South Baden’s culture can now look forward to opening steps soon.
In the state government’s opening strategy, the Ministry of Social Affairs has developed a model that contains new perspectives for culture: the lower limit for further openings is now an incidence of 100 – instead of the previous 50. If the value stays below this for 14 days with a falling trend, theaters can also , Cinemas and concert halls open – subject to distance rules. If the incidence remains below 100 for a further 14 days, a larger audience is also possible.
What that means will be included in the new Corona regulation next week. Southern Baden’s districts with low seven-day incidences can raise their hopes: Lörrach, Emmendingen, the city of Freiburg and the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district.
Leopold Winterhalder, who runs the Krone Theater cinema in Neustadt, can look forward to it. “If we may, we’ll open up.” Winterhalder can start his little house with films that started shortly before the lockdown and does not depend on blockbusters. This is where Ludwig Ammann, who runs the Harmonie, Friedrichsbau and Kandelhof cinemas in Freiburg, sees the problem: “Without a nationwide opening in several federal states, no distributor will release their new films.” The advertising campaigns quickly cost between 100,000 and 500,000 euros – which is not worthwhile for a handful of cinemas in individual counties. If you look at the start dates of the Association of Film Distributors, a theatrical release with a good selection of films from June 17 seems realistic. Ammann is planning cautiously – initially with the opening of one of the three theaters and an open-air cinema: the “Summer Night Cinema” is due to start on May 30th – as the main venue with twice as many films as before.
The situation at the theaters is also different. The Freiburg Theater assumes that “performances are prohibited up to and including May 22nd”. There is still no statement as to whether the game can be resumed from May 23rd and, if so, under what conditions and with how much audience. “At this point in time we are optimistic that we will be able to play again from Whit Sunday.”
The Freiburg theater in Marienbad is happy “about every opening perspective, because we have been working towards finally being able to show our many new productions to the audience over the past few months”. The structures of a small theater allowed greater flexibility with regard to the resumption of gaming operations, but many questions remained: when to start, the limits on the number of visitors and the test and hygiene concepts. Above all, however, the theater would like school groups to be able to go to the theater again in the summer.
The Freiburg Wallgraben-Theater, which inaugurated the temporary venue in the former Southwest car dealership with great commitment in October and had to close again in November, could, according to co-owner Hans Poeschl, “resume theater immediately”. The Freiburg immoralists will start their open-air production “Kaspar Sternenkind” at the beginning of July and will not open the theater beforehand. In any case, Florian Wetter and Manuel Kreitmeier expect to be able to play “under the same conditions as in 2020” this summer.
The Burghof in Lörrach is pleased that the concerts of the Voices Festival can take place in the house as planned.
The Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH (FWTM), which is responsible for the Freiburg Konzerthaus, says it is “in regular contact” with the respective classical music organizers in order to be able to “react to short-term political decisions and to enable larger events in the Konzerthaus promptly”. How quickly the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (FBO) can get back into concert business depends “on the individual case,” says FBO director Hans-Georg Kaiser. And adds: “It’s very complicated” – because the musicians are only partly in Freiburg. One thing is clear: “We want to play again as soon as possible.” The situation is similar at the Freiburg Albert Concerts. Albert boss Leander Hotaki: “We plan from concert to concert and hope to be able to do something again in July.”
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