Pyramidale Festival
On the outskirts of Marzahn-Hellersdorf, the Berlin district with the largest prefabricated housing development in Europe, is where the exhibition center Pyramide is located. Since 2001, the festival pyramidale has been established here: an interdisciplinary event in which contemporary music communicates with other art genres and the public. The exhibition center Pyramide is the long-standing cooperation partner and ancestral home of the pyramidale. Since 2011, the festival has also collborated with other cultural institutions in the district; these include the ORWOhaus, the Wuhlgarten Hospital, the Hans-Werner-Henze Music School Marzahn-Hellersdorf, the Gründerzeit Museum Mahlsdorf, the Freizeitforum Marzahn and the International Garden Exhibition (IGA).
The festival program focuses on premieres and revivals of current works of contemporary music culture. Each year, a special concept and topic is chosen for the pyramidale and the composers are invited to write new works that relate to this topic. The festival program encompasses other arts such as dance, literature, theater and film. The interdisciplinary approach of the festival also offers space for the presentation of activities from the district itself such as education projects with contemporary music in schools. Furthermore, the festival has established international partnerships with music festivals around the world including with Switzerland in 2010, Great Britain and Spain in 2016 and South Korea in 2017.
One of the festival's special features is the TRAMOPHONIE, a 45-minute tram ride from Berlin Hackescher Markt to the Exhibition Center Pyramide. Initially invented to "kidnap" (both symbolically and physically) part of the audience which does not come from the district itself, it soon became a characteristic ritual for festival guests to travel to the venue. The ride also doubles as a concert itself.
