On 19 November, a broad coalition of Berlin's cultural scene will bring together the city's cultural diversity on one stage in a large evening event entitled ‘Berlin ist Kultur – Das Konzert’ (Berlin is Culture – The Concert) to celebrate the significance and power of cultural diversity in Berlin, which is at stake in times of tough austerity measures. The event at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele sold out within half an hour. Donations will be collected in support of the #BerlinIstKultur (Berlin is culture) alliance during the evening.

The RBB will show the concert as a live video stream on radiodrei.de and radioeins.de and will broadcast a recording on RBB television from 10:20 pm. In addition, there will be a special programme on RBB television at 10:00 pm in advance of the event with Senator for Culture Joe Chialo and representatives of the cultural sector. The discussion round, entitled ‘What is Berlin's culture worth to you?’, will be moderated by Andrea Vannahme.

The programme consists of various contributions from different sectors and arts, both from the independent scene and from institutionally funded institutions, and impressively demonstrates the breadth of Berlin's cultural landscape, from classical music to performance and dance to theatre.

This evening, the Ballhaus Naunynstraße, the Berliner Ensemble, the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Grips Theater, the HAU Hebbel am Ufer, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm, the Maxim Gorki Theatre, the Schaubühne Berlin, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, as well as Matthias Brandt, Alexander Scheer and Katharine Mehrling, to name just a few, to gather the diversity of Berlin's culture on a common stage with music and speeches. 

‘We do not want to stand by silently as the city loses the rich culture that makes it worth living in. We in the cultural sector want to defend Berlin's cultural diversity with a joint evening of solidarity – with a programme that is as diverse as possible and includes contributions from all sectors and arts, with music and dance, scenes and readings.’ Alliance #BerlinIstKultur

The Berlin Senate's impending cuts will affect all state-owned or state-funded cultural institutions in Berlin, from opera and theatre to concert halls, dance, independent scene and children's and youth theatre, as well as libraries, orchestras, music schools, museums, the visual arts with their exhibition venues and studios, the club scene and the diverse offerings of cultural education. They will not only massively restrict the scope for designing programmes in the short term, but will also have an existential impact on the structures of institutions in the medium and long term, thus endangering the diversity of life in our city.

The Berliner Festspiele are making their venue available for the event on 19 November. As a federal institution, they are showing their solidarity with the affected Berlin cultural institutions. 
More information about the alliance #BerlinIstKultur – Kultur Abbau verhindern! 

www.BerlinIstKultur.de