Bremer KulturSommer Summarum

Culture for everyone, right in the middle of Bremen's summer

The Bremer KulturSommer Summarum is a promise: high-quality culture, under the open sky, accessible to everyone and free of charge. Over three weekends in August, several locations in the city are transformed into open-air stages. Theater, slam poetry, concerts, variety, acrobatics, and dance – the program is deliberately broad to ensure there's something for everyone.

Born out of the necessity of the pandemic

The festival has a special origin story: it was born in 2020 out of the urgent desire to provide performance opportunities for artists during the Corona period when stages remained closed. This idea has evolved into one of the permanent free summer formats in the state of Bremen, which now returns annually and has grown steadily.

A festival that travels through the city

The festival is designed to be mobile. It usually kicks off at the Theaterberg in the Wallanlagen. This park has a remarkable history: the Wallanlagen were once built as a fortification belt to protect the city and, after the fortifications lost their importance in the 18th century, were transformed into a public garden in the English style – the first public green space approved by a German parliament. The first Bremen theater opened on the Theaterberg in 1843; a specially designed garden still commemorates the beginnings of Bremen's theater culture. Ensembles such as the bremer shakespeare company and the dance company Of Curious Nature perform here, among others. The festival then moves on to the garden of DOKU Blumenthal in the north of Bremen and finally to Hillmannplatz in the Bahnhofsvorstadt. This very mobility is part of its charm: Summarum comes to the people and reaches districts that are otherwise less frequently in the spotlight of major cultural events.

Supported by Stadtkultur Bremen

Behind the festival is Stadtkultur Bremen, a network of around 45 cross-disciplinary cultural institutions throughout the city – from socio-cultural centers and community centers to theater, dance, and literature projects. Funded, among others, by the Senator for Culture, the festival pursues a clear goal: culture should not depend on your wallet, which is why the program remains permanently free.