More than a hundred thousand visitors at the "Kosmos"

The Chemnitz "Kosmos" festival attracted more than a hundred thousand visitors. Spokesman Ernesto Uhlmann said that the festival set a new attendance record. The organizers counted 90,000 guests on Saturday, which featured performances by rapper Nura and pop band Juli as programme highlights.

Around 15,000 guests came to the various venues in this year's European Capital of Culture for the opening event on Friday. Almost a third of them were attracted by the concert by indie pop trio Blond with the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra, including a guest appearance by Kraftklub on Theaterplatz.

Organizer "very enthusiastic"

Not only the big music stages were well received by the audience. "The other formats - panels, art installations, workshops - were also very popular," said Uhlmann. "We are very enthusiastic."

The admission-free festival takes place over three days for the first time as one of the highlights of the Capital of Culture year. It sees itself as a democracy festival and the program includes around 300 events. The center is the area around the castle pond, but there are also numerous satellite locations spread across the city.

Sportspeople were also able to experience a number of slacklines, which were stretched over a length of more than 1.1 kilometers in the city - for example at the castle church and between the climbing center at Konkordia Park and the Ermafa Passage.

The "Kosmos" goes back to the #wirsindmehr concert after right-wing extremist riots in 2018. Last year, it attracted 70,000 people in just one day.