Open ear in Mainz: youth culture, climate protection and tampon taxes

After "two experimental years", in which there was only one emergency program, the 48th Open Ear Festival on the Pentecost weekend in the Mainz citadel should go back to the various stages as normally as possible.

Music and cabaret, theatre, films and readings are planned again, as well as the panel discussions that have always been part of the youth culture festival.

For this purpose, the newly formed project group consisting of seven volunteer organizers has chosen a topic that at first glance seems rather unwieldy: "Taking countermeasures" is the timeless motto of the major event, which, if things go well, almost 9000 visitors in four days of the old fortifications above the Roman theatre.

Then the meaning and purpose of paying taxes should be discussed in detail.

Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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Whether things go well will depend primarily on the weather at Pentecost.

Because as a reaction to the corona pandemic, which is still not over despite the currently comparatively low incidence values, there will be no large tents for the guests this year.

This applies not only to the theater tent, which was often overcrowded and difficult to ventilate as a result, and the cabaret tent, which also usually looks rather cozy, but also the centrally located coffee and supply tent.

How the first open ear, which is planned topless, will be received by the audience is difficult to predict.

47.20 euros per festival ticket

Two weeks before the opening, however, a good third of the festival tickets, each costing 47.20 euros, were sold, said Marcus Hansen from the municipal office for youth and family in the preliminary press interview.

As usual, there will also be day tickets for 30 euros each.

At 15 euros, the ticket for Whit Monday, which is particularly popular with curious Mainz residents for a short visit, costs only half as much.

In addition, the city, which traditionally gives the program makers logistical support and also acts as a guarantor, expects around 2750 guests who will decide to stay at one of the two tent sites provided in the ramparts.

The festival budget is now around 380,000 euros, of which about a third is available for the program, i.e. for artist fees, among other things, explained the Mainz social and youth department, Eckart Lensch (SPD).

The representatives of the independent project group assured that the issue of taxes and countermeasures was certainly not a boring topic.

After all, it is about the "correct distribution" of government revenue, for example about climate protection or, more recently, about war and peace.

The super-rich and tax evaders as well as questions about a tax system that is as fair as possible and possibly alternative can also be discussed.

It is also difficult to explain why sanitary napkins in Germany were long regarded as a luxury item and were subject to VAT at a rate of 19 percent.

Better, but still not good, is that at least a reduced tampon tax rate of only seven percent now applies.

More information on the program for the four days of the Open Ear Festival - from local opener Ragglyf to rapper Nura and the band Guacáyo to Eight Bucket Chicken Hearts - can be found on the Internet at

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