On 5 September, the ERZScheune is hosting an open-air soup and kite festival on and around the orchard meadow, which has been jointly extended as part of the Chemnitz 2025 Capital of Culture initiative.
The aim of the project is to sustainably revitalise a community-created space and establish it as a meeting place for people of all generations. All local clubs (and those from other places too), as well as interested residents, businesses and partner communities, will be actively involved in the event by contributing their own soups. At the stall, all soups will be sold in 100 ml cups at the same price. The variety of soups reflects the diversity of the community. Visitors can sample and rate the different offerings, so that at the end the most popular soup is awarded a prize (the golden soup spoon).
At the same time, the field provides space for children and families to fly kites. The kite festival is organised in cooperation with the local nursery. The nursery and after-school club are actively involved in the planning. They also sell coffee and cake to help boost their funds.
The musical accompaniment enhances the convivial atmosphere and invites people to linger, dance and get to know one another. The festival is deliberately designed as
participatory format. It thrives on the contributions of the participants and strengthens the sense of community and belonging. The project ties in directly with the communal planting of the orchard meadow in the context of the Capital of Culture and builds on this further. Here, we will renew the first tree supports and carry out further maintenance. The event takes the idea of active participation a step further and helps to establish the site and the ERZscheune in the long term as a place that shapes identity within the region’s social life.
We are also opening an exhibition by Saxony’s tree photographer Uwe Dathe.
