The idea of “Danetzare”

What does Danetzare stand for?
The word comes from Middle Latin and means “to amuse on the dancing ground”. The festival is organised and carried out by the members of the Thüringer Folklore Ensemble Erfurt e.V. and the department for culture of the city of Erfurt. Locations in the old town of Erfurt, like Anger, Domplatz, Fischmarkt, Rathausplatz and Wenigemarkt, provide a perfect ambience for the dancing performances.

In Erfurt cultures and people from all over the world will meet for five days to show their traditions. One aim of the festival is a high artistic requirement and a good quality of the presented programmes, based upon music, dance, song, and costume as an entity.

The CIOFF (International Council of Organisations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Art) awarded the organisers with the compliment that “Danetzare” is a recognized CIOFF festival.

Among the thousands of guests from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America as well as from Germany, who have met in Erfurt for sharing the dance, are many who will visit Thuringia for the first time in life. With its high impact on the public the festival contributes a lot to the prestige of the city of Erfurt and the Thuringian region.


Which ambition does the festival have?

Since its première in 1996 the festival has had the ambition to initialize a bridging between past and present. The aim of the festival is to enlarge and strengthen the position of European cultural traditions. The festival intends to present and popularize these folkloristic traditions to other culture groups and in particular to bring them home as a first-hand experience to the people of Erfurt and their guests.

The idea of cosmopolitanism, international understanding and hospitality, as well as the interaction of different cultures – all this means “Danetzare” and is the focus of the festival. Multicultural understanding, the passing on of the idea of a united Europe and of a peaceful world will establish an opposite pole to hostility to strangers. These are not empty words but the conceptual and focal points of the festival.

In the whole town centre of Erfurt you will find all participating groups dancing, singing, and playing music. The people of Erfurt and their guests are not only invited to watch and listen but even to dance themselves. In contrast to the animation and performances on the streets and squares the main programmes of the groups will take place on stages.

While engaging with their own culture and dance in particular, people will meet strangers from distant parts of the world but, nevertheless, they will understand each other at once without speaking the same language.

Besides the comprehensive honorary work of the members of the Thüringer Folklore Ensemble Erfurt e.V. the participants do not get any payment for their performances and assistance in the festival. The host only covers the accommodation and catering expenses in Erfurt and the guests confirm their participation on a principle of mutuality. Based upon that principle many groups from Thuringia and Germany have already returned their visits to various groups abroad.

Until now groups from the following countries have taken part in our festival:

as well as many other groups from Erfurt, Thuringia, and Germany