THE CHILDREN´S FESTIVAL IN THE HEINEPARK

For many visitors the TFF.Children’s Festival in Heinepark on Saturday and Sunday is a must.
And it’s not only the kids who dive deep into a world of miracles, fantasy, absurdities, shrill
colours, and creative relaxation.

It all started in 1991 on the market place – back then only with clowns, small booths for face
painting, and a few programmes where the young ones could participate. Since then, the
TFF.Children’s festival underwent a tremendous development – just like the whole festival itself.
In 1993, the Children’s Fest was removed to Neumarkt, and, more important, became a theme
for the very first time ("Who Wants to Be an Assiduous Artisan?"). The same year,
Sigrid Doberenz, a dance teacher from Leipzig, began to organise dance workshops for children.
These workshops proved to be extremely popular and became a regular offer at the festival.
Soon, Neumarkt was overcrowded, and in 1998 the Children’s Festival followed the dance
workshops into Heinepark where the area (of several hectares) alone leads to new and
gigantic possibilities.

A specially built wooden playground, performances in several circus tents, countless participatory
offers, and, last but not least, its very own gastronomy (offering the legendary home-made
Thuringian cake a.o.) make the TFF.Kinderfest a festival inside the festival.
Some 200 artists and assistants are involved in its preparation and realisation. People from
Rudolstadt, vagrants from the Circus Bombastico, and various artists from the respective festival
programme all join forces – all of them crazy enough to engage themselves in such a vast project.