In the volunteer editorial team, volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
Gabriele is 61 years old and works as a customer advisor. She lives in Schlosschemnitz and enjoys doing her bit for her home town. This is why she can be found volunteering at various events, which she then writes about for the volunteer editorial team.
The 3000 Garages project combines several small events in the various garage complexes in Chemnitz. These garage complexes have existed for a very long time and contain many personal stories and histories from the owners of the individual garages.
On this evening, a bicycle cinema was planned in the Hainstraße garage complex.
This means that the film only runs when visitors pedal on bicycles to provide the necessary power.
I was curious to see whether there would be enough active spectators and whether it would really work.
The film was scheduled to start at 8.15 pm. When I arrived at around 7pm, the equipment and seating had already been set up and there was a tempting aroma of grilled sausages. There were 6 bikes in front of the screen.
However, there were still no visitors and I began to doubt whether the film screening would go ahead today.
I was responsible for serving the barbecue and drinks. The guests made a small donation in return.
Some of the donations were very generous, which shows that the Capital of Culture events mean something to people and that they are prepared to make a contribution.
Then the first visitor arrived and within half an hour all the seats, including the bicycles, were taken. There was room for around 90 people.
Many visitors had even brought their own bikes in case the "official" ones were cancelled.
The film "Two to One" was shown to match the location. This film is about the last days of the GDR mark in a garage community and is well worth seeing.
Our visitors were very engaged and the film ran right to the end.
I was impressed by what a beautiful atmosphere can be conjured up in an actually "ugly" row of garages if you have ideas and imagination and everyone helps as much as they can.
The success of the Capital of Culture concept also works like this in general and I'm always happy when I can inspire people with my contribution.
The visitors enjoyed the evening and discussed the film with each other.
