July 17 – 19, 2003
It was in this year that the international street entertainers reached Pfarrplatz, east of the Hauptplatz, for the first time. The festival’s new manager Gerda Forstner said of this addition: “This new Pflasterspektakel zone should provide a further opportunity for taking an enjoyable stroll around the street performances in the center of Linz.” The stage on Pfarrplatz was particularly attractive, with its wide variety of musical styles ranging from Cuban rhythms to Hungarian melodies. The street theater performances staged by international companies in the picturesque inner courtyards of Linz, which had been introduced the previous year, were again received with great enthusiasm. Companies from Germany, Belgium, Italy and France all won over their audiences with their outstanding and original shows. These poetic worlds of theater formed a marked contrast to the pulsating life on Landstraße, which, however, was not without a certain magic of its own, as one performer aptly put it: “During the Pflasterspektakel there’s a special magic in the air of this city that you don’t find anywhere else.” What more can we add?
And not only that:
The weather records tell us that while the Thursday was rainy and cold, the Saturday was far too hot to be out on the streets. But the perfect weather on the Friday resulted in a record number of visitors for one day – 100,000!
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