Successful end of the Winter Festival 2009

»Heaven & hell« was the motto of the Tollwood Winter Festival 2009.

The world of extremes was everywhere on the festival grounds: mirrored in venue designs, performances and gastronomy. The cultural program, such as opera, circus, performances, cabaret and live-music, was very well received by the audience. Also the program of the »Weltsalon«-tent, the second highlight of the Festival, was very popular: Around 640.000 people came from 25th November to 31st December 2009 to the festival ground at Munich Theresienwiese.

In the »Grand Chapiteau«, four international theatre productions played with the power of contrasts. Three of them celebrated their German premiere. The legendary Tiger Lillies from London started with »The Tiger Lillies Freakshow«, about which the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: »A mix of melancholy and wickedness, which is partly so beautiful that it makes you cry«.

Just as well as the Tiger Lillies, all shows of the opera parody »Irmingard« from the Viennese brass ensemble Mnozil Brass were sold out. The local newspaper tz Munich newspaper wrote enthusiastically: »Who misses them (Mnozil Brass), misses something in life«.

The Russian clown theatre Teatr Licedei delighted the audience with their German Premiere »Semianyki«, and there were only very few tickets left for »La Vie«, a production from the French-Canadian artists »The 7 Fingers«, the third German premiere.

For the third year in a row, Tollwood presented the Weltsalon. Due to a new design concept with projections and the big globe in its centre, this tent was a place of experience. Thematically, everything revolved around the »adventure of life« – around fascinating things which can be discovered on our planet, but also global grievances that threatens the beauty of our world. During the four weeks of the festival, different politicians, scientists and artists were guests on the stage of the Weltsalon, such as the former German federal minister, Dr Heiner Geißler, the chairman of management »Stadtwerke München”, Dr Kurt Mühlhäuser, the president of the organisation »Menschen für Menschen“, Almaz Böhm, and the holder of the alternative Nobel Prize, Dr Ruth Manorama.

Performances and walking acts gave birth to the whole wide world of contrasts between »heaven and hell« on the festival ground: At the festival entrance stood the sculpture couple »Angel and Devil« from the Japanese artist Mukai Katsumi; the German-French company »UliK & Le Snob« opened the festival with a fantastic fire performance at the »Eisstrand«, an artificial ice skating rink (made out of plastic panels without a cooling unit), followed by the coldest poetry slam of the year, »Poetry on ice«, accompanied by freezing temperatures.

This winter
75 percent of all 300 events took place at free admission 230 international craftspeople exhibited on the festival site 50 gastronomy stalls (certified for the 13th time, according to the EU Eco-Regulation!) offered culinary delicacies from all over the world

With the New Year, Tollwood starts into a new festival season. The Summer Festival 2010 starts on 1st of July in the Olympiapark South and lasts until July 25th.

Here you will find the first insights of the festival program [>>]