Musikfestival

Thirteen re:start concerts took place at Musikfestival 2025, which were mainly performed by members of the Festivalcampus-Ensemble 2025 and, for the first time, by alumni of the Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie. The point of reference was the plea for moments of shared "liberated time" in the 2025 edition of the Musikfestival.

re:start was once again a guest at established venues such as the Augustinum, the Marstallcafé, CHAPEL and the Collegium Academicum. The SRH University of Applied Sciences in Wieblingen and the open stage "Heidelberger Melange" were new to the event. The varied programme ranged from the popular evening bread concert to afternoon music as a meeting place for young and old, to change concerts by student residential communities and a sleep concert where the audience listened to the musicians until the early hours of the morning.

One highlight was the concert evening "Tutti" in the auditorium of the New University of Heidelberg, where the Festivalcampus-Ensemble performed with a full line-up together with violinist Dmitry Smirnov.

For the first time, there were also two re:start concerts as part of the Liedfestival, performed by Liedakademie alumni: an evening bread concert in the Protestant chapel parish in the old town and an open-air concert at the Saturday market on Wilhelmsplatz.

A total of nine concerts took place during the Musikfestival 2024 from March 15 to April 13 under the "re:start flag". They were performed by the young artists of the Festivalcampus-Ensemble 2024. These spanned a musical arc from Musikfestival focus composer Johannes Brahms and contemporary music to pop, jazz and world music. In Heidelberg districts such as CHAPEL in Südstadt, Metropolink's Commissary in Patrick-Henry-Village and the Augustinum on Emmertsgrund, the re:start program reached a total of 2,000 people.

To mark its 25th anniversary in 2022, Heidelberger Frühling joined forces with 25 young artists, ensembles and district partners to develop "re:start", which celebrates culture as a fundamental force. For its first edition, the programme had one main goal: to bring people together again after the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. A "restart" for concert life - similar to spring, which awakens nature from hibernation every year. During this time of crisis, it became clear how important a festival without high entry barriers can be for the city community. Without barriers between the audience and the stage, numerous musical offerings were made accessible, connecting urban society with one another. At the same time, re:start acted as a support program for young female artists who had suffered particularly from a lack of performance opportunities during the cultural lockdown.

The musical performances took place both indoors and outdoors. These included family, sing-along, supper, lunch and brunch concerts, market concerts, an Earth Hour concert, pub concerts, all-day music festivals as well as interactive formats and workshops. Performances took place in the empty Wilson Theater (Rohrbach-Hasenleiser), the synagogue of the Jewish community (Weststadt), the Tiefburg (Handschuhsheim), the CHAPEL community center (Südstadt), the Boxberg shopping center, the Emmertsgrundpassage, Café Schafheutle (Altstadt), the Heidelberg multi-generation house (Rohrbach) and the Marstall canteen (Altstadt). Heidelberg Central Station was a special venue for re:start. As part of the "KlaWIR am Bahnhof" festival, a meeting place for spontaneous communal music-making was created in the main building of the station during the first two weeks of the festival.

Participating artists from all over Germany included Audax Saxophone Quartet, Borsch4Breakfast, CelloFellos, Cosima Soulez Larivière, Das Kolorit, Ensemble Sozusingen, Hanke Brothers, Hanni Liang, Kartoffelstampfer, Kollektiv B12, Leander Kippenberg, Leon Lorenz, Line Klenke, Maximilian Sutter, Mona Heiler and Lisa-Marie Trodtfeld, Mert Yalniz, Nicolae Gutu and Marcus Sundermeyer, Oskar Meier, Peacock Mandala, Philip Pineda Resch, Porter Percussion Duo, The JLF Project, Valerie's Voices, zahira, Zahra Sebnat.