History
editAlexander Heisler, Uli Homann and Rolf Böhme (the mayor of Freiburg at the time) originated the festival in 1983 as a continuation of “Klassik & Jazz” (Classic & Jazz), a series of events that were organized in the 1970s at the University of Freiburg.[1] The first festival (1983) took place on the (Old) Trade Fair Square in Freiburg (with the catering and circus tents) and right in front of the collegiate building II of the University of Freiburg, nowadays the Old Synagogue Square (with a spiegeltent). For the festival in 1984, the three tents were placed in the Eschholzpark near the Technical City Hall . Since 1985, the tents are set up outside of the city center in a local recreation area near the zoo Mundenhof. Due to a lack of parking space, a combination ticket was created together with the public transport network of Freiburg (Freiburger Verkehrs AG). Thereby, the entrance ticket for the ZMF also acts as a ticket for public transport. With that, ZMF has to be one of the pioneers in environmental protection at events.
The event organizers were facing major financial problems in the 1990s. On 22nd September 2006 – the year that the FIFA World Cup was taking place in Germany - the sponsoring association and the organizers of the ZMF had to file for insolvency because of low ticket sales, among other things. Since 2007, the ZMF is organized by the Zelt-Musik-Festival GmbH. This company was founded by ZMF founding father, Alexander Heisler, together with Andreas Schnitzler, Dieter Pfaff and Alexander Hanusch and is owned to one third by KOKO & DTK Entertainment GmbH. Alexander Hanusch and Marc Oßwald took over to manage the firm during the first year. Between 2012 and 2014, visitor numbers stabilized. Since 2017, Vaddi Concerts GmbH, managed by Marc Oßwald, and the Zelt-Musik-Festival GmbH are entrusted with the realization of the ZMF Freiburg.[2]
Artists and Bands like Jethro Tull, Hannes Wader, Juliette Gréco, Gregory Porter, James Brown, Loriot or Ten Years After, but also Sasha, Fettes Brot, Katzenjammer, Annett Louisan or Juli performed at the “Zelt-Musik-Festival”.
In 2009, the festival attracted 34,000 visitors, in 2010 40,000 and in 2011 42,000 visitors.[3] These days, the festival attracts around 40,000 visitors for the concerts and over 100,000 people who visit the (general) festival area.[2] According to the organizer, in the first 30 years in the history of the festival, which equals 540 days of music, 2000 events attracted over 500,000 visitors. Altogether, over 3 million people attended concerts of 22,000 artists.[4]
American jazz clarinettist Perry Robinson has attended every festival since 1988, which is why some people call him the “Soul of the Festival”. In 2014, he was honored with the gala night of the festival on the occasion of his 75th birthday .[5][6]
In 2015, 12 concerts were sold out before the festival started, one of them was the opening gig, where Andreas Bourani perfomed .[7] Besides the concerts in the circus tent and the spiegeltent, the ZMF traditionally offers free concerts in the “Fürstenbergzelt”, at the open-air stage and at several places around the festival area. Part of that offer is a daily cabaret program.[8]
At the 2015 festival, an artist caused the festivals´s first scandal: Lindsey Stirling cancelled her concert, stage time 8 p.m., at 5.30 p.m. due to the heat. She would not accept the proposition to postpone the concert for a few hours.[9] In her place, Manuel Dubrinski, the first violinist of the Philharmonic Orchestra Freiburg, performed at the festival. In the big circus tent, 18 events took place in 19 days. In the spiegeltent, 30 events took place excluding the 5 club nights, 14 of which were sold out. A total of 350 artists participated in the main program and 830 artists in the more than one hundred events of the action program. During those events, 570 young talents were promoted.
The concert "Im Auftrag der Liebe" by Dieter Thomas Kuhn, which took place on the 16th of July 2016 in the circus tent, went on sale on the 11th of August 2015 and was already sold out on the same day at 5:20 p.m. This was the first time an artist had given two concerts in one year at the ZMF, and both were sold out in a very short time.
Enrique Ugarte conducted the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra at the ZMF's "Gala for Peace" in 2016. The Gala was also dedicated to the Israeli clarinettist and klezmer musician Giora Feidman in honor of his 80th birthday.[10][11]
The new district called Dietenbach, which is very close to the festival location, has aroused concern among the organizers of the festival that they will be forced to move away.[12] However, the head of the "Dietenbach Project Group", Rüdiger Engel, the former head of the building rights office, said that this should not be a problem as the ZMF could be secured via the land register - in a similar way to the Munich Oktoberfest.
References
edit- ^ Zeitung, Badische. "Weggefährten erinnern sich: "Rolf Böhme war ein Hochkaräter" - Freiburg - Badische Zeitung". www.badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ a b WELT (2014-07-15). "Freiburger Zelt-Musik-Festival mit gutem Vorverkauf". Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ "Stadt Freiburg im Breisgau: Kultur, Bildung und Sport". web.archive.org. 2011-01-10. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ statement of the event organizer
- ^ "Der Geist des ZMF: Drei Fragen an Perry Robinson | chilli:freiburg:stadtmagazin". web.archive.org. 2017-09-16. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ Zeitung, Badische. "Perry Robinson beim ZMF: Der „Geist" des Festivals - Rock & Pop - Badische Zeitung". www.badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ Zeitung, Badische. "ZELT-MUSIK-FESTIVAL - Dossier - Badische Zeitung". www.badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ Zeitung, Badische. "In Freiburg startet das ZMF – Für Hitzewelle gerüstet - Freiburg - Badische Zeitung". www.badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ Zeitung, Badische. "Lindsey Stirling sagt ZMF-Konzert wegen Hitze ab - Freiburg - Badische Zeitung". www.badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ Zeitung, Badische. "Fotos: Die ZMF-Gala 2016 - Rock & Pop - Fotogalerien - Badische Zeitung". www.badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ Zeitung, Badische. "Bestens aufgelegtes Geburtstagskind - Freiburg - Badische Zeitung". www.badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ Zeitung, Badische. "Freiburg will Enteignungen in Dietenbach vermeiden - Freiburg - Badische Zeitung". www.badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-27.