Festival Organizers of the Zürcher Theaterspektakel draw a positive balance

The organizers of the 45th Zürcher Theaterspektakel, which ends on Sunday, have drawn a positive balance on the eighteen days of the festival. A total of around 20,000 admissions were recorded for the 79 paid performances.

This corresponds to an average occupancy rate of 89 percent, the festival management announced on Sunday. The free festival site on the Landiwiese in the city of Zurich was visited by around 120,000 people, according to estimates by the organizers. Around 50 free events and meeting formats were also held. There were also 30 performances at this year's partner institutions in the city. These included the Kunsthaus, the Shedhalle, the Theater Neumarkt, the Tanzhaus and the Museum Rietberg.

At the beginning of the week, a dummy of a 15-metre-long sperm whale lay on the lakeshore in the city of Zurich. It was part of a three-day art project by the Belgian artists' collective Captain Boomer - invited by Zurich's Theater Spektakel in cooperation with the marine conservation organization KYMA. Both digitally and on site at Utoquai, the emotional image of the lifeless whale sparked discussions about climate change, the consequences of which are currently affecting Western Europe and Switzerland much more indirectly than other parts of the world, it was said.

This year's sponsorship award from Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), worth 30,000 Swiss francs, had already been presented to "Whitewashing" by Rébecca Chaillon on Saturday as part of the festival. The ZKB Recognition Prize, worth CHF 5,000, went to Chun Shing Au for the short piece "GPO Box No.211".

Next year, the Zürcher Theater Spektakel will take place from 14 to 31 August.