“Little Fluffy Clouds” is the title of a hit song from the 90’s. The British rave band the orb created the song, it sounds like fluffy cotton balls, harmony and bliss. But also after power: Sitting still and doing nothing is difficult with this beat. Michi Kern always liked the song. And that’s why he chose it as the namesake of his latest project. “Fluffy Clouds” is the name of the five-month open-air event in Schwabing’s Georgenschwaigbad, which is set to succeed “Fritzi and Karl” this summer.
“I thought the title was very appropriate,” says the man who, with his restaurants, nightclubs, cafés, halls and yoga studios, has long ensured that the people of Munich don’t get bored in their city. “You hope for good weather, lie on your back and look up at the fleecy clouds.”
The song symbolizes being outside, gentleness and peace – exactly what people longed for after two long Corona winters and the war in Ukraine. Together with Lissie Kieser and Gregor Wöltje, Michi Kern now wants to play in the outdoor pool near Scheidplatz from May to September. The interim use is designed in a similar way to the urban development project “Sugar Mountain” by the doer trio in Obersendling – as a creative, low-threshold experimental field for sports, art and culture. And peppered with a social impetus: Urban movement spaces are created primarily for children, young people and families. No entrance fee, no obligation to buy, inclusive, participatory.
Some of the offers are already fixed, there will definitely be a soccer field with four to six goals, plus a Frisbee, a streetball, two badminton and four beach volleyball fields. Trampolines are to be set up, table tennis tables, bouldering walls and a calisthenics station. They want to attach slacklines, create a boule track and set up a children’s climbing area with paddling facilities and Indian tents. A yoga platform is also planned and a beer garden including a tent and stage.
First Michi Kern (from left), Lissie Kieser and Gregor Wöltje tackled the “Sugar Mountain” project, now the Georgenschwaigbad is following.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
Other elements could still be added, the planning team is open to suggestions from the neighborhood, from neighbors and local politicians. “We have plenty of room for initiatives,” says Kern. Offers for refugees from Ukraine are already planned. The whole thing should take place during the day, between seven in the morning and ten in the evening. “We’ll stop when it gets dark,” promises Michi Kern. “There’s no other way, because we have neither artificial light nor sound.”
Residents should have no reason for complaints this year
Last summer, the neighbors complained for weeks about the evening cinema event in the Georgenschwaige outdoor pool – even though both Patrick Diesing and Felix Lechner, the organizers of the “Fritzi and Karl” project, and the public utility company, as the owner of the area, had repeatedly emphasized, always to have acted “moderately and within the legally permissible values”. “But the fact is, when people feel disturbed, that’s the way it is,” Kern knows from experience. “So now we’re answering conceptually.”
This time, the interim project is not designed to be profit-oriented, but rather, as Kern puts it, as a “social business”. Wöltje, Kieser and Kern want to cover the running costs for the location with kiosk and beer garden income and otherwise cross-finance the offer with sponsorship money and profits from the other companies in the trio. In addition to the “Sugar Mountain” happening place, the current organizational team also runs the Freiheitshalle in Neuhausen as a venue for concerts, club nights, theatre, cabaret and readings, as well as the former riding hall on Schwabing’s Hessstrasse, now known as “Utopia”.
“We’ll definitely start with Fluffy Clouds on Sunday, May 1st,” says Michi Kern. Come what may.” The rental contract runs until September 30, after which there will be another break on the outdoor area at Petuelring. In 2023, Bad Georgenschwaige is to be transformed into a CO₂-free natural pool, based on the model of Maria Einsiedel in Thalkirchen, the only natural pool in Munich to date. The opening is planned for 2024.