For a while now, the student town has seemed more like a ghost town to many. The front part of the new town, in particular, with the tall buildings like the orange house, the red house and the high-rise with the BMW logo – the gateway to Munich for many drivers on the A9 – is deserted. Instead of 2,500 students, only 1,200 live here during the tedious renovation, most of them in the more tranquil old town at the back of the English Garden. At least the front part of the house, the blue one, has been reoccupied, “a ray of hope,” says Fabian Eckl from the cultural life association in the student town.
It is thanks to him and the other hundreds of current and former residents that the open spaces between the student digs are now really coming to life again. For four days at least, the Stustaculum, the largest festival in Germany organized by students, will be taking place in Freimann. For the 34th edition, tens of thousands of visitors of all ages will come together to celebrate, eat, drink, play, do sports and, above all, enjoy culture with 100 events on four stages.
The basic idea behind the “Studentenstadt-Spectaculum” is “the voluntary work of many hundreds of student helpers”. They put on a non-commercial festival (entrance costs just twelve euros for all four days) as “a contribution to a friendly, open and livable Munich” that everyone can afford, writes the association. The students, in turn, should be able to train themselves in various tasks related to professional festival organization.
The students certainly have a gift for imagination: instead of a ghost town, they see a “wonderland” in the area. One like the one Alice gets lost in in Lewis Carroll’s novels through the hole of the white rabbit. The rodent is the mascot of this year’s “festival experience of a special kind”, where guests are supposed to “leave everyday life on the surface”. In this “green wonderland in the north of Munich”, a spacious yet winding area, there are many friendly and strange creatures – just like in the story.
It is noticeable that there are many funny people among the artists: humor is a trump card, especially among musicians. Fromage from the asswho classify themselves as “lactose punk” and serve chaotic stories and cheese cubes to the music of flutes and bicycle bells (Wednesday, May 29, 10:15 p.m.). Or be it The Young Europeans, who are not running a European election campaign, but play New German Wave and Art Pop, at their shows “anything can happen between a dead Paul McCartney, a rave in garbage bags and a naked unplugged song” (Saturday, June 1st, midnight). The Golden Boys of indie rock are always funny too, Brew Berrymore (“accompanied by show dance legend Pavo Royal”), whose motto is tailor-made for the Wonderland Stustaculum: “Come as you are, dance as you dance, sing as you sing, be who you want to be!” (Friday, May 31, 10 p.m.).
Curious phenomena can be discovered, such as the Canarian Eder Jiménez O’Shanahan, who plays the flute to his loop songs and also invented flute beatboxing (Wednesday, May 29, 6.30 p.m.). The Live Elevtronic group Aera Tiret takes guests into a psychedelic sound and light space in the open-air atrium (Thursday, May 30, 7:10 p.m.). Otherwise, there is all kinds of entertainment music, from swing and funk by the TUM Jazz Band (May 30, 4:15 p.m.), to German hits from the twenties by Dr. Reinhard’s ear candy (Thursday, May 30, 5.30 pm) to hip hop from Dario & Nikothe “German rap power couple”, the two rapped as the opening act for Paula Hartmann, giving an “intimate insight into their love relationship” (May 31, 7:15 p.m.).
There is again a children’s program, cheerleading, a Schafkopf tournament, bubble soccer and a sports Olympics. However, it is noticeable that cabaret has pretty much disappeared from the Stustaculum, which was once founded as a theater festival with twelve companies, with the exception of the improv theater group Lichterloh (May 30, 7 p.m.). Fabian Eckl hopes that this will change again next year. Because once the Hans-Scholl-Halle has been completely renovated, there will once again be a sufficiently spacious hall available for the legendary cabaret competition for the “Golden Weisswurst”.