The Playground Association was founded in 2001 as an charitable association for the care of youth(culture) through music and juggling.
The Playground e.V. is registrated in Frankfurt am Main/Germany.
The Playground is active in the fields of youthsocialwork and cultural exchange. We organize workshops, events and tours using juggling and music as a way to bring together people from different classes, places, ethnicities and scenes.
The Playground provides instruments and creates a space which animates to play, to learn, to experiment, to create..

For actual Playground Projects read our News

The Playground Collective was born
1998 in the Housing Project Michael Barrax in Frankfurt am Main as a performance and music project, to teach each other by principles of “learning by doing”.
Nowadays we are a kind of network living in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Napoli, Graz and working together with groups and artists all over Europe.
The Playground has been organizing tours to Kosova and Mazedonia, participating in cultural events and working in camps with socially disadvantaged and war-traumatised children.

The Playground is involved in the organisation of the Gathering of the Tribes Festival an annual international event in Frankfurt with over 1200 participants and visitors, coming from different places all over Europe and abroad.
This festival not only promotes a colourfull music programm , but also workshops, discussions and films about the theme "Music ,Mind and Politics".

Gathering of the Tribes is a charitable event. All artists playing mainly for travelling expenses, to make it possible, that lot of tribes can come to Frankfurt and get connected.

Any profit from the Festival is donated to a Project with social disadvantaged kids in Kosova.

On an international level the Playground e.V. is a tool and platform for networking and cooperation. The aim is, to support and bring together groups and individuals, who are doing similar projects connected with
-juggling & music
-festivals and performance camps
-and international cultural exchange projects.

During the last years the Playground Collective has been cooperating and making contacts with artists and activists from/in Prishtina, Belgrad, Zagreb, Skopje, Sarajevo, Sophia, Budapest, Tirana, London, Neapel, Barcelona, Tel Aviv.

Biography

1998-1999
Playground starts to develope as a group amd collective, doing juggling playgrounds, setting up fireshows and a live-music programm.
participation in festivals, gigs in Berlin, Thessaloniki, Glasgow
first tour to festivals in Hungary and Croatia.
producing the CD “Be your own Live-Act”, a documentary about Michael Barrax Community and Playground Tours.

200o
1. Playground Tour to Mazedonia & Kosova/o, working in camps and communities with socially disadvantaged children
small financial support by Department of Youth Frankfurt, a TV Show and private investments.

2001
Playground e.V. was founded

Production of the CD Compilation Holidays in Kosovo
with support of Department of Science and Arts in Frankfurt.

Participation in Crossing Bridges Festival 1 in Pec/Peje im Kosovo,
financially supported by Department of Youth/Department for political education in Frankfurt http://www.theplayground.de/crossingbridges.htm
25 min Documentary on ZDF. German Television Programm

August/September 2002
-Coorganisation of Crossing Bridges Festival 2 (three days) in Peje, Kosova,
- organisation and coordination of a one week Live Recording Studio in the old cinema of the city of Pec/Peje, where bands and musicians coming from different places were recorded.
resulting CD Production: Music Crossing Bridges, (re)mixed in Sophia.
The Participation in Crossing Bridges 2 has been finanzially supported by Department of Youth Frankfurt.

2003-2005
Participation in Underwater-Overground Festival in Croatia:
setting up a Juggling Playground, Workshops, Live-Act
in Cooperation with ATAC/Autonom Youth & Cultural Center Zagreb and Stani Pani Kollektiv Belgrad

Oktober 2005:
3 Weeks Kosovotour : Working with socially disadvantaged children in Plementina, Gracanica, Prishtina, Mitrovica und Peje, public Juggling Playground in Prishtina

November 2005
Crossing Bridges Festival in Frankfurt with guests from Belgrad (Stani Pani Kollektiv, Queer Belgrad) and Prishtina (Urban FM), opening panel with presentation and discussion, presentation of documentary films, music…
Playground Tour and Festival 2005 financially supported by Department of Youth Frankfurt.

September 2006
4 Weeks Kosova-Tour in cooperation with Balkan Sunflowers: working several days with socially disadvantaged children and youth mainly in Serbian and Roma enclaves; public Playground in the city of Prishtina, documentary filmproduction with Neta & Sevdje Kastrati from Crossing Bridges Productions

April 2006
Coorganisation of Gathering of the Tribes Festival in Frankfurt
(Milchsackgelände) about 1200 international guests and artists

Mai 2006
Coorganisation of Ladyfest Frankfurt (4 days of lectures, workshops, diskussions, concerts, parties, films)
1 year preparation time with various meetings and event!
grant by Department for Womens´issues (Frauenreferat), Department for Science and Arts , Department for Multiculture in Frankfurt.

Januar 2007
”Welcome to Bill Clinton Boullevard”
small event in Frankfurt, showing films from Crossing Bridges Production Prishtina,
Premiere: Playground Tour 2006 Documentary film
In Coop. Mit SEKs, Stadtteilinitiative Koblenzer Strasse

April 2007
Preparation of Gathering of the Tribes 6-9 th April 2007
In preparation:
-Frankelona a virtual space to connect Frankfurt and Barcelona, Exchange Project & Festival
-Set up of an alternative youth and cultural center in Prishtina
in cooperation with Radio Urban FM.
-Multiethnical Summer Performance Camp in Kosova/o

Pedagogical projects in/around Frankfurt
-juggling workshops at Kurt Schumacher School in Karben
- setting up music programms for Kindergartens
-School Projects in cooperation with Alice e.V. “the drug & culture project”, informations about drugs and drug addictions.

Adress&Contact

Playground e.V.
Prämäckerweg 10
60433 Frankfurt am Main
0049 69 176 41037641
e-mail: contact @ theplayground.de