5 August 2020

Wiener Festwochen is back on stage from 26 August until 26 September 2020

This year is full of surprises! First, the festival Wiener Festwochen was announced (article), then it had to be postponed and was re-created as digitally altered form which happened in May and June, and now, the theater, dance and music performances come peu à peu with the necessary care (keyword Covid-19) back to the stage from 26 August until 26 September. Even when most of the productions are postponed to 2021, it's an important signal.

Today, Fashion.at looked through the programme folder and website of Wiener Festwochen. The festival was massively impacted by the lockdown and further restrictions like any other theatre, dance or music event around the world. Wiener Festwochen is a hub for performing arts in Europe. International artists from all parts of the world meet every year in Vienna for working together on brand new productions or for showing their latest dance, theatre, media or music productions in front of the city's cosmopolitan audience. In 2020, not only the travel situation for artists has changed dramatically. Many tourists have decided due to travel warnings to postpone holiday activities.

Now, Wiener Festwochen takes off again - in a lean version. Even when most of the productions had to be postponed to 2021, the realization of a new 2020 schedule with the health and safety of artists and audiences in mind, makes productions like the performance 'The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988' choreographed, danced by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker herself, accompanied by pianist Pavel Kolesnikov who interprets Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations to a signal of hope that even in difficult times there are ways to go on further. The world premiere of the dance, music performance with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Pavel Kolesnikov on stage happens on the first day of the upcoming Wiener Festwochen on 26 August 2020. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's 'The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988' will be shown until 30 August in Vienna; afterwards, the production travels to Belgium, France,... (details at the website of Keersmaeker's dance company Rosas rosas.be).

Note: Infos about the coronavirus prevention regulations at the festival and how to purchase tickets are published at festwochen.at/en/service/corona-info.