Lusatia Festival director rejects criticism from the region

Potsdam (dpa/bb) - The director of the Lusatia Festival, Daniel Kühnel, has rejected accusations from the region about the program design and the non-involvement of local artists. Speaking to the state parliament's culture committee on Wednesday, he spoke of a campaign being waged against the festival. The Lusatia Festival deals exclusively with Lusatia and structural change, said Kühnel. One value in itself is that Lusatia is spoken of as a cultural location. This must result in added value. However, the festival could not achieve this alone, the festival director emphasized in the committee.

Kühnel was also responding to criticism from numerous Lusatian cultural professionals who accuse the festival management of hardly involving the regional cultural scene. They are calling for a "genuine Lusatian festival" and a greater say in the development of the program. Kühnel said that he was very concerned with the criticism, but that it had to be objective. He would have liked to have heard objections from the artistic advisory board, but these had not been forthcoming. Criticism was "never ignored or disregarded".

Author and filmmaker Grit Lemke ("Kinder von Hoy"), who left the artistic advisory board, presented a different view. The artist from Hoyerswerda told the committee that criticism was not welcome there and that there was no point in expressing herself. The artists from Lusatia also demanded in their open letter: "The advisory board must become a place for open discussion and living democracy."