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Oestrich-Winkel (dpa) – Shortly before its restart on June 26, the Rheingau Music Festival (RMF) is satisfied with ticket sales in Corona times. “In the light of the current pandemic situation, we find the response to be very positive,” said RMF spokeswoman Tabea Glöser of the German press agency. So far, around 70,000 cards have gone away. This means that only a good quarter of the tickets are still available for free sale without honor tickets. “Sales will probably pick up too.” Most of the concerts take place in Hesse, but music should also be heard in Ingelheim in Rhineland-Palatinate.
According to Glöser, a total of around 3,000 musicians are expected. She hope that new corona outbreaks in the home countries of artists did not prevent them from arriving on time in individual cases. In 2020, the RMF fell victim to the pandemic as one of the largest primarily privately financed festivals in Europe with classical music as the focus. This summer it is back with a record number of concerts: Including repetitions of music performances with a reduced number of listeners on the same day, it should be 209. Jazz and pop music should also be heard at the concert series.
In order to maintain the minimum distances, the listeners are, according to Glöser, usually offset in pairs in a checkerboard pattern on the chairs. This is also the case in one of the largest mobile concert halls in Europe at Johannisberg Castle above Geisenheim am Rhein for a good 500 listeners. Almost 40 concerts are planned in the cube on an area of around 900 square meters with a ceiling height of eight meters. After the pandemic, even more music lovers could sit here with less spacing.
The hall previously used by the RMF in Schloss Johannisberg, on the other hand, only has around 500 densely packed seats. According to the current status, there is a mask requirement during this year’s concert series for all indoor events, at open-air concerts, however, only on the way to the seat.
The festival, which was founded in 1987, is also using a football stadium for the first time: in the Brita-Arena in Wiesbaden, a maximum of around 2500 listeners should be able to sit in around 250 beach chairs and on the grandstand at open-air concerts. Artists like Till Brönner and Max Giesinger as well as the band Smokie have announced themselves here. There are also numerous other venues such as churches, wineries and the Kurhaus Wiesbaden.
The 34th festival season is scheduled to take place by September 5th. “Artist in Residence” is the pianist Khatia Buniatishvili. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Hesse’s Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) are expected at the sold-out opening with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra on June 26th in Eberbach Abbey above Eltville. The former Cistercian monastery is widely known as the location for the film “The Name of the Rose”.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210617-99-26466 / 2
Source: DPA
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