The Rodeo Festival was founded in 2010 by Ingrid Kalka and Gert Neuner. Since then, it has had various artistic directors: Dietmar Lupfer (2012), Jonas Zipf (2014), Sarah Israel (2016 and 2018), Simone Egger, Karnik Gregorian, and Bülent Kullukcu (2020). Until 2020, the City of Munich was the organizer of the Rodeo Festival. In 2022, Theater und Live Art München e.V. took over as the organizer; the 2022 edition was held for the first and only time as a double festival, Freischwimmen meets Rodeo.

Previous Editions of the rodeo
 Festival

  • Freischwimmen Meets Rodeo

    For the first and only time, two biennial independent scene festivals combined to form a major double festival from 7 October to 15 October 2022: Freischwimmen meets Rodeo. Over nine days, local and international dance, theatre and performance artists came together in Munich. Freischwimmen meets Rodeo was the first festival to be organised by HochX - winner of the 2021 Federal Theatre Prize - on its own initiative. With this double festival, they showed how colourful and lively the independent performing arts are - even and especially in times of crisis. We invite you to come together, discover new things, discuss and celebrate.

    HOST
    Theater und Live Art München e.V.

    LOCATION
    All over Munich

  • RODEO 2020

    Art as such must and must continue to address contemporary issues in order to be truly relevant. For the organisers of RODEO 2020, diversity, cultural participation, social justice and confronting right-wing extremism and racism were the top priorities.

    HOST
    LH München

    LOCATION
    All over Munich

  • RODEO 2018

    Dance, theatre and (music-)performance from Munich, national guest performances, excursions into the urban space, exhibition and networking formats, WIPs, readings and discussions will be presented over four days. With partially free admission, the public is invited to watch and interact, to discuss and, of course, to celebrate. The selected productions range from dance performances and posthuman theatre installations to an evening of theatre about desire. The programme also includes a hip-hop radio play, a bus ride through urban space and yodelled art manifestos. RODEO will be asking how and whether a city inscribes itself into the work of artists in a lecture followed by a discussion.

    HOST
    LH München

    LOCATION
    All over Munich

  • RODEO 2016

    Over four days, the festival presents selected dance, theatre and performance productions from Munich, national collaborations and networks, excursions into the urban space as well as other discursive formats and, of course, parties. For the first time, the ‘Bloom Up’ scholarship programme will also take place in co-production with the Goethe-Institut and showcase the work of international collaborations.

    HOST
    LH München

    LOCATION
    All over Munich

  • RODEO 2014

    RODEO 2014 presents twelve productions over five days, including five world premieres. In both dance and theatre, each production bears witness to its very own, possibly specifically Munich aesthetic signature, which distinguishes the quality of the selected works. This year's concept also includes artistic forays and interventions in the urban space as well as discursive platforms, concerts and parties. RODEO thus fills a theatrical space that stretches across the city to create new contexts and open the view to unusual dance and theatre experiences.

    HOST
    LH München

    LOCATION
    All over Munich

  • RODEO 2012

    Rodeo 2012 will provide a platform for artists from the local scene who deliberately do not show their productions in permanent venues, but regularly in public spaces, in ‘non-places’ or in places not designated as art spaces. Artists will be travelling through the city and will bring themselves into urban life as a ‘reflective membrane’ of social processes.

    HOST
    LH München

    LOCATION
    All over Munich

  • RODEO 2010

    The dance and theatre festival of the independent Munich scene was taking place for the first time that year. RODEO MÜNCHEN was a festival where you had the opportunity to get to know the diversity and strength of Munich's unconventional heroes and heroines. Over the five days of the festival, they would climb into the arena and present themselves to the public in a risk-taking manner. The wild south is calling!

    HOST
    LH München

    LOCATION
    All over Munich