Cross the border – close the gap!

The former smelting works in Duisburg-Meiderich was a hotpot of steam, noise, bustle and fire. A thunderously modern hub of energy releasing its power in the form of red-hot, glowing discharges of raw iron. The one-time, enormous smelting site is a location destined for a festival that fires up, melts and compresses a spectacularly diverse array of elements and tones from contemporary music.

Traumzeit is a voyage of discovery to a vast realm of tones, melodies, songs and experiments. A journey set in-scene on the bizarre backdrop of steel constructions, kettles, pipes and chimneys, and given a wildly futuristic appearance at night with the breathtaking lighting scenes of the English artist Jonathan Park.

Music for both: sound and vision. The festival fills the industrial landscape spanning more than 200 hectares with sound, light and video animations. The new, old production facilities have been given the names Kraftzentrale, Giesshalle, Geblaesehalle, Pumpenhalle and stage at Gasometer. These are the locations for hypnotically pulsing music, energy and life. A new form of production in Duisburg-Meiderich is hereby recommenced.

Transformation and the crossing of frontiers, cross-genre merging of music and performers are the central elements of Traumzeit. There is no such event in the European festival scene. It's a festival that consciously puts diversity and the pluralism of styles into the limelight. Unexpected projects and exceptional artistic cooperations are promoted in particular. Jazz, pop, world music, rock, electronics, new music and classic don't just stand on equal footing with each other but enter into an exciting cooperational relationship. The festival’s dictum declares: anything goes!

This has nothing to do with arbitrariness, because the idea of the openness, the frankness of art is in the focus. Musicians, DJ's and light artists participating in Traumzeit 2011 reflect this to the full. Curiosity for the different and the courage to experiment and fuse differing musical roots or methods of production is common to all. As such, the Traumzeit Festival again opens its arms for all those who have a passion for music. The pulse of the smelting works beats to the tact of time. This site, witness to the highest levels of technical innovation in past times has never been as modern as now.

The production of contemporary music is supported by:

RWE, Sparkasse Duisburg, WDR and the City of Duisburg