How Oberursel wants to save money on culture

It is no secret that Oberursel needs to save money in order to balance its books, and the culture budget was already reduced in 2013.

Now the town is making plans on how to save even more money in 2014.

In fact, they want to save at least an additional €100,000, so to do this the town’s social and cultural committee along with the charity responsible for organising or sponsoring many of the events (KSfO) have been trying to find a way of reducing the amount the spend by either finding sponsors for events, making them smaller or cancelling them altogether.

It’s a fine line to tread, with some of the local events such as the carnival parade and the Christmas market bringing large numbers of visitors to the town, so making a saving may also mean less income somewhere else.  Some event are even seen as unique to the town, at least as far as the local area is concerned.

So for, it has already been decided to reduce the amount that is spent on the stage and other elements of the open-air theatre and at Christmas there will be less spent on the Christmas lights and the trees – of which the town has 4 large ones each year at present.  The small huts that feature in the Christmas market are also a major cost factor that is being looked into, as is the extent to which the market runs through the Strackgasse.  The part of the market on the Marktplatz will be a privately financed middle-age market.

Some events that were previously free may start to charge for entry, others may be moved to new – cheaper – locations.  The party at the end of the carnival procession in the Stadthalle is one of those being looked at.

However at the end of the day it is also important to highlight that another part of this work – supporting charities in the town – should remain largely untouched.

It makes the whole situation somewhat complicated, with those charities receiving support outright and/or for their own events, this being dependent on whether they are trying to make a profit or not, and on top of all this there are some events that the town organises that have their own budgets, such as the wine festival.

With the final budget being a matter for the town council in the coming weeks, they will need to know exactly who is responsible for what and how each part of that budget works if they are to make the savings where they really want to.