixed fee for the performers. “The Linz audience grew up with street art,” Böhm emphasized that in a survey in a number of categories – such as best audience reaction – the plaster spectacle was only beaten by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which lasted almost four weeks.
Also this year the plaster spectacle starts on Thursday at 4 p.m. with the big opening parade, the fire shows migrated from the AEC back to the main and parish square, the daily program is distributed at the festival, at the information point on the main square you can exchange large bills for hat money. From the city’s budget of 230,000 euros – excluding sponsorship money – the artists get board and lodging, and they bring in their own fees. The most important sponsors are the Linz AG and the Raiffeisenlandesbank, the hotels are always fully booked at the time of the spectacle, according to Lang-Mayerhofer and Stieber.
(SERVICE – 35th Linzer plaster spectacle – international street art festival from July 20th to 22nd, in the center of Linz, Thurs 4pm to 11pm, Fri, Sat 2pm to 11pm, then Nightline in three bars. www.pflasterspektakel.at)
2023-07-10 11:47:56
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