BilleVue 2024

• Good news 1: The weather was sunny and the whole of Billstedt was in a festive mood.

• Good news 2: The programme was a hit – from group singing to hip hop, everyone joined in!

• Good news 3: The musical ‘Rolf’s Bird Wedding’ delighted young and old alike, and Rolf Zuckowski sang with the children all weekend – right up to the very last song.  

What a celebration! The weather played its part, allowing for an open-air programme that left the audience in constant awe. The absolute highlight was the musical “Rolf’s Bird Wedding” with the bird parade. The famous children’s songwriter and musician had written the song cycle 50 years ago. The idea of presenting the piece in a festival version at BilleVue on three stages, complete with a grand bird parade, was a hit with the famous creator of children’s evergreens such as “Weihnachtsbäckerei”, and he sang along with the children all weekend long.

“I was completely taken aback by the imagination on display on stage. (…) Today, at the Kultur Palast Billstedt – a venue I’m very fond of – we’ve seen that ‘Rolf’s Bird Wedding’ isn’t just Rolf’s Bird Wedding, but the bird wedding of many children from many cultures. In that sense, I’m delighted that all of this has come to life here in a way I haven’t felt for a long time.”
Rolf Zuckowski, children’s song composer and musician

BilleVue, however, wasn’t just about the ‘Bird Wedding’ and the fair, games, sport and fun, but also an incredibly varied stage programme across three stages and the activity stage at the ECE shopping centre in Billstedt (for example, K-pop with ‘Deviation’!).

Tens of thousands of festival-goers strolled along the ‘Vereinsmeile’, found out about the organisations in Billstedt and enjoyed the wide range of hands-on activities across three areas: The sports area, featuring skating, handball, yoga and goal-shooting (a brilliant effort by TV Gut Heil Billstedt, i-Punkt Skateland, Billstedt-Horn Sports Club, FC St. Pauli Rabauken and many other helpers!). The family area, featuring a bouncy castle, a packed children’s programme and a waffle iron in constant use in the playground of St Paul’s Catholic School (the Falkenflitzer play van, the neighbourhood’s nursery schools, Sonnenland “mer-khkene – wir zusammen”, the Doppelfisch multi-generational centre, and the Billstedt Parents’ School). And the music area, featuring a bird-making workshop, a mobile music museum and instruments to try out at the Klangstrolche stand. In between, brilliant performances by the HipHop Academy took place on all stages, from the market square to the Haspa stage at the Kultur Palast. 

Right at the heart of it all were 12 student reporters who, as part of a partnership between the Kultur Palast, St Paul’s Catholic School and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), launched a democracy project, equipped with microphones and interview coaching. “BE BILLSTEDT – BE DEMOCRAT” focuses on democracy and diversity. What better place to start than at the BilleVue, where diversity was very much on the agenda.  

 “I’d like to thank everyone who played an active part, all the volunteers, and also all our wonderful artists – both big and small – who together helped make this festival such a huge success. I believe we have succeeded in showing just what Billstedt has to offer – this large and diverse neighbourhood. I’m already looking forward to the next BilleVue in two years’ time.”
Dörte Inselmann, Artistic Director of Stiftung Kultur Palast, BilleVue Management

Photos: David Reineke | Instagram