On Wednesday, November 20th 2024, the APPLAUS (Award for Program Planning of Independent Venues) was presented for the eleventh time in Rostock by Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth.
The federal prize has been awarded since 2013 by the Initiative Musik with the involvement of the Bundeskonferenz Jazz and the LiveMusikKommission e.V. to recognize live music venues and concert series for their artistically outstanding music programs, their cultural excellence, their impact and their socio-cultural significance. The main sponsor of the APPLAUS is the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM).
In 2014, the LOFT’s program was already honored once with this award (at that time still Spielstättenprogrammpreis Rock Pop Jazz), since then we can no longer apply due to the differences between cultural funding and cultural industry funding: venues and associations whose total budget is made up of more than 40% municipal funding have no longer been supported by the Initiative Musik since 2017, an exception was the venue category of the German Jazz Award from the premiere in 2021 to 2023, but this category was also abolished in 2024.
In Rostock, prize money totalling around €1.6 million was distributed in a total of six categories – it is pleasing that this year we were awarded in the category of Best (Funded) Live Music Venue, which was awarded for the first time and is not endowed, but it cannot be concealed that due to the tight budget situation of the city of Cologne – our most important and only partner – the already meagre funds for program planning at LOFT will also become less and less in the coming years: despite significantly increased costs, there have been no increases in funding for six years.
We would like to thank the expert jury for their consideration, as it is high praise for our work.
Only two other venues in NRW received awards in the Best Live Music Venues category: the zakk in Düsseldorf and the Katakomben Theater in Essen.
We would also like to congratulate our Cologne colleagues from Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld (in the Best Live Music Program category) as well as popanz and Bruitkasten (in the Best Small Venues and Concert Series category).
https://applaus-award.de/preistraegerinnen/
Furthermore, the LOFT was announced as the winner of the 16th NRW Venue Program Award last Tuesday (19th of November 2024). The award recognizes small and medium-sized venues in the independent music scene for their special commitment and their ambitious and dedicated live program – LOFT has received the award every year since it was established by the Landesmusikrat NRW and the Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft NRW, and we would like to thank the jury and the founders of the award.
Two more prizes that motivate us to continue presenting a rich concert program at the LOFT, with the usual mix of young musicians, old and young heroes paired with the stars of today and tomorrow.