Volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture in the volunteer editorial office.
Kristina lives in Neukirchen in the Ore Mountains. The former archivist and case manager has travelled to numerous events as a volunteer for Chemnitz 2025. She also loves writing, which is why she came up with the idea of collecting the volunteers' experiences - the starting signal for the volunteer editorial team.
Saturday, 8 June 2024.
My shift started at 3 pm. The whole of Chemnitz seemed to be on its feet. The Capital of Culture was represented at the festival with several stands. I had opted for the Capital of Culture mobile and thus for the Schlossteichinsel location. Next to us, the "3000 Garages" team attracted visitors with an oversized memory game. Children in particular had fun searching for and putting together the 20 cm x 20 cm pictures. A photographer had chosen a wide variety of garages as the motif for the game. What does different mean? On the surface, the garages all look the same. This favoured one of the many projects of the "3000 garages" team. Protected from the sun, visitors, often children with their parents or grandparents, were able to get active. The opportunity to build their own garage out of wood, in miniature of course, was very popular. Whether it was intended as a memento or souvenir or was created out of the joy of crafting - in any case, the builders of the small garages proudly took them home with them.
The Bandbüro Chemnitz e.V. had set up its stage slightly behind the action around the garages. The bands were literally "holding hands". Standing or sitting on seats they had brought with them, fans of pop music had interrupted their ramble through the huge Kosmos site.
For us volunteers at the mobile information stand, the programme of the Chemnitz band office was pleasant background music and also put us in a good mood.
The stream of visitors to the festival moved steadily across the Schlosseichinsel.
Many a visitor stopped at the information mobile during their tour of the island. Questions were asked and answered, opinions were exchanged. We were happy to provide information on the various projects of Kulturhauptstadt gGmbH and, of course, on projects that associations, initiatives and creative artists are planning and in some cases already realising. We handed out souvenirs and flyers. One or two people surprised us with detailed knowledge about Chemnitz and the Capital of Culture process. "Learned something again!", I often thought. The info mobile (estimated to be less than two metres long) was almost constantly surrounded by interested people. So, due to a lack of space, I was happy to grab a few flyers and approach people strolling across the meadow or resting on a bench. The conversations were similar to those on the mobile. They ranged from "Not interested!" to "You won't find out anything!" to derogatory remarks about the Capital of Culture, Chemnitz in general and finally politics. However, this did not dampen the overall good mood. There were often good opportunities to refer to the volunteer programme and to promote participation. This has now become a "standard" part of our activities. Providing the best possible information, generating enthusiasm for 2025 and recruiting new volunteers. This is how we see our role as ambassadors for the Capital of Culture.
By around 5 p.m., more and more fans had gathered in front of the band office stage. The music got louder. We and our dialogue partners adapted our voices, not to say - we had to shout.
The end of the operation was planned for seven o'clock in the evening. The end of the festival was still a long way off. Getting the mobile ready for transport as a trailer was quickly done. But the real
However, the real challenge still lay ahead: transferring the mobile from the Schlossteich site to Hartmannstraße. The connection between the bicycle as a means of transport and the mobile as a trailer simply could not be established. My much younger, more skilful and stronger colleagues had no choice but to do the whole thing by hand. My colleagues bravely made their way. All that remained was for me to accompany them with a bag of empty bottles in my hand. When we arrived at our destination, we wished each other a good rest of the weekend and shouted: "See you next time!"
