With a donkey across the Alps or as a woman through Afghanistan: lectures and impressive pictures of adventurous journeys around the world have been available at the Weitsicht Festival for 30 years. The anniversary edition starts this weekend in Darmstadt.
For 30 years, the “Weitsicht” festival has been inviting Hessian adventure fans to lectures and film screenings. It all started in 1992 in the New Theater in Frankfurt-Hoechst. The Friedberg photographer Dieter Glogowski had the idea of professionalizing the increasingly popular slide shows by long-distance travelers.
As a freelance filmmaker, he had traveled widely and found some of the amateur lectures lacking substance. “My event had to be journalistically sophisticated and photographed with high quality,” remembers Glogowski.
His aim was to do educational work, to also address young people and to interest them in distant countries. At the same time, the lectures should offer a live experience.
Celebrity guests
Thanks to good contacts, he was able to attract prominent adventurers such as Rüdiger Nehberg and Arved Fuchs to his live reportage festival. The festival grew larger and larger, so new premises were sought. Finally, the Weitsicht Festival ended up in the Hessischer Rundfunk broadcasting hall.
For the hr, Glogowski and Peter Weinert produced numerous Himalayan films for the popular ARD series “Countries-People-Adventures”.
“Weitsicht” branch in Darmstadt
In 2005, an offshoot was created in Darmstadt, so the festival took place twice a year. The newly opened Darmstadtium was ideal for the multivision format, enthuses Glogowski, especially since it also offers space for the accompanying travel and photography fair.
Darmstadt is now the only venue; Glogowski has handed over responsibility for the Weitsicht Festival to his long-time employee, the Darmstadt photographer and author Jens Steingässer.
Loyal guests
Many volunteers and many visitors have remained loyal to the festival for over 30 years, says Glogowski happily. “For example, there is a group of people around 80 years old who always grab it as soon as tickets go on sale. They are happy when they get places one to four.”
That’s what makes the festival so familiar, even if up to 10,000 visitors of all ages come to the Darmstadtium on one weekend.
Highlights in the “Foresight” program 2023
To kick off the anniversary program, photographer and filmmaker Stefan Forster will show breathtaking photos of the Earth from above on Friday (November 3rd). According to his own statements, the Swiss was one of the first to use drones.
Organizer Jens Steingässer is particularly looking forward to the story that Harald Philipp tells in his lecture (on Sunday, November 5th). As a successful extreme mountain biker, he traveled a lot around the world and also reported on his travels at the Weitsicht Festival. After a crisis of meaning, he decided in 2020 to start a new life with his partner: in an abandoned mountain village in the Ligurian Alps.
Afghanistan from within
Monika Koch and Heiner Tettenborn have also been guests at Weitsicht several times. They have been traveling to Afghanistan repeatedly for 20 years, making friends and learning the local languages Dari and Pashto.
They had to witness how the situation got worse every year. Nevertheless, her lecture (on Saturday, November 4th) promises an insight into a country that is often neglected in the media: fascinating and beautiful.
Across the Alps with a donkey
Lotta Lubkoll’s lecture on Sunday (November 5th) will be particularly exciting for families. She crossed the Alps with donkey Jonny: 600 kilometers from Munich to the Mediterranean. Jonny set the pace. “Nowadays everything has to be higher, faster, further. I wanted to learn the opposite. To enjoy the moment and really be there,” says Lotta Lubkoll.
Source : Tages Schau
