Long Night of Music Munich: 400 concerts at 60 locations – Munich

Before Corona, “superspreader event” would have been an appreciative name for the Long Night of Music: tens of thousands swarm out all over the city to make contacts and to discover clubs, pubs, concert halls, churches and other cultural sites. It is logical that for two years this seemed too risky. “Eeeendlich”, as the program booklet says, continues in the more than 20-year history of this music festival, this time voluntarily capped at 16,000 ticket buyers so that they still feel comfortable, as David Boppert, Managing Director of the organizing Münchner Kultur GmbH, says.

State, municipal and private institutions are once again weaving a huge tapestry of music, theater and performance. On four shuttle bus routes, on foot or by bike, you can let yourself be carried away to 400 concerts at 60 locations, from Klezmer in the Egyptian Museum to the student concert at the Music Academy, to the singer-songwriter Jonathan Gordon in the Künstlerhaus, to the swing dance Course in the Vintage Club, and from one of the city’s new creative quarters – Gasteig HP8, Kreativlabor 2, Werksviertel Mittel – to the other. Munich is buzzing and spreading.

Ringing factory district

Kunstpark Ost, Kulturfabrik – long gone. But “art and culture should remain the heart of the Werksviertel,” says Caroline Eckart, the managing director of the event factory, which fills the mixed area with creative life. Its colorful program will also be presented in the Long Night of Music. Especially in the cultural heart of the district, the Werk7 theater. This is presented by the new “Soundwerk7” series, which is intended to invite visitors into different music worlds in the future. At the premiere of the Long Night, they want to devote themselves entirely to the musical, since Werk7 has long been home to the show productions “The Fabulous World of Amélie” and “Fack Ju Göthe” and has been showing ambitious off-productions for a while.

A few steps further in Café Guatemuc, David Topic will play marimba music, which is an integral part of Guatemalan culture. There are also culinary specialties and the right ambience from the region. The Werksviertel also has a little Spain to offer in the Bar La Tasca Flamenca. Here the band Los Compadres appear. The contrasting program is running over in the Transit Rooftop & Bar: the German producer and DJ duo Boehm & Lifeofchris will be playing electronic dance music over the roofs of the motley Werksviertel.

Rave in the new Gasteig

“Everything new in the south” and “everything but classical music” – the Gasteig is tackling this year’s Long Night of Music under these two mottos. Due to renovation work, the Gasteig has moved to its replacement quarters HP8. Most people know that, but not everyone has been here. The Long Night offers the opportunity to get to know the area on the Isar Canal. The program is also new: A long, long time ago – before the pandemic – the Gasteig with ten stages could call itself the superlative of the Long Night of Music.

Now it should be completely different. No more 40 performances, but only ten, spread over three stages: The open-air stage is intended to create space for the musicians of the acoustic sounds: Das Elias Prince Trio with his swing-ballad-waltz mix, the jazz musicians Sophia and Valentine and Manu Loves You Madlythat merge folk, blues and pop. In the multifunctional hall X, in addition to the indie pop band Richter + Lippus from Munich and the soul singer Seda from 10.40 p.m. also from the Süddeutsche Zeitung named Band of the Year 2020 Lauraine appear. According to Gasteig spokesman Michael Amtmann, the Long Night in the Gasteig HP8 can “start off well, stop by in the middle and end incredibly well”. Because at 11pm will be axolotl, Francesca btb ReznapMax Unhold and Storm&Room transform Halle E, the spectacular foyer to the Isarphilharmonie, into a rave club with electro beats, where you can dance long after the event has officially ended.

authorities and the creative

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As far as the size of the event is concerned, the Federal Employment Agency robbed the Gasteig of first place this year. The authority knows a lot more about art and culture than many people know. In the past two years of the pandemic, the employment agencies, and here in particular the artist agency division, have seen first-hand how the cultural workers had to fight: one cancellation after the other, months of idleness. That’s why the agency was particularly pleased to be able to present all those artists again who were supposed to be part of the Long Night of Music in 2020. The program in the JIZ event hall on Kapuzinerplatz consists of classical music, jazz and opera, but also acrobatics, stilt walking and juggling.

The Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, for Sport and Integration is also there again. Many visitors will queue up alone to be able to enter the Odeon – formerly a concert hall, now the inner courtyard of the ministry. But the range of music is also attractive: the tenor Manuel Ried and the a cappella choir Soul Food Delight appear under the motto “Help for Ukraine refugees in Bavaria.” On Amalienstrasse, the Consulate General of Hungary also opens its doors to jazz music performed by the band Kodaly Spicy Jazz is interpreted in a modern way. And the Czech Center – on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to strengthen the “good reputation of the Czech Republic in the world” – presents Otto Hejnic’s jazz trio, his country’s most famous drummer.

Irrigation to the Riesling

You can get from the largest co-organizer to the smallest – on an area of ​​10.3 square meters, to be precise – if you make a detour from the employment office to the JuLu coffee bar. The program in the café at Sendlinger Tor is also small but fine: MadButFine is the name of the Munich band that wants to give a feel-good concert unplugged. “All it took was a phone call and they were there,” says co-founder Jannis Pohl, who is happy to be there with his mini-café. There’s something about letting the music wash over you over a coffee, a Riesling or a meal. That is why numerous catering establishments take part in the Long Night. Like the Ratskeller Munich at Odeonsplatz, the one with the rock band angry dog participates for the eleventh time. If you feel homesick between all the jazz, rock and pop, just stop at the Gasthaus Isarthor. That’s where the band plays crush plate Folk music from Lower Bavaria.

Hotels

Hotels are not only convivial places for guests from outside, locals also like to meet in their bars and clubs. In any case, during the Long Night everyone will have to move a little closer together. For example in the Night Club of the Bayerischer Hof, where the Munich band jazoum soul, funk and lounge sounds. Jazz and evergreens are on the program of saxophonist Peter Kral in Sophia’s Bar in the Charles Hotel. And in the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten you can also indulge yourself with funk and soul Time is now not buttoned. In addition to the renowned establishments, there is even more to discover (near the main train station): the Boilerman Bar in the Hotel 25h and the songwriter duo second spiritand the Almbar in the Cocoon Hotel, where Hansi Riethmeier (known from Käfer’s Wiesnschänke) comes up trumps with beer tent hits.

Special tickets for the theater

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If you want to get one of the mostly limited seats for late night guests in the theaters, you need a bit of luck and patience when queuing. For example in the GOP Varieté, here you can reserve a maximum of two tickets for the revue “Sailors” by telephone (089/210288444) or pick them up at the box office half an hour before the start of the show. In the Gärtnerplatztheater there are some tickets for “Candide” at 6.30 p.m. at the box office – after the Bernstein operetta, however, some soloists continue to sing until 1 a.m. And the ballet evening “Passages” (tickets from 6.30 p.m.) does not end in the National Theater either. At the “Open House” from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. there are night tours and performances by the up-and-coming stars of the Opera Studio and the Orchestra Academy.

A bath with the choirs

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Dangle your feet in the water and listen to music – that’s how you can endure the Long Night at Müller’sches Volksbad. The art nouveau house offers a great backdrop and reverberating acoustics for a choir night, for example with the incomparable Bud Spenzer Heart Choir (“60 flying fists on the ear rags”). Another bar choir the Munich pub choir, this time crowded into Café Bellevue (Schleißheimer Straße 142) with their indie hit parade. There is more space in the churches where you can hear not only sacred choral music: in addition to the St. Mark’s Choir, there is also a rock-pop choir Robin’s chorusand in St. Willibrod the Mothers’ Choir, the Munich English Choir and the Rainbow Choir take turns.

Long Night of Music Munich, Saturday, May 7th, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., tickets for 20 euros www.muenchenticket.dethe four shuttle bus lines start at Odeonsplatz, information: www.muenchner.de