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This year marks the tenth anniversary of the "Heimat Shoppen" city centre initiative of the NRW Chambers of Industry and Commerce. The "Heimat Shoppen" campaign was founded in 2014 by the IHK Mittlerer Niederrhein, and the IHK Nordwestfalen has been involved in the image campaign since 2016. Bocholt has been involved from the start in 2016. From 5 - 7 September, Bocholt's business people will be inviting their customers and all city centre visitors from near and far to stroll around the city centre, shop and experience street theatre, street music and the odd surprise. On 5 September, in addition to the colourful street theatre, there will also be an evening market in front of the historic town hall; on all three street theatre days, there will of course also be a weekly market in Bocholt in the morning. The anniversary year was taken as an opportunity to rebrand the campaign. From now on, "Heimat Shoppen" presents itself with a modern, fresh new logo.

The IHK Nord Westfalen is in charge of the "Heimat Shoppen" campaign in the Münsterland region and aims to raise customer awareness of local retailers, service providers, restaurateurs and weekly markets and emphasise their importance for the city and its citizens. Not only Bocholt, but a total of 48 municipalities as well as interest and advertising groups in the IHK Nordwestfalen district take part in "Heimat Shoppen". Bocholt has been involved in the initiative from the very beginning: shops, shops and boutiques present themselves to their customers and guests with additional offers and distribute the free paper shopping bags and balloons to their customers.

And this year, the ISG Altstadt and the advertising associations of the Shopping Arkaden and Neutor-Platz have organised three days of street theatre and street music in the city centre for "Heimat Shoppen" together with the city marketing department. From 5 - 7 September, a number of street artists and walking jazz bands will be performing in Bocholt's city streets. Jugglers, jugglers, magicians, stilt walkers, clowns and street musicians await guests on their shopping excursion. The motto is "experience shopping in the city centre, combined with an ice cream or cake in ice cream parlours or cafés or a visit to the weekly or evening market", says city marketing manager Ludger Dieckhues.

The street theatre activities will run for three days, so that visitors to the city centre can look forward to a special shopping experience on Thursday (3 - 7 pm), Friday (3 - 7 pm) and Saturday (11 am - 3 pm).

Visitors can look forward to jazz music from the Walking Blues Prophets and the SoS Mobilband, among others, while the HaWei duo will also provide musical entertainment. The well-known all-round talent "Clown Georg" will be there, as will pantomime Pomorin. Clown Sergio will delight the children, magician Fred will surprise them with his magic tricks, juggler Schnecke will disappear in a balloon and the StandArt Theatre will offer slapstick and lots of tricks. There will be performances at the market, in Nordstrasse, Neustrasse and Osterstrasse, in front of and inside the shopping arcades and on Neutorplatz.

"So Bocholters and visitors from out of town can look forward to a colourful, varied and exciting theatre programme for their shopping trip to Bocholt city centre on the first weekend in September," says City Marketing Managing Director Ludger Dieckhues. " September starts surprisingly, colourfully and wittily with street theatre as part of Heimat Shopping, continues with the Cityfood Festival from 12-14 September and ends no less attractively with the traditional Sunday shopping event Bokeltsen Treff and lots of children's attractions on 29 September - so there's something going on again in Bocholt city centre, as intended with the current city centre concept"

The street theatre days are supported by Bocholter Energie- und Wasserversorgung (BEW).