The ball is round and the opera lasts 90 minutes: Hamburg's culture presents an exciting program around the European Football Championships

Whether soccer opera, urban art, street dance battles, exhibitions or concerts - Hamburg as a city of culture will be showcasing the links between culture and sport with international participation. Most of the events will take place before the European Championships in May and June, and some will even extend into the tournament period.

Dr. Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media, commented: "Around the European Football Championships, Hamburg as a city of culture is all about sport. It is impressive how creatively Hamburg's culture is approaching the topic of soccer and how it is being inspired by sport. Both sport and art are elementary components of our culture, and both have one thing in common: they connect rather than divide and enable encounters. Both are particularly important right now, at a time when the centrifugal forces in our society are becoming stronger. Many of the Hamburg projects playfully address topics such as social participation and diversity, which are also topical in soccer. Hamburg's cultural program for UEFA EURO 2024 not only promises many new perspectives on sport, but also on the question of what rules we want to play by as a society."

Eleven projects are currently bringing soccer and culture together in Hamburg. A complete list can be found at www.kulturstadt.hamburg/uefaeuro2024

Electronic composer Matthew Herbert combines soccer and music at FC St. Pauli

Matthew Herbert will create a musical link between soccer and culture on May 12:
The British artist is considered one of the most innovative composers and electronic artists in the world and is developing a new piece for the project "THE GAME", a cooperation between the Reeperbahn Festival and FC St. Pauli. Herbert creates an exciting artistic connection between the dramaturgy of a soccer match and the creative process of a musical composition. The match between FC St. Pauli and VfL Osnabrück on May 12 in Hamburg's Millerntor Stadium will be played simultaneously by two musical teams in the Laeiszhalle. Competing will be the renowned Ensemble Resonanz and the band of the well-known electronic artist Matthew Herbert. Under the direction of conductor Friederike Scheunchen, who will follow the game live on a monitor, the music will alternate between the band and the ensemble whenever the ball is passed between the teams in the stadium. The "standards" (throw-in, free kick, corner kick) are predetermined by recurring sound images composed by Matthew Herbert, the rest develops from the dynamics of the game on the pitch.

Soccer opera in Hamburg

The Opernloft is also taking a musical look at soccer: the soccer opera will celebrate its premiere on May 31, with further performances to follow. Young singers will transform the Opernloft in the Alter Fährterminal into a stadium with a mixture of rousing fan chants and passionate opera arias and, under the direction of Inken Rahardt, create an exciting piece full of energy and drama that will last exactly 90 minutes.

Hamburg's Kulturfabrik Kampnagel moves the soccer

JUSTE DEBOUT lasts longer than 90 minutes: on the occasion of the European Championships, the International Center for Fine Arts Kampnagel -   supported by FC St Pauli - has succeeded in bringing the world's most important street dance battle from Paris to Hamburg. The finals will take place on June 1 in the Alsterdorfer Sporthalle. Just like in soccer, the teams will compete against each other. 140 international dancers will be coming to the Hanseatic city for the event. Around the JUSTE DEBOUT Finals, Kampnagel is organizing the first Hip Hop Dance Week at Kampnagel from 28 May to 2 June, with further hip hop battles, workshops, lectures and other activities.

With "Football Moves People", Kampnagel has also put a one-year program focus on the topic of soccer with a variety of projects on the schedule and is also repeatedly supported by FC St. Pauli. For example, "Football Echoes" combines movements from soccer with urban dance culture, called Klapping (premiere: 30.5. at Kampnagel). There was already a preview on April 14 in front of the Millerntor stadium. For "Mosaik FC", Anas Aboura, curator at Migrantpolitan, is planning training for commentators in different languages, interviews with activists, fans and soccer players on soccer culture, racism and inclusion, and much more. The fashion collective "Hools of Fashion" is designing a soccer line that takes a critical look at fan and soccer culture and produces utopian counter-designs: Merchandise and equipment for the intersectional, diverse teams of the future and their fans. The fashion shows can be seen at Kampnagel (Live Art Festival, between June 5 and 15) and during the Millerntor Gallery (May 31 to June 2).

11 Walls | 11 Goals from Hamburg all over Germany

FC St. Pauli is also a cooperation partner for "11 Walls | 11 Goals", the Viva con Agua ARTS project. 14 artists are designing eleven walls in the ten host cities. Each mural is the individual expression of a social goal for Europe to which the artists are dedicated. In addition, ten concerts will accompany the visual street art. Two murals will be created in Hamburg.  One is located at the Millerntor Stadium, which means that the mural there will also be part of this year's Millerntor Gallery. The big closing evening of "11 Walls | 11 Goals" will therefore take place on May 30 at the Millerntor Stadium, with concerts and much more.

Street art meets soccer at the festival

STAMP, the international festival of street arts, is presenting three projects from June 7 to 9 under the motto "Get a kick out of it": on June 7, the festival will open with the hip-hop production "Bounce the ball" by professional dancers on Platz der Republik, accompanied by projections on the topic of diversity in soccer. "Dream up" will take place in public spaces on June 8 and 9: 24 artistic gateway productions at different locations, which will be linked together on guided tours. And on June 8, the night parade with the motto "You'll never walk alone" will take place in Altona with local, national and international groups. 24 balls of light in the corresponding colors represent the national colors of the nations participating in the European Championship.

"United by Football" in exhibitions and schools

The Football Supporters Europe association, which is based in Hamburg, is also developing an exhibition. The exhibition Fan.Tastic.Finals 2024 is about female national fan culture in Europe, which is presented using video portraits. The traveling exhibition will be shown in all host cities; in Hamburg it can be seen from July 6 to 8 in the Teehaus in Planten un Blomen.

The FUNDUS THEATER's FC FUNDUS project has already taken place: the project for schoolchildren had the motto "Theater must be like soccer". Performers from FUNDUS THEATER visited various schools in Hamburg to discuss racism, sexism and ableism with the pupils by playing soccer together in order to develop their own (playing) rules for our social coexistence.

Further cultural projects for UEFA EURO 2024

The Hamburg Foundation of Memorials and Places of Learning in Memory of the Victims of Nazi Crimes (SHGL) is implementing a cultural remembrance project funded by the DFB Cultural Foundation. Soccer has a long history in Hamburg. Under the title "Hamburg Football under National Socialism", the SHGL is organizing a diverse, accompanying programme with an exhibition, guided tours and more, which focuses on the historical dimension of the sport. The focus is on soccer during National Socialism.

The Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (hvv) is presenting the "Ode to the Hanseatic City" for the European Football Championship - a city anthem as a symbol of diversity and tolerance that combines the spirit of soccer with the pulse of the city. Selected newcomer artists will be performing it from mid-June at three pop-up concerts in typical Hamburg locations, with information soon to be available on passenger TV and on the hvv's Instagram channel (@hvv_undwasbewegtdich).

The BallinStadt Emigration Museum is dedicating a special exhibition from May 7 to September 1 to the topic of soccer and migration. The exhibition explores key questions, including: How has the visibility of professional players with a history of migration developed over the decades? Other topics include internationality and globalization or the racism that still exists in soccer in some areas.