From Mühlacker to Ellwangen: over a decade of magic at Baden-Württemberg's garden shows

Some performances outgrow the plan before the first word is spoken. The Landesgartenschau in Ellwangen was one of them. When I walked onto the stage area that Sunday, it wasn't just the seating that was full — so were the steps, the space under the parasols and the terrace one floor above. By the end, the children were sitting shoulder to shoulder right on the edge of the stage.

Around 350 visitors saw the first performance — and a large part of the audience had found no seat at all. So together with the organisers we decided on the spot to play the show a second time that same day. Ad hoc, with no lead time, to a second house just as full. That makes roughly 700 people in one afternoon. It does not happen often, and it is the most honest feedback a programme can get.

Online, too, the performance stuck: the clip on Instagram has now passed 22,000 views.

This run began in 2015 at the garden show in Mühlacker. Since then I have been part of the regular circle of artists booked by the Treffpunkt Baden-Württemberg team for the state garden shows and garden shows across the region — by now for more than a decade. For anyone who wants to check: the performances appear regularly in the Treffpunkt's retrospectives, for instance at the Tal X garden show in Freudenstadt and Baiersbronn and at the Landesgartenschau in Neuenburg am Rhein.

A collaboration lasting that long is anything but a given in a garden show's cultural programme. Every show has a new team, a new stage, a new audience, and the programme is put together from scratch each time. Rebookings there do not come from habit — they come from the response an act creates on site. That is exactly why I am so proud of this consistency.

A garden show audience is the broadest you can imagine. In front of the stage sit five-year-olds, their parents, teenagers who only wandered past, and groups of seniors who planned the day together. All at once, with no ticket, no auditorium, in full sun and with noise all around.

Magic is one of the few stage formats that carries that range. It needs no shared background, no connection to a genre and no explanation. An impossible moment works for a child on the edge of the stage exactly as it works for the visitor in the back row — both see the same thing, and both experience it directly. Then there is the interaction: when guests come up on stage themselves, a programme slot turns into a shared experience that people are still talking about over coffee afterwards.

Whether it is a state garden show, a town festival, a summer fête or a corporate event under the open sky: stages outdoors need a programme that works regardless of age, prior knowledge and mood on the day. That is exactly what my family show is built for — as a full-length programme or as a compact stage set of 30 to 45 minutes.

Get in touch and we will work out which format suits your stage, your audience and your time slot.