About The Festival
Since 2020, the Lausitz Festival has been inviting people from the region and visitors from all over to Europe's Art Festival (Sorbian: Wuměłstwowy Festiwal Europy) from the end of August to mid-September in the diverse landscape of Lusatia – from Brandenburg to Saxony to the Polish border region.
With its international events, the Lusatia Festival has developed a charisma that attracts supra-regional attention to Lusatia. At the same time, the festival is firmly rooted in the region – thanks in part to its close cooperation with partners such as museums, theatres, cultural foundations, universities and local communities.
Music, theatre, dance, film and literature, discussions and exhibitions of contemporary art meet unique venues and the eventful history of Lusatia. In addition to theatres, castles and parks, cinemas, industrial monuments and churches also become as stages.
Each year, a word of inspiration is central to the festival programme. This art word takes up cultural and socio-political themes and serves as a common thread linking the individual festival events.
How it all began
The Lusatia Festival was initiated by Daniel Kühnel and a joint initiative of the German Bundestag, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Minister Presidents of the Free State of Saxony and the State of Brandenburg.
In 2018, the basic decision was made when the federal budget was drawn up with the new title »Lausitz Festival« – introduced by a broad majority of the SPD and CDU and passed without dissenting votes. With the »Lausitz Festival«, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media is funding a cross-state and cross-disciplinary festival that has the task of accompanying the structural change in today's mining region with international art contributions. This was followed by the cabinet decision of the federal states on 11 June 2019. For the first time in the recent history of Saxony and Brandenburg, both state cabinets have decided to consider, discuss and, after an intensive preparatory phase, realise an artistic project that is forward-looking for both sides at the beginning of the impending structural change, some of which has already begun. Dr Dietmar Woidke and Michael Kretschmer, Minister Presidents of the State of Brandenburg and the Free State of Saxony, acted as patrons.
This was followed by coordination by the Görlitzer Kulturservicegesellschaft mbH between the two federal states and the federal government with the aim of creating a sustainable, transnational, resilient festival structure with the result of a framework agreement between the federal government and the two federal states on 17 November 2022 and finally the foundation of the Lausitz Festival gGmbH on 1 April 2023 as a municipal non-profit company of the cities of Cottbus/Chóśebuz and Görlitz, financed and supported by the federal government and both federal states.