Opening
On Thursday, 20 July, the event, which the Markant Group sponsored for the sixth time, got off to a festive start with the opening ceremony, at which Franz-Friedrich Müller, President of the Board of Directors of Markant AG, Lord Mayor Marco Steffens and StadtLesen initiator Sebastian Mettler welcomed the guests.
School competition «Wortartist» (Verbal artist)
This was followed by the award ceremony for the winning short stories on the theme of «Miracles» from the Wortartist 2023 school competition. The students were allowed to read out their stories themselves and captivated the audience with exciting as well as emotional texts.
1st place: Emira Peckolt | Klosterschulen Unserer Lieben Frau | 11th grade
2nd place: Finn Schneider |Schiller-Gymnasium | 10th grade
3rd place: Tara Grosser | Schiller-Gymnasium | 12th grade
Reading & Afterwork
This was followed by an impressive reading by the well-known audiobook and dubbing artist Rufus Beck, who read from Mark Twain's «The Awful German Language», introducing the audience to the German case with great linguistic skill. The evening was rounded off by an after-work event with DJ Sticx in cooperation with FREIRAUM Offenburg.
Friday, 21 July, was all about music: the PHIBA acoustic duo with Philipp Zink and Bastian Ludäscher thrilled the audience with their sounds. Another highlight on three days was again the mobile read-aloud hairdresser Danny Beuerbach. Brave visitors received a new haircut while reading a story in return.
But the focus this year was not only on reading. The Markant Group also took the opportunity to inform visitors about the upcoming World Cleanup Day on 16 September. A raffle was organised for this purpose, with great prizes to be won.
On all four days of the event, visitors could read in the open-air reading lounge until nightfall. Of course, the supporting programme again included a free ice cream surprise and a photo box where visitors could immortalise themselves.
In summary, StadtLesen 2023 in Offenburg was a complete success. It combined literature, music, community and awareness of environmental issues in a unique way. A big thank you goes to all the co-organisers, participants and supporters who made this event possible.
