Robert Pollack is responsible for regulatory issues at the city of Nuremberg, he is used to large events. Blue night, open-air classical music, bard gatherings, the city has to be prepared for tens of thousands of visitors every time. So it may come as a surprise what Pollack describes three weeks before the start of the German Evangelical Church Congress in Nuremberg. The safety concept comprises 650 pages, “the thickest” that he has ever held in his hand.
During the Pentecost holidays, from June 7th to 11th, 2023, the organizers hope that the city will transform into a “colorful faith, culture and music festival”. It will be the 38th Kirchentag, experience from other cities shows that the audience is not one of the ones that require a lot of care.
Police director Andreas Belger says that “basically” one expects “a friendly and peaceful audience”. The celebrities – among other things, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced – make the cooperation of many authorities necessary. Belger speaks of a “major operation”, the most opulent of the year in Nuremberg.
A total of 2,300 events at 35 different locations, “we haven’t had that yet either,” says Pollack. The individual program items are on average rather manageable. But especially on the opening day, tens of thousands of visitors are expected in the old town. It is difficult to predict exactly how many there will be, says Janine Rolfsmeyer, head of the German Evangelical Church Congress. After the pandemic, visitors made their decisions more spontaneously than before. Especially since the upcoming Kirchentag is the “first after Corona”. However, there seems to be a desire to meet up: 50,000 tickets have been sold so far, mostly valid for all five days.