Bocholt Culture Days 2024

It will soon be time again: Bocholt's residents - and of course the city's guests - can once again look forward to the Bocholt Culture Days on the market square.

This year, the established cultural event will once again take place against the familiar backdrop of the market square in front of the historic town hall. The Bocholt Culture Days are organised and hosted by the city of Bocholt.

Admission to all events is free!

Once again this year, great importance was attached to ensuring that the Bocholt Culture Days offer an attractive and varied programme. In addition to established artists, there will also be new programme items:

In its new production "Peer Gynt", the NN Theatre Cologne focuses on a work by the Norwegian poet Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). Today, the dramatic poem is regarded as the "Norwegian Faust".

Peer is a farmer's son, young and playful. He detests work and deludes himself and others into believing a world that does not exist. Actually impoverished and lazy, he describes his home as a palace and his boredom as a great adventure. His life oscillates back and forth between desire and reality, between fantasy and fact. He creates stories, like stories for Instagram or TikTok today.

The "more appearance than reality" increasingly becomes a problem, as more and more people become entangled in his web of lies. Pranks are turning into outrages, fiction is becoming dangerous fake news. What is still real, what is a fantasy?

Peer gets lost in the realm of trolls, becomes a slave trader, cheats and is cheated, hurries through deserts on other continents to escape from creditors and finally ends up in a mental hospital. Or was that just a dream? Peer begins to ask himself: what kind of core is left after peeling the onion? Who am I, and if so, how many? Am I more than my story?

The NN Theatre embarks on a refreshingly contemporary theatrical journey, unravelling the colourful web of Peer Gynt. The drama becomes particularly lively because a project choir from the Bocholt-Isselburg music school under the direction of Christa Warnke supports the NN Theatre and becomes part of the production.

The event takes place in cooperation with Stadttheater Bocholt e.V.

A jazz concert in the BOHJazz series will take place on Thursday evening. The trio centred around guitarist Christian Hassenstein will perform with singer Sanna van Vliet, who is already well-known in Bocholt. During the concert, visitors can purchase food and drinks from the stalls at the Bocholt evening market.

The jazz evening is supported by Stadtsparkasse Bocholt.

A strain on Bocholt's laughter muscles: Marcel Kösling as host organises a comedy evening with his guests that has something for everyone. The best entertainment, whether magic, cabaret or stand-up comedy. Including: Hans Hermann Thielke, the thoroughbred comedian from the German civil servant centre of society, who delights with stories from everyday life after the post office. He will also be joined by Rhenish cheerfulness and musical actress Laura Brümmer.

The event takes place in cooperation with Stadttheater Bocholt e.V. and is sponsored by Kultursekretariat NRW Gütersloh and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

After the last time in 2021, the Alte Molkerei is also back on board and kicks off the Kulturtage Saturday with "Rudeltrommeln" under the guidance of Sascha Pöpping.

The Bocholt-based prog rock band "Cumulus" will open the rock evening at 6.30 pm, before the evening's headliner - the Andre Sinner Band - will get the audience fired up with folk-punk rock from the Ruhr region. Music-typical drinks will be provided on site!

On the last day of the Culture Days, there is once again a wide range of culture to experience from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm.

The CityArt art market organised by Hans Michael Spogahn stretches from Neutorplatz to Marktplatz and offers visitors the opportunity to discover and purchase artworks by 70 artists from four nations. The same applies to lovers of current and antiquarian books: the book market organised by Rainer Heeke, which has been taking place for over 30 years, will be held on Gasthausplatz, as it has been for several years.

As a connecting element between the two markets, children and young people will be able to work independently and free of charge on the market square under the guidance of members of the Bocholt art and culture community, employees of the Bocholt city archive and other participants and give free rein to their creativity.

Parallel to the previous activities, relaxed rock/pop music by up-and-coming artists will be performed on the central Culture Day stage. Singer-songwriter Annalena Sybon will be performing at 1 pm. With her warm voice and intimate guitar sounds, she has already made a name for herself beyond the borders of Düsseldorf.

The band "Parakeets", led by siblings Julius and Merle Eckardt, will be performing from around 2.30 pm. Their unusual combination of catchy melodies, sophisticated arrangements and rousing rhythms has made Parakeets one of the most exciting newcomer bands of recent years. This has been underlined not least by their successes, including concerts at the English Reading Fringe Festival as proud representatives of the state capital Düsseldorf or as tour support act for renowned artists such as Cryssis (Vom Ritchie, Die Toten Hosen), Who's Amy and Oskar Haag.

The band received a nomination for the prestigious popNRW award for best newcomer band in 2021, proving that they are not only recognised locally, but also at a national level.