All projects overviewOpen Ohr Mainz
What is the Open Ohr Festival?
Let's let the organizers themselves have their say:
The OPEN OHR Festival sees itself as a non-commercial, themed youth culture festival for visitors of all ages. It is the only one of its kind in Germany and offers the opportunity to engage intensively with political issues over four days. Every year, the independent project group takes up a controversial topic without external influence, which is reflected in the individual program content and sections, on panels and in workshops over the four days of Pentecost. The declared aim is to initiate a social discourse with the annually changing festival theme. The OPEN OHR Festival is non-partisan, but not impartial!
What was this year's theme?
This year's festival motto was a pun in German, translating both to "Many democracy supporters" while simultaneously meaning "Be louder, democracy supporters!". Every year, the independent project group selects an association from Germany that fits the motto and shows promise in initiating a social discourse. This association is then allowed to have an information stand at the Open Ohr Festival. (Other associations may apply for the remaining places and they are then drawn by lot.)
Why were we invited?
The festival's curators became aware of us through the Deutschlandfunk report⬈ on Unser Dialog. Unser Dialog was thus invited to offer an information stand at the 51st Open Ohr Festival. When we saw the invitation, we were honored. This will be the first event that we are holding exclusively in person! We quickly realized that we would do something interactive instead of just handing out information flyers. A team of volunteers at Unser Dialog designed flyers, T-shirts and special merchandise - and traveled from France, southern and western Germany to make this vision a reality.
What did people do at our stand?
Over 200 people took part in our hands-on exhibition in Mainz. People reflected in dialog with each other on our key questions on the topics of the future, democracy and togetherness. You can see the exact key questions in the video. People of all ages sat on colorful cushions, talking to each other about our key questions in a committed but always respectful manner.
Equipped with colorful ribbons, prepared pieces of drawing paper and pens, everyone who wanted to could then enrich our exhibition. How did they do it? Quite simply:
- Write the essence of the discussion on a piece of paper.
- Choose your favorite loop from the box.
- Add your own paper to the others - where it fits thematically, or simply where it looks best.
