“It was really nice with you!” wrote the musician Kai Dümpe to the organizers after his successful debut as a songwriter on the stage of the beer garden ‘Im schönen Wiesengrund’. OPEN SPACE, which was first held in 2023 by the Wiesengrund-Westerfilde Friends’ Circle, was very well received in this year’s new edition: On the one hand, many cabaret artists signed up to present three songs each to an audience. On the other hand, this variety of offerings had a great audience response: the beer garden was well filled – even if the sun was rather reserved.
As with the 2024 summer festival, the Wiesengrund-Westerfilde Friends’ Circle cooperated with the newly founded KlangKultur Mengede e. V. association: “This cooperation paid off, because we were able to prepare the event much more professionally and offer the guests an almost perfect sound experience! Teddy – Jens-Rüdiger Schulze – made sure of this at the mixing desk.”
This year, fans of self-created music were also included: they were spoiled for choice when it came to evaluating the three songs presented by each artist.
“This also produced an interesting result for the musicians. They received feedback on which song the audience liked the most.” Those in the audience who took part in the evaluation took part in a prize draw and could win an attractive prize. Anja Lagutin acted as the lucky fairy.
The range of music presented was enormous: Cellist Max Maxelon, for example, played Waltz No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich, while Svenja & the Huhu Boys wowed the audience with their powerful voices of Son of a Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield). What was particularly astonishing this year was that the vast majority of the musicians played songs they had composed and written themselves, many of them in German. Songs such as ‘Nö’ (Kai Dümpe); ‘Du bist immer noch da’ (Carsten Kollmeier); ‘Tschüss Sophie (Tante Matta Band); ‘On my way’ (Bjarne tanzt) and ‘Second chance’ (Lena Hillebrandt) were particularly successful and received correspondingly high votes.
These self-composed pieces held their own against cover songs such as ‘Rockin’ in a free world’ (Neil Young – here interpreted by Dolf Mehring) and ‘Unchained Melody’ (Righteous Brothers – here sung by Andreas Rehberg).
The guests in the beer garden were treated to food and drinks by the host Marijan Ribicic. At the end of the concert, he surprised all the musicians with a cherry liqueur from small winners’ cups. Everyone took home a certificate of appreciation from the Wiesengrund-Westerfilde Friends’ Circle.
Conclusion: The second Open Space was again a complete success with financial support from the Westerfilde-Bodelschwingh Quarter Fund.
The musician ‘Bjarne tanzt’ reported back: “The concept is also interesting for future formats! I’d love to come again – I liked it!”
He was not alone in this view. “These are all strong arguments for a new edition of ‘Open Space’ in 2025,” says Frank Tost from the Wiesengrund-Westerfilde Friends’ Association.