Holger Ries takes over management of the Zwingenberg Castle Festival!

Holger Ries takes over management of the Zwingenberg Castle Festival!

On November 7, 2025, the Zwingenberg Castle Festival will welcome a new artistic director: Holger Ries, an experienced singer with over 20 years of experience on stage, will now direct the fortunes of the popular festival. Ries prevailed in the selection against a strong field of applicants my-news.de reported. His predecessor Rainer Roos, who was at the helm of the festival for ten years, was initially praised for his achievements and given a dignified farewell.

54-year-old Holger Ries comes from Bad Rappenau and made his debut at the Castle Festival in 2001. His extensive career also includes engagements at the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater Flensburg, where he was a permanent member of the ensemble from 2005 to 2011. In addition to his artistic career, Ries has worked successfully as a key account manager in dentistry since 2012 and also organizes around 40 concerts of various musical genres every year. These diverse experiences will certainly help him to anchor the festival both regionally and make it shine nationally.

An exciting start

The next season will begin with the renowned musical “Evita”, accompanied by a diverse supporting program that will make the festival accessible to a wider audience. The entire schedule for the 2026 season will be presented at the beginning of December, and advance sales will start on December 8th via the Castle Festival website and in the region's tourist information centers.

District Administrator Brötel particularly emphasizes Ries' many years of experience in concert planning and is optimistic that the new director will bring a breath of fresh air to the festival. Because one thing is certain: with Holger Ries at the helm, the future of the Zwingenberg Castle Festival is in experienced hands.

Cultural management in focus

The history of cultural management is long and varied. For 50 years, the Institute for Cultural Management and Gender Studies (IKM) has been dealing with the so-called art of organization, in which a wide variety of art disciplines are examined. The founding idea, which was launched in 1976, came from theater director Ernst Haeusserman, and the support of Federal Minister Hertha Firnberg was crucial. Since then, the IKM has developed a first-class reputation as one of the first providers of cultural management studies in continental Europe, and is enjoying increasing popularity among those wishing to become professionally involved in the arts and culture sector.

Graduates of the master's program now have the opportunity to pursue in-depth PhD studies and benefit from a broad network as well as from reflected experiences in the fields of visual and performing arts, media art and literature, such as mdw.ac.at shows.

In summary, it can be said that with Holger Ries there is a new creative head at the helm of the Castle Festival. It remains exciting to see how he will combine his artistic vision with his extensive experience to take the festival to a new level.