41st Erlangen Poetry Festival – August 26-29, 2021
The 41st Erlanger Poetenfest ended on the evening of August 29. For the second time, the festival was organized as a special edition to take into account the protection against infection and not as a large event in the Erlanger Schlossgarten, but rather in over 140 individual events spread throughout the city for a limited audience. As in the previous year, the vast majority of the events took place in the open air with no alternative indoor venues. The 8,000 or so visitors and authors braved the autumnal weather unshakably.
The 41st Erlangen Poetry Festival proved once again that its quality lies not only in the incomparable atmosphere of the long reading afternoons in the idyllic castle garden, but that the texts, the guests and the topics are strong and important enough to interest and inspire people even in less eventful formats. Of course, the organizing cultural office of the city of Erlangen hopes to return to its popular formats next year. But the Poetenfest may not be the same as before. This much became particularly clear this year: the literary landscape increasingly reflects social realities and is therefore more diverse than ever before. Of course, this will also change the Erlangen Poetenfest.
