This year, a very special Christmas market has once again set up on the Theresienwiese fair ground. The Tollwood Winter Festival is not a typical German Christmas market with mulled wine and banal Christmas music. From 31/11 – 31/12, festival visitors will be able to experience a unique mix of cultural events, discussion forums and market stalls with delightful items for sale.
Under this year’s motto, ‘LEBE!WESEN’ (Live!Creatures), Tollwood aims to mirror a multi-cultural society supported by the pillars of tolerance, inter-cultural life and openness. This is reflected in the cultural program, the market’s structure and the food on offer. All of the food stalls are certified organic and even vegetarians will find a cornucopia of delicious treats there. The majority of the stalls offer fair trade products and the entire festival runs on green electricity. Special recycling activities ensure that the festival’s carbon footprint is as small as possible.
Every day, plays, concerts and other performances are held in a number of tents for little or no admission. There are exciting, interesting artists to admire, because the festival organisers have dared to create spaces for new art. Sometimes performances happen more or less spontaneously, right in the middle of the festival grounds. While enjoying their mulled wine, visitors might be surprised by giant worms doing a courtship dance or fantastic creatures on stilts.
Since the very first festival in 1988, Tollwood has aimed to mirror a multi-cultural society. This is why tolerance, inter-cultural life and openness are the festival’s pillars every year. This is evident on all levels, from the cultural program and the market’s structure to the food on offer.
The Tollwood Festival offers culture for everyone. This means that over 70 per cent of all the cultural events there are free of charge.
Tollwood has also been a forum for ecology and environmental awareness from the very beginning. On the one hand, it is a platform for the key themes in this area. On the other hand, it generates ideas for ecological projects. These include the organic certification of the food at the festival, the “Organic for Kids” promotion, its commitment to healthier mobile telephony and its exemplary behaviour via à vis carbon emissions.
With the Tollwood Festival, the organisers have broken new ground and proven that a sustainable, responsible Christmas market concept can be economical even without state funding and, above all, be warmly received by the public.
We recommend visiting the festival during the week, because it is not quite so full then and you can enjoy the many exhibitions to the fullest.
Visit the Tollwood Festival in Munich and have an enchanting Christmas experience!
