Film nights on the banks of the Elbe

Kaisermania at the film nights on the banks of the Elbe

Area of the movie nights by day

Area of the film nights on the banks of the Elbe as seen from the Elbe

The film nights on the banks of the Elbe are Germany's largest open-air cinema festival. They have taken place every summer since 1991 on the banks of the Neustadt Elbe in Dresden and have each attracted around 200,000 spectators in recent years.

Around 3,640 visitors per day can watch cinema performances on the Elbe meadows directly opposite the historic old town of Dresden in summer . In addition to the screenings of current and historical films, concerts by well-known artists take place, for example REM , Loreena McKennitt , Die Ärzte , Nelly Furtado and Die Fantastischen Vier . The so-called Kaisermania , the largest open-air concert by Roland Kaiser, has also taken place every year since 2003 . The 2011 performance was released as a live DVD. At standing concerts there is space for up to 15,000 visitors in front of the stage.

Just a few hours before the planned screening of the film A river rises from the middle on August 12, 2002, the area of the film nights was flooded by the flood of the century of the Elbe and its tributaries and the stage was in the river. When the flooding subsided after a week, most of the technology was unusable and the stage was destroyed. After a repair, the program could be resumed from August 25th to September 1st. The following year the film nights were held as a benefit event for flood victims. After the stage was in the river in August 2002, the area has since been cleared within a day if there is a risk of flooding and rebuilt after the all-clear.

The largest mobile cinema screen in the world with a projection area of 448 square meters has been in use since 2004. It can be retracted so as not to be visually disruptive during the day and to be less susceptible to wind. Rotated by 90 degrees, it serves as the roof of the stage for concert performances. The screen is 32 meters wide and 14 meters high. Since 2018, films have been shown on a 16 square meter LED screen, especially in the afternoon.

The event is carried out by PAN Veranstaltungslogistik und Kulturgastronomie GmbH, which is also considered the author. The contract with the city for this initially ran until 2015. In March 2012 it became known that another event group was trying to re-tender the contract. However, this was rejected in a vote by the city council: the contract with PAN event logistics was extended to 2025.Template: future / in 5 years

Since 2011, PAN Veranstaltungslogistik und Kulturgastronomie GmbH has been organizing the Film Nights, a film and concert festival with a similar profile. A small-scale sound system was specially developed for this festival, which makes it possible to play on the inner-city Theaterplatz in Chemnitz . Without this sound system, which is placed in the middle of the rows of spectators, the implementation would have failed due to noise protection requirements.

In 2013, 202,800 spectators attended 87 events on 65 days of the 23rd Film Nights on the banks of the Elbe. This was 14 percent more than in the previous year and an absolute record attendance up to then. With 36,000 most of the visitors came to the three concerts of the Berlin band Die Ärzte . In 2014 the second-best number of visitors was achieved with 198,500 visitors. The most popular film was Fack ju Göhte , which attracted 7,200 visitors with two events. A new record was set in 2015 with 218,400 spectators. This record was broken again in 2016 with 222,788 visitors. The most popular film was breakfast with Monsieur Henri , 48,000 guests came to the four concerts by Roland Kaiser . In 2017, the Dresden band CousCous appeared in the series “Hören vorsehen” before the main film La La Land . The year 2018 brought another record with 227,100 visitors, which was exceeded again in 2019 with 238,700 visitors. 130,300 of them were concert-goers and 11,700 were family cinema-goers.

The 30th season is to take place from June 25 to August 23, 2020, but due to Corona only with 972 seats.

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↑ CousCous give a concert at the film nights. In: Saxony television . July 7, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2017 .

↑ Jana Mundus: Once upon a time ... in Dresden. (No longer available online.) In: Sächsische Zeitung . July 8, 2017, archived from the original on July 8, 2017 ; Retrieved July 9, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

↑ Franziska Sommer: Film nights on the banks of the Elbe break record. DAWO !, August 27, 2018, accessed August 28, 2018 .