CUSTOMER: HEW | Vattenfall Europe
TASK: Adult program of the literature festival with 60 – 80 events
IDEA : Crossover thematic series with a social reference, internationalization of the festival program, development of innovative forms of literature presentation
JOB : Curating the literary and non-fiction program | Editing | Press work
PERIOD : 2002 – 2013
Project description
The cultural spring in Northern Germany got a new highlight shortly before the beginning of the 2000s: the »Hamburg Reading Days«. From 2002 HEINEKOMM took over the curation of the extensive main program.
Each week in April, the reading days invited authors from all over the world – newcomers, insider tips and successful best sellers – to the Hanseatic city and delighted thousands of literature fans. In 2004 they already attracted 16,000 spectators, and the reading days quickly developed into one of the largest literary festivals in the German-speaking area.
In advance, HEINEKOMM designed thematic focal points and selected the appropriate new literary publications.
The events of the Hamburg Reading Days were spread across the entire city and took visitors to unusual and sometimes remote places. It was read in the troparium of the Hagenbeck Zoo, in the Hamburg observatory, in the International Maritime Museum or even in a specialist cycling shop – to match the respective literary subjects.
Up until 2013, the last year of the reading days, around 1,000 participants from 50 countries were guests. More than 150,000 visitors attended the events. The imaginative combination of well-known and completely new authors, musicians and actors, politicians, publicists and scientists was an integral part of Hamburg’s cultural life.
In 2004 there was the »KulturMerkur« for this purpose from the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and the Hamburg Cultural Foundation. In 2010 the festival won a prize in the »Places in the Land of Ideas« competition, which is being held under the patronage of the Federal President. And in September 2011 the reading days were awarded the prestigious »German Culture Promotion Prize«.
Feedback:
»Innovative. Passionate. Creative.«
Judith Kalnbach, HEW / Vattenfall Europe
