Bridge-Beat-Festival_2024_c-Simon-Reichmann

A new era: the BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL in Innsbruck

09 July 2024

Post originally written in: Deutsch

A new music festival will conquer Innsbruck from July 18 to 20, 2024 to celebrate summer lightness and connect people, cities and cultures. The right name for it? (drum roll) BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL. A colorful mix of indie, jazz, pop, blues, folk and world music will be presented in the heart of the city, in Maria-Theresien-Straße to be precise. The varied program and numerous side events are open to all with free admission.

There's a lot going on in Innsbruck and the surrounding area in summer! And that's a tradition, you could say. There is a varied cultural program on offer. These include institutions such as Theater unter Sternen, the Innsbruck Promenade Concerts, the Festival Weeks of Early Music, the Tyrolean Folk Festival in Telfs, the Open-air cinema in the Zeughaus, the KRAPOLDI Festival and many other great events. (The European Football Championships or the Olympic Games could easily get lost in the shuffle, at least for a blogger like me who is not interested in sports)

For many years, the New Orleans Festival was also a fixture on Innsbruck's summer program. After 25 successful, jazzy and bluesy years, this era came to an end in 2023 and artistic director Markus Linder bid farewell with a brilliant finale on Landhausplatz. I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you for this wonderful festival, which I personally always associate with sudden downpours, but also with a really good atmosphere, a colorful audience and rousing music.

The turning point "after the New Orleans Festival" has arrived, creating space for something new: from July 18 to 20, 2024, the BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL will be an event highlight that is here to stay. The Innsbruck Marketing and artistic director Marc Hess have developed a well thought-out concept and a truly impressive line-up.

Shortly before the start, I was able to meet the project managers Sarah Brandacher and Eva Schumacher (both Innsbruck Marketing) to talk to them about bridges, beats and the festival feeling.

The two of them are full of anticipation, and you wouldn't know it from the stress they are definitely under. The folders, merchandise and other advertising material have just arrived hot off the press, the flags are flying in the city center and on the bridges, the posters are up. With every little piece of the puzzle, the concept that took (only!) a year to work on (in addition to all the other Innsbruck Marketing events, mind you) is slowly coming to life. Sarah and Eva's joy is genuine, honest and quite infectious.

They see the decision to set up something completely new after the New Orleans Festival as a huge opportunity. In conversation, I quickly realize how many, many ideas and aspects have been incorporated into the concept for the new BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL are being incorporated. Building bridges between musical styles, cities, cultures and people is at the heart of it all. A wonderful idea in a city that already has bridge in its name, and at a time when these bridges are perhaps more important than ever .. welcome to Innsbruck.

The BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL concerts take place on a stage in Maria-Theresien-Straße. In the middle of the city. I am curious and ask: Why there and where exactly? Sarah explains that the stage is at the northern end of the street, at the entrance to the old town. "The direction of play (a great word!) to the south, towards the Annasäule, is new, and the audience is facing north, directly towards the Nordkette," Sarah continues, and I think to myself, that's a brilliant idea. The connection or bridge from the city to the mountain, which seems to be so omnipresent in Innsbruck, becomes visible in the most beautiful form.

The local restaurateurs (directly from Maria-Theresien-Straße and the old town) provide the food. Eva reveals that it's great to see the enthusiasm with which people work here. "Our BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL has also inspired some really cool initiatives: At Tomaselli will have its own ice cream flavor for the festival and at Peintner matching frozen yogurt toppings for the twin cities." A festival with its own ice cream? This one just keeps getting better!

Musically, the program includes a crossover that will once again build many bridges. The line-up has been arranged by artistic director Marc Hess, with a focus for each day of the festival. I personally know Marc Hess thanks to his great musical productions in Telfs. Jesus Christ Superstar even after 15 years (and more), I still remember Hair and RENT vividly. My impression: Marc Hess is a thoroughbred musician as mastermind, which definitely speaks for the artistic quality of the festival.

Another special feature is that all concerts and side events are free of charge. Between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors are expected per festival day, perhaps even more if the weather cooperates.

"Regional outside the box" is the motto on the first day. TOI. performs jazz and pop in Tyrolean dialect. CubaBoarisch 2.0 combines Bavarian and Cuban dialects and sounds. Finally, singer-songwriter Max von Milland serves up South Tyrolean music and regional color. The aftershow at the mariatheresia is also characterized by regional artists: Here DJ Allspice and the professional dance crew from the Street Motion Studio provides the atmosphere.

Special Side events in a completely new form will bring the BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL to other groups of people and to the whole city. On each of the three festival days from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the pavilion in the Courtyard garden a BRIDGE BEAT BRUNCH will take place. In a relaxed atmosphere, the artists will perform a few songs in advance and talk a little about themselves in moderated interviews. This gives interested people and passers-by the unique opportunity to get to know the musicians on a smaller scale and get in the perfect mood for the concerts. A picnic in the green courtyard garden is included: deckchairs and picnic blankets are available to borrow, and catering services provide coffee and snacks on site.

I personally like this brunch idea because the Courtyard garden is simply a wonderful place for it. Eva hopes that this side event will also appeal to target groups other than concert and festival fans, such as older people who perhaps can't or don't want to stand in front of a stage for hours on end. "I'm definitely going to advertise the BRIDGE BEAT BRUNCH to my grandma!" says Eva, and I hope her grandma really does come. I think it's a cool approach and I hope that this musical picnic is well received in Innsbruck.

The stage is set and we're ready to go. The anticipation for the BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL is great - even for me! It can only be good, the concept seems convincing. If anything, there's just one big question mark: the weather. July is thunderstorm season, and the New Orleans Festival could sing a song about it. You have to expect everything, but we hope for the best. So do Sarah and Eva, who counter the question of whether they are afraid of the weather with the only correct answer: "Nobody can control the weather, and that's actually a good thing. Of course, we hope that all events can take place safely. But we'll take it as it comes and make the best of it!"

I would like to thank Sarah Brandacher and Eva Schumacher for the pleasant and exciting conversation and for kindly providing the photos. And I wish the two organizers, the festival participants and everyone stable weather for a wonderful, unifying BRIDGE BEAT FESTIVAL.

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Verena Abenthung

A Tyrolean girl, graphic designer, blogger and tour guide with a variety of interests and a weakness for nice people, culture, starry night skies, one more beer and the mountains.