A reading festival betting on new authors. It may work, it may not.

In this episode of the SHT Podcast, Sandra Künzi takes us behind the scenes of Bern’s annual reading festival, Aprillen. She talks to us about how Aprillen brings together diverse authors through unique readings and even improvisational formats over the course of 4 days — and much more.In dieser Folge des SHT-Podcasts nimmt uns Sandra Künzi mit hinter die Kulissen des jährlichen Berner Lesefest Aprillen. Sie erzählt, wie Aprillen verschiedene Autor*innen in einzigartigen Lesungen und sogar improvisierten Formaten über die Dauer von vier Tagen zusammenbringt – und vieles mehr.00:01 Introduction01:39 Sandra’s background02:07 What is ‘performative literature’?03:48 How Sandra got involved into literature?05:02 What is Aprillen?06:42 How was Aprillen born? 09:15 How Aprillen’s team operates?11:11 How the formats support the festival15:56 Challenges behind organizing the festival18:27 Rewarding aspects of running Aprillen21:15 Staying open for improvement23:03 How does the community respond to Aprillen?24:56 Taking risks26:23 Aprillen as an Interactive festival29:03 Attracting new audiences 31:13 What’s new this year for Aprillen33:59 What’s in the future for the festival?35:11 The impact of Aprillen in the local community37:27 What is Sandra working on these days?38:45 Closing notesDirected by Ute Sengebusch and Maria Spanring Produced and hosted by Ulises Calvo Our website: https://www.schlachthaus.ch Aprillen’s website: https://www.aprillen.chPre-roll Animation by Bénédict Rohrer / billy_ben