Programme release: This is the Ruhrtriennale 2024 programme

The Ruhrtriennale 2024 is to be a festival for everyone! To this end, artistic director Ivo Van Hove has put together a varied and diverse program – from rock and pop music theatre with music by PJ Harvey to an immersive music theatre installation with Chorwerk Ruhr and a slapstick operetta musical by Herbert Fritsch and Herbert Grönemeyer. International stars such as Isabelle Huppert and Sandra Hüller will be in the spotlight, as will the participants of the ballroom voguing competition Pump Into The Future Ball and the nowadays almost forgotten composers Julius Eastman and Vicente Lusitano. This year, the entire Ruhrtriennale program is concentrated into four and a half weeks, from 16th August to 15th September, with the same program strength as in previous years.

Ivo Van Hove: "I want people to be able to experience the festival atmosphere of the Ruhrtriennale intensively, because a festival should always be 'a Fest'". The Ruhrtriennale is becoming more colorful, more open and yet remains the Ruhrtriennale with its special mix of genres in the phenomenal setting of industrial culture."

Ina Brandes, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia: "Ivo Van Hove has presented a program at his directorial premiere of the Ruhrtriennale that gives the cultural flagship of North Rhine-Westphalia new radiance. The regular audience can expect top-class culture. At the same time, Ivo Van Hove appeals to families, children and young people who have yet to discover the fascination of the Ruhrtriennale for themselves. I am sure that Little Ears, Tiny Feet will be a great success with very young audiences. It is precisely productions like this that we need to whet the appetites of tomorrow's audiences for art and culture."

The Ruhrtriennale will open with the music theater production I Want Absolute Beauty by Ivo Van Hove in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum. "It is a great pleasure and an honor to work with two such extraordinary and inspiring artists as PJ Harvey and Sandra Hüller. PJ Harvey is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of our time. She writes her songs from the heart and touches us at our very core. I am a fan of Sandra Hüller. She is a phenomenal, unique actress, a force of nature on stage. And she can express complicated emotions. 'I Want Absolute Beauty' thus becomes a very special creation – a mixture of music, acting, dance and visual art."

This year, there will be a total of 33 productions and projects with 138 events in Bochum, Duisburg and Essen. Around 660 artists from 37 countries will come to the Ruhr area. The program starts on the weekends already at midday in the festival center with teaser concerts and workshops, most of which are free of charge. The first performances start in the afternoon so that visitors can choose from a wide range of offers.

The Wunderland festival center in Bochum will be a special meeting place throughout the festival for encounters and exchanges, free workshops, culinary and musical appetizers during the day and DJ parties at night.

Ticket sales start today, with a total of around 40,000 tickets available for the events. Festival tickets are available at an early bird discount of 15 percent until May 20.