Volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
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.
No, it would probably not be a "normal" press conference on 25 October 2024. The density of the information meetings for us volunteers and the detailed emails about them alone pointed to the special nature of this important date. Around 100 volunteers were asked by Dirk Zinner's team (head of the volunteer programme) to register in the volunteer database.
Accustomed to the monumental, seemingly neutral atmosphere of the Hartmannfabrik by now, I sensed a completely different atmosphere when I entered the hall. The team led by Mareike Holfeld (Marketing and Communications), Sina Rohrlack (Artistic and Technical Director) and, last but not least, Jakob Heinzmann (Production Manager) gave their all. The reception desk had become the "accreditation office". Some of the volunteers were based here. The gGmbH staff in charge, led by Mareike Holfeld, were clearly tense until shortly before the start of the event. Busy back and forth with and without mobile phones, one last question, one last coordination. But then the time had come.
11:30
Officials from politics, employees of Kulturhauptstadt gGmbH, some project managers from the Capital of Culture programme and the accredited journalists had taken their seats.
Mareike Holfeld, Head of Press & Communications, opened the press conference. The journalists were asked to watch the following dance show from above, i.e. from the gallery. At the end of the performance, the meaning of this "artistic move" - as we were told at the briefing - was clear to me. Behind the interplay of group dance and - unusually for a dance show - the dancers' spoken contributions were thoughts on togetherness, joie de vivre and democracy. Seeing the group pictures from above was certainly impressive. Around 40 amateur dancers had been trained by choreographer and director Nir de Volff in just over two weeks. I discovered one or two of the participants from the "Dancing Neighbours" project. This project is led by the Generations team and is very familiar to me. No wonder that this part of the programme will remain my personal highlight.
12:00
After the emotionally impressive opening and an atmospheric video about the Capital of Culture, Mareike Holfeld welcomed politicians and journalists from Europe, Germany, Chemnitz and the Capital of Culture region. Ms Holfeld held a brief discussion with local politicians, the representative of the European Commission and the head of department at the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Andrea Pier, Commercial Managing Director of Kulturhauptstadt gGmbH, used figures to set the scene for the important year 2025 for Chemnitz. Supported by the European idea, 875 organisers and initiatives will be involved. there will be 100 projects with a total of 1000 events. 600 volunteers from the planned 1000 are already supporting the Capital of Culture process. Two million guests from Germany and Europe are expected. Chemnitz residents and people from the surrounding area will be able to experience their city anew and help shape the programme.
Together with project managers and employees of Kulturhauptstadt gGmbH, Stefan Schmidtke, Managing Director Programme of Kulturhauptstadt gGmbH, presented excerpts from the annual programme. It would be pointless to list the most important, most interesting or most creative projects. It is not possible. There are too many. I'll just summarise:
Chemnitz and its guests will sing, dance, laugh, write and read, be creative and artistically active, in short - create and experience culture together. As always, this assignment provided us volunteers with new information and insights into 2025.
13:30
Questioning faces: Where are the programmes? Volunteers impressively pulled a trolley with programme books into the hall accompanied by music. These were literally sold out within a few minutes. This programme item, which was still accompanied by music, was crowned by a "rain" of small round stickers with motifs on the theme of Chemnitz 2025.
The journalists were then able to choose between four points on the optional afternoon programme. These included a visit to the city's public utility company and the Garage Campus, individual city walks, a press tour of the "Silberglanz und Kumpeltod" exhibition and the opening of the "Ersatzteillager" installation by Martin Maleschka (part of the 3000 Garagen project).
At the same time, the majority of the 80 volunteers distributed programme flyers in the city centre and adjacent streets with a preview of 2025. Yes, the emphasis is on preview. Further programme books are not expected to be published until January. But don't worry! Until then, you can browse digitally .
For all those who would like to know more about the volunteer programme: click here to register.
You can look forward to interesting encounters and a variety of events. If you like, you can cultivate your hobbies or try out new things. See you there!
