"Magical moment": Blond meets the Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra

Feminist indie pop meets symphony orchestra: Trio Blond and the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra attracted thousands of listeners to Chemnitz's Theaterplatz with their crossover concert. Singer Nina Kummer spoke of a "magical moment". For both the Chemnitz band and the orchestra, the concert in front of the historic backdrop was a home game. However, the philharmonic orchestra often found it difficult to compete acoustically with the power trio. They mainly played songs from the new Blond album such as "Girl Boss", "Geile Bitch" and "so hot".

Festival as part of the European Capital of Culture program

Chemnitz holds the title of European Capital of Culture this year. The "Kosmos" festival is one of the highlights. It sees itself as a democracy festival and offers concerts with bands such as Juli, Deine Freunde and Team Scheisse as well as workshops, sporting activities and discussion panels. The organizers are talking about around 300 program items over three days. The festival goes back to the #wirsindmehr concert following right-wing extremist riots in 2018. Last year, it attracted 70,000 people in just one day.

This year, the festival will last the whole weekend. Tens of thousands of visitors are once again expected. The center is the area around the castle pond, but there are also numerous satellite locations throughout the city. Admission to the events is free, but due to the limited capacity, tickets were available in advance for the concert on Friday evening - well over 4,000 tickets in total. According to the organizers, they were sold out after just two hours. However, many listeners also gathered outside the cordoned-off area around Theaterplatz.

Kraftklub and Nura also on stage

The band Blond has been around since 2011. The trio, consisting of sisters Nina and Lotta Kummer and Johann Bonitz, recently released their third studio album "Ich träum doch nur von Liebe". They had a few surprises in store for the "Kosmos" concert. Not only did the group Power Plush join them on stage. Rapper Nura also offered the audience her song "Sag mir ist das fair" with the support of the orchestra. Kraftklub also made a lightning visit, singing their new song "Schief in jedem Chor" - as they had recently done at their spontaneous appearances at the Chemnitz Schauspielhaus and the Rock am Ring festival.

This weekend's "Kosmos" festival will also feature athletes on a number of slacklines stretching more than 1.1 kilometers across the city - for example at the Schlosskirche church and between the climbing center at Konkordia Park and the Ermafa Passage.

During the festival, numerous roads in the city will be closed. Due to the limited number of parking spaces and multi-storey parking lots in the city center and the expected traffic disruptions, it is recommended to use buses and trains to get to and from the festival, according to the city administration. The service will be extended on a number of lines.