Since the summer of 1988, there has been a festival in Munich which is a permanent fixture on the events calendar these days. Tollwood brings people together with a variety of cultural, artistic, musical, dance and market offerings. Commerce takes a back seat as 70 per cent of all events are free! The theatre and concert events which you do have to pay for are all easily affordable, priced well under the normal local rate.
The summer festival takes places over around 25 days in June and July on the grounds of Olympiapark Süd. The winter festival, which began in 1991, is on the Theresienwiese. In the winter, the festival begins shortly before the first Sunday of Advent and continues until 23rd December. The cultural events carry on until the New Year. Every year, over two million people visit the festival and show their appreciation for the wonderful idea.
The event hosts, Tollwood GmbH – under the leadership of Rita Rottenwallner and Anja Lechner, made tolerance, internationality and openness a priority from the very beginning. Multicultural diversity comes to the fore and is embodied by the cultural offerings, such as the market structure and the range of options in the gastronomy.
While the summer festival is full of concerts by international stars such as Joe Cocker, Foreigner, Status Quo and James Brown, as well as a variety of performances and theatre productions, the winter festival offers a Christmas market, a themed mixture of events (opera, variety performances and musicals) with a multi-faceted organic menu, as well as readings and theatrical performances. The highlight is the New Year’s Party, which takes place principally in the ‘Tief im Wald-Bar’ and is run by Victoria Raith.
The Tollwood Festival is a festival for everyone: children will feel just as at home here as trendy teenagers and senior citizens. The variety of the events and market stalls on offer makes this extraordinary melting pot of different ages and interest groups possible and the festival is tremendously popular as a result.
Two extra special treats have also established themselves as part of the summer and winter festivals: the German rendition of the Broadway classic ‘Caveman’, directed by Esther Schweins and played by Karsten Kaje, as well as the women’s answer to the play: ‘Cavewoman’. The South African, Emma Peirson wrote the play, directed by Adriana Altaras. Ramona Krönke plays the German cavewoman.
Aside from art and culture, ecology and environmental awareness have always played a big part of the Tollwood Festival from the very beginning. The festival is not only a platform for ecological appendages, though, but also a pioneer for improving living standards, thanks to its organic certification for food and the ‘Bio für Kinder’ (Organic Food for Kids) campaign, not to mention many other projects.
From Frederics Serviced Apartments, both festivals are best reached using public transport, or by bicycle in the summer.
by Dietmar Stanka
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