poetry karaoke
No singing allowed! While singing along to popular songs is the standard in karaoke bars, this version deliberately removes music and vocals. In Poetry Karaoke, the focus shifts entirely to the text itself. Instead of pop songs, participants perform texts from many different contexts: poems, rap lines, essays, or even well-known meme classics. Voices such as Emmy Hennings or Emilia Roig might appear alongside the powerful words of Audre Lorde or experimental poetry by Hugo Ball. Internet culture, humor, and literary tradition can mix freely, placing meme texts next to works such as the famous poem “Erlkönig.” Audience members choose a text and read and/or perform it in front of everyone, without singing. This format puts the spoken word at the center of the evening. A large selection of texts will be available, but participants are also welcome to bring their own suggestions or favorite pieces to share. During the pauses in the conversation, diabeat plays music that, unlike Poetry Karaoke, has no lyrics at all. A chance to catch your breath and let go.
Stay tuned! Some sample texts will be published here for viewing starting in April.
dia beat offers musical explorations for the four walls of the bedroom; for gazing into each other's eyes for hours; for letting yourself be lulled. a project by Beata Pellanda, co-founder of Fishnet Collective and multidisciplinary artist based in Bienne, Switzerland.
Easy Read
At poetry karaoke, people do not sing. People from the audience read texts out loud, like poems or short texts from the internet. There are already some prepared texts, you can also bring your own.
For people with mobility disabilities
The Festival Centre is wheelchair accessible. Access to the Festival Centre is through the courtyard. Opposite the right-hand entrance to the courtyard, there is a ramp leading to the ground floor. Lehrer*zimmer can be reached via this ramp and the corridor. The venue has a barrier-free toilet.
Social Story
Social stories are used as a tool to prepare people for a public event, such as a theatre performance. Our social stories provide a detailed description of what to expect at the venue and the customs that apply there. You can find the (German) PDF of the Festival Centre social story here.
