Solidarity festival brings oomph to the countryside

Windeck. What could it be: a blacksmithing course or baking like in great-great-grandmother's times in Rossel, art in the Akku-Haus in Bach, garden and culture café in Altwindeck, harbor party in Au, Hawaiian bodywork in Eulenbruch, a colorful village day inwerfen and Many other great offers are offered at the festival for solidarity futures “Urban-Country-River”. People from the Hamm/Altenkirchen area to Windeck-Werfen are invited to their homes over ten days.

The packed program is as diverse as the people offering it; There is even a multi-day children's and youth program in the form of a hands-on circus and theater workshop.

“Urban-Country-River” brings people together around music, innovation, culture, nature and futures of solidarity, thereby creating lively meeting places. The festival is part of the “We-Dorf” project of the LAG Westerwald-Sieg.

It is funded by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Economics, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and implemented by the creative laboratory HeartWire by initiator Anna Mauersberger.

What would our world look like if we first and foremost designed it in a way that was suitable for our grandchildren and shared?” the initiator reflected and made “Solidary Futures” her motto.

She copied the idea itself from Wendland, where the “Kulturelle Landpartie” has provided the model since the 1970s. The festival invites you to get to know new things – new people, new skills, new ideas.

 “We were really excited when we heard about the festival for the first time,” says Kai Grabenhorst fromwerfen, who, together with other enthusiastic villagers, is offering a “Werfen Village Day,” including a flea market, live music, an eco-building tour and a FladenLaden. “We've wanted to do something like this for a long time, but we just didn't have the initial spark. City-country-river is just the right nudge.”

“We are very pleased that a community of people has succeeded in putting together a program that potentially appeals to everyone - and without any lengthy coordination and organizational questions in advance,” reports Mauersberger, who is with accepted every program suggestion in their creative laboratory. A call on the “We-Village” page online encouraged 65 interested people to contribute their own suggestion to the program, for which they themselves were responsible

Take over planning and implementation. “We just have a few guardrails

Orientation has been set,” explains the initiator. This particularly includes the principle of solidarity: no fixed entrance fees but rather a hat fund based on self-assessment and planning that conserves resources as much as possible. “If every guest gives as much as they can financially, everyone usually goes home satisfied. And if everyone brings their own drinking vessel, disposable cups are suddenly no longer necessary. This saves costs and protects the environment”.

The mascot and identifying symbol of the festival locations is a wooden flamingo, which the hosts designed according to their own taste and put in their front gardens.

The city-country river takes place “from May 25th to June 2nd in many places in Windeck and the Westerwald. The program and registration at: www.wir-dorf.de/programm.