THINGS TO DO IN MÜ: 5 - 11 MAY

This week in Munich is going to be HUGE. Five (!) festivals kick-off, the Frühlingsfest continues with a great program, and there are enough events to get every geeky culture vulture's heart beat faster! Naturally we are especially looking forward to the opening night of the 100-Word-Pilgrimage at Platform on Thursday, after weeks of hard work by Anna and her fellow artists and helpers. Come along and say hi!

All week:
FUNFAIR CONTINUES: The 50th Frühlingsfest is still on. Apart from beer, fried chicken and funfair rides, there are some highlights in the program. Don't miss the musical fireworks on Friday (10PM) and the street artists' competition on Sunday (11AM).
 
Monday, 5 May:
FREE CONCERT: The US folk rock trio The Sweet Remains play the Amerika Haus tonight at 8PM. All three band members are songwriters playing different instruments and used to be solo artists until a chance meeting in 2008. The gig is free, so why not give it a go?

Wednesday, 7 May:
FESTIVAL I - DOCUMENTARY FILM: The international documentary film festival DOK.fest kicks off tonight at the HFF and will continue until Wednesday next week. The festival is a must for all film lovers - 135 films in the official selection, specials, retrospectives, open air screenings, a Best-of-Oscar series, a framework programme with concerts and exhibitions - it's just WOW. 

 
FESTIVAL II - MUSIC THEATRE: The Münchner Biennale is another international festival kicking off today. This one should not be missed by fans of classical music, opera and experimental musical theatre. Check out the programme here.

Thursday, 8 May:
BIG OPENING NIGHT: It's the big opening night of the 100 Word Pilgrimage at Platform! Come and see the results of several weeks of hard work and artistic creativity, meet the wonderful international artist team and enjoy a live performance by the fantastic 8-string-guitarist Alexander Vynograd. Check out Anna's recent blog post to learn more about the project, subscribe and share the event on Facebook. The exhibition will run until Monday.

FESTIVAL III - SCI-FI FILM: As a kind of an antipole to the DOK.fest, a new film festival premieres in Munich tonight: Munich's first Science Fiction Festival "ALL über ALL". The festival venue is the KiM-Kino in the Einstein Kulturzentrum. The programme sounds absolutely amazing: classics such as Georges Melies' "A Journey to the Moon" (1902, with live piano accompaniment) and the director's cut of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985), local productions such as the Bavarian trash sci-fi horror "Zombies from Outer Space" (2012), a Stanislaw Lem Special on Saturday, an afternoon programme for children, interesting guests, talks, drinks and live music. Sounds like a hell of a start - the only downside being that you probably need to speak Germany to fully enjoy it. Check out the full programme here. Dressing up is encouraged, aliens enjoy free entry.

FESTIVAL IV - CONTEMPORARY DANCE: The festivals keep coming. Admittedly, Relations: Tanz is quite a small one. Still, if you are an admirer of contemporary dance theatre, you probably shouldn't miss it. Three different shows will run at Kammerspiele / Spielhalle: Sketches / Notebook from on 8th, 9th and 10th of May, Non stop on 14th and 15th of May and finally For love on 18th and 19th of May. Tickets are quite affordable for theatre (19€), especially if you are a student (8€).

GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY: If you are not in the mood for cultural events and would rather get your hands dirty - no problem! Bring your broken stuff to Repair Café at WerkBox3, or get your bikes ready for summer at the BikeKitchen at MackWerk.

Friday, 9 May:
FESTIVAL V - LIVE MUSIC: The weekend begins with another festival start, and this one we are quite excited about. The team of Hauskonzerte has been pampering us with "Munich's finest live sessions" since 2010, and now they are organising a festival! "Deeper Down" is supposed to be a week full of gigs, arts, table tennis, beer, BBQ and Bill Murray - quite a promise! The list of participating bands and artists is impressive:  Tiny Ruins, Ian Fisher, Diane Cluck, Leif Vollebekk, Rosalie und Wanda, Town of Saints, Muup Mumu and De'Borah. As always with Hauskonzerte, to find out where and how you can join, you need to send an email to the organisers. Be quick, places are limited!

Saturday, 10 May:
FIVE FESTIVALS: Just to make it clear - all of the five festivals described above run through the weekend, and in most cases into the next week. So check out what's on tonight at DOK.fest (don't miss the free open-air-screenings if weather allows!), Biennale, ALL über ALL, Relations: Tanz and Deeper Down!

ROCK THE KITCHEN: Here's an alternative to eating out in a restaurant: Cookasa. Whatasa? Exactly our first thoughts. So, here is the idea: 6-8 people are randomly thrown together. They build three teams, each team being responsible for one dish. They shop, get to a kitchen, where they meet their hosts, and start cooking. The costs for the ingredients are shared, as is the food and the fun. Sounds pretty simple and ingenious. What's more, the ingredients for tonight's big simultaneous Cookasa party in Munich come at no cost at all, thanks to a collaboration with Foodsharing. Register here and rock the kitchen!

Sunday, 11 May:
FIVE FESTIVALS: And once again, for those of you jumping straight to the day: Check out what's on tonight at DOK.fest (don't miss the free open-air-screenings if weather allows!), Biennale, ALL über ALL, Relations: Tanz and Deeper Down! And visit the 100 Word Pilgrimage at Platform!

 

Munich, Ostbahnhof

THINGS TO DO IN MÜ: 28 APRIL - 4 MAY

Did you have a good week? We certainly hope you did. We feel a little bit guilty that you had to miss out on last week's blog post. It's not like nothing has been going on in Munich, on the contrary! Unfortunately, we both were too busy to write it down. Let's start making up for it straight away!

All week:  
FUNFAIR I: Frühlingsfest, the spring festival at Theresienwiese, is something like a small sibling of the Oktoberfest. Made from the same ingredients (beer, sausages and funfaire rides), it's smaller in size and considerably less excessive. The focus is also more shifted to Gemütlichkeit and family fun rather than boundless consumption of alcohol. It can still get quite crowded when the weather is fine.

FUNFAIR II: If you choose to go to just one fun fair, our pick would be the Auer Dult. A combination of fun fair and crafts fair, the "Dult" is a festival with a great relaxed traditional atmosphere, and it's beautifully located at the foot of Mariahilfkirche in Au. Don't miss the small kiosks selling antiques and crafts.

Monday, 28 April:
ENGLISH IMPROV THEATRE: Improv shows in English are rare in Munich, so if you are not native German and would like to have some laughs without straining your brains to get that joke in German - don't miss the Bake This show on Monday! Starts at 8pm.

Tuesday, 29 April:
MAGIC BULLETS: Have you already seen "The Black Rider" at the Metropoltheater? If not - you really should! Music and lyrics were written by Tom Waits, and the musical has been brilliantly interpreted by director Jöchen Schölz and the actors at the Metropol theatre. There are still tickets available for the tonight's show, but check out other dates as well if you can't make it tonight.  

Wednesday, 30 April:
DANCE INTO MAY: The night before the 1st of May holiday in Germany is when you get together with friends and drink and dance all night. In fact, the tradition is so old that some time ago on that same night in Germany you would burn a few witches and dance around the fires. Must have been a lot of fun -  that is, if you were not the one who was being burned... Luckily, times have changed, and nowadays witches are quite safe. However, the tradition lives on and the dancing continues. If you can't pick a club, we suggest the Milla in Glockenbach. Trio Infernale will be playing at Milla and the entrance is free. We do not actually know the band, but Milla is a great location often hosting fantastic gigs, so we think it's a safe choice.

ARTS & COMMERCE: Guess we should mention the Stroke Art Fair that starts today. When we first heard about it last year (it was the fourth Stroke, but we missed the first one and lived in London during the second and the third), we were quite excited: Urban art is certainly underrepresented in Munich, so we thought it was a great gain. Unfortunately, when we visited the fair, we were rather disappointed. It was more a sales market for galleries than an urban art show, and for this, the entrance fee for visitors seemed unfairly high. On the other, there will be some live paintings and a birthday party on Friday. So check out their website and decide for yourselves.

Thursday, 1 May:
SURREALIST FILM NIGHT: "Open Scene" at the Filmmuseum is showing Luis Buñuels surrealist classic "L'age d'or" (1930), followed by "Dreams that money can buy" (1947) by dadaist artist Hans Richter. The Museum Villa Stuck is currently hosting an exhibition based on Buñuels strongly influential film, so watching it tonight and visiting the exhibition later sounds like a good plan. The curators of the exhibition will be at the Filmmuseum to give an introduction.

Friday, 2 May:
YURT OPENING: Kulturjurte München opens it's doors in Fröttmaning (from 1pm). That is, if a yurt has doors. Anyway - the Kulturjurte seems like a great project, a new space for workshops, discussion and arts exhibitions, organized by great enthusiasts. We are curious and look forward to interesting events.   

Saturday, 3 May:
FLEA MARKET: The Hofflohmärkte return! This week you can walk into more than 250(!) courts and gardens in Haidhausen and Bogenhausen, buy useful utensils, useless junk and homemade cakes, and have wonderful chats with the locals.

Preview for next week:
DOK.fest, the 29th International Documentary Film Festival in Munich, starts on May 7th. Book your tickets before it's too late!