The Gelsenkirchen Protocols

What happens to a city when the global pop circus descends upon it for a few days and it suddenly becomes the centre of the world?

‘The Gelsenkirchen Protocols’ is a live musical radio play by Andreas Dorau and the Tongruppe Hamburg West, an interdisciplinary ensemble of musicians and voice artists.

The starting point is a real-life event: Taylor Swift’s three sold-out concerts in Gelsenkirchen in the summer of 2024. The focus is less on the music itself than on what unfolds around it – in the city, in the media and amongst the local people.

In a style reminiscent of reportage, a multi-layered exploration of this event emerges: observations, voices and situations coalesce into an acoustic landscape straddling the line between everyday life and a state of emergency. Language, rhythm and sound intertwine to form a shared narrative.

The format combines live radio drama with experimental musical approaches: voices become sound material, musical structures become narrative devices. The result is a performance in which listening itself becomes the central point of engagement.

‘The Gelsenkirchen Protocols’ focus on the happenings surrounding the event – on the movements, dynamics and atmospheres of a city in a state of emergency, and on what remains of it.