Brothers Grimm Festival in Hanau: visitor record breaks all boundaries!

Brothers Grimm Festival in Hanau: visitor record breaks all boundaries!

The Brothers Grimm Festival in Hanau is celebrating a new attendance record! After an exciting season in which the popular fairy tale productions took place from May 16th to July 27th, 2023, the old visitor record from 2006 was exceeded with 82,231 guests. The 41st edition of the festival brought an impressive 82,232 visitors to Hanau, as reported by gnz.de. This not only gave the city a full house, but also a noticeable sense of optimism.

Director Frank-Lorenz Engel was proud of the number of visitors achieved and the enormous enthusiasm that the festival once again generated. Mayor Claus Kaminsky expressed his delight at the new record. “It’s nice to see how many people are attracted to our fairy tales,” he said during the ceremonial welcome from Stefan Heeg in the amphitheater.

Surprising increase in visitor numbers

This year's festival season was particularly pleasing as it recorded an increase of over 15 percent compared to last year with 81,208 spectators. This number from the anniversary year 2023 was only just below the old record, which only confirmed the enthusiasm of fairy tale fans big and small, according to ffh.de.

The festival was launched in 1985 to celebrate the 200th birthday of Jacob Grimm. Since then, they have developed into the largest open-air theaters in Hesse, which are still very popular today in the picturesque castle park of Philippsruhe Castle. The fairytale setting of the park gives the performances a very special atmosphere that delights young and old.

Diverse program

This year, visitors could look forward to a selection of well-known fairy tales, including “Hansel and Gretel”, “Rapunzel”, the German-language premiere of “The Bremen Town Musicians” and “Bunbury – being serious is everything”. Even before the first premiere, over 45,000 tickets were sold, and demand remained high throughout the festival season, meaning ticket sales continued to be good.

• Beliebteste Stücke:
• „Der gestiefelte Kater“ – über 25.000 Besucher
• „Sterntaler“ – über 22.000 Besucher
• „Die Gänsemagd“ – ebenfalls über 22.000 Besucher
• „Romeo und Julia“ – fast 9.000 Besucher

The success story will continue into the next season. The German-language premiere of “The Bremen Town Musicians” is scheduled for May 9, 2025, followed by other fairy tale classics such as “Hansel and Gretel” and “Rapunzel”. The festival management plans to also show works from European theater that are not necessarily written by the Brothers Grimm. This ensures excitement and loyal fans! According to wikipedia.org, the performances are also a tribute to the tradition of storytelling that characterizes the region.

The future of the festival will be secured with a sharpened marketing concept and new cooperation partners. The numbers show that the Brothers Grimm Festival has a permanent place in people's hearts and continues to be a complete success. So it remains exciting to see what we can expect in the coming season!