Showcase "Performing Arts made in Germany"
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024
For the first time, Kreativ-Transfer has the opportunity to make companies even more visible by means of a showcase and the associated joint presence:
The upcoming “Performing Arts made in Germany“ showcase at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 will enable four companies to present their works to an international professional audience over a period of approximately two weeks, each at a different venue. The event will also include a reception which will be attended by various international organisers and other professionals.
Below we give an insight into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the showcase.
The press release dated 09 September 2023 can be found here.
What is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
Taking place annually in the Scottish city of Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world and features approximately 3,000 shows across a wide spectrum of arts and styles (dance, theatre, comedy, music and much more).
As the event is an open access festival, it is not subject to overall curation. Rather, each company/artist has the opportunity to find a venue and present their show there. This is usually associated with very high costs and self-organisation tasks including independent advertising measures etc.
At the same time, the festival attracts tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world every year and offers companies/artists a unique platform to present their work to an international professional audience.
Read more about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe here.
For which kinds of companies/artists is the festival suitable?
In principle, companies/artists from a wide range of performing arts sectors can participate in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It is important to present works that stand out from other productions in order for a company or artist to be noticed among the abundance of exhibitions. After all, competition is fierce: thousands of shows vie for the attention of the audiences and organisers who have travelled to Edinburgh to see them. In 2022, there were over 3,300 shows and some 2.2 million tickets sold.
Participation in the festival – and this also applies to participation in the Kreativ-Transfer showcase – is an investment. Companies/artists who show their work here should be aiming to become better known and more successful on the international market in the medium and long term.
Companies/artists should strictly only show works that they are certain about and that they can imagine touring internationally for several years.
Aims of the Kreativ-Transfer "Performing Arts made in Germany" showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Although country-specific showcases have a long tradition at many events, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a joint, publicly funded presence of companies/artists from Germany is entirely new.
The showcase is therefore a special pilot project aimed at promoting "Performing Arts made in Germany" on the international market.
Participating companies/artists as well as the performing arts scene in Germany will receive more visibility through the joint framework of a showcase and the related joint application. In addition, the financial assistance provided, communication with venues and the transfer of knowledge and contacts established as part of this undertaking will be a unique support for the participating companies/artists.
Concrete goals of the showcase include:
- To make the selected companies/artists more visible on the international market.
- To promote the works of the selected companies/artists to an international professional audience.
- To bring the selected companies/artists into contact with international promoters, potential co-producers and partners, and to offer them the opportunity to negotiate guest performances, tours and other collaborations.
- To present and promote a small slice of the unique performing arts landscape in Germany.
- To establish the presence of companies/artists from Germany at this important festival.
Selection of the companies/artists
The following companies/artists have been selected to participate in the showacse 2024:
Sandra Hanschitz & Joel Beierer with "IIIII - about the art of letting go"
Miller de Nobili with "PACK"
David Eisele, Kolja Huneck & Michael Zandl with "Sawdust Symphony"
Anne Welenc with "QUEENS"
Information about the companies here.
About the selection process:
Some 120 applications were received for the programme, of which 114 were formally submitted to the advisory board for initial consideration. The advisory board consisted of representatives of the organisers Assembly, Dance Base, Summerhall and Underbelly as well as Nadja Dias (producer and consultant) and Wolfgang Hoffmann (Aurora Nova). After this initial screening, 54 applications were submitted to the Kreativ-Transfer jury. The jury's selection then had to be confirmed conclusively by the aforementioned organisers. The final decision of the jury and the organisers was based not only on the artistic quality of each entry and its potential for successful participation in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe but also on the technical feasibility at the respective venues.
From August 19 - 24, 2023, the selected companies/artists participated in a preparatory trip to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
They were accompanied by Carolina Ortega (Aurora Nova) and the Kreativ-Transfer Team.
A networking event was held at the Assembly Club Bar on 22 August in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Glasgow to introduce the showcase and the participating companies/artists.
Anne Diack (Head of External Affairs of the Edinburgh Fringe Society) and Wolfgang Hoffmann (Aurora Nova and external advisor to the Kreativ-Transfer showcase) opened the event with welcoming addresses. The showcase was presented to approximately 40 industry guests. The selected companies/artists had the opportunity to talk to international organisers and other industry visitors on site.
