Once a year, the Schmalkalde campus turns upside down when the Schmalympic Games take place again. This is the nineteenth time that the Student Council has organized an international sports festival week together with the university. This year, the week is a little bigger, as it is actually 20 years of Schmalympics. The event was launched in 2004, but had to be suspended twice due to the coronavirus.
The Schmalkalden Music School opened the international sports and culture festival week on Monday evening with a summer concert lasting more than two hours. Hendrik Buchenau and his StuRa team had the idea of bringing musicians from the city to the campus, together with the staff of the Word Project. Music school director Johannes Eberlein was immediately enthusiastic about the idea. And so many residents from Schmalkalden and the region came to celebrate the music school orchestra Viel-Harmonie, the choir "CHORazon", the saxophone quartet and the wind ensemble. The international ensemble "Jazz-O-Phonics", which has only been rehearsing for two months, performed in front of a larger audience for the first time with jazz, funk, blues and Latin in its repertoire.
Performances by "Shelter Boy", "Wake Woods" and "OK KID" round off the evening program on the other days. The highlight is probably the band "OK KID", which plays on Thursday evening and has already achieved fame throughout Germany. With a style between hip-hop and German indie, the band has been appealing to young people for years. Bands and DJs from the region will also be performing, such as the Schmalkalder "Goddys".