
Photo: Max Ott
“I knew, this was something big now”
Eight years ago, singer TOM WILMERSDÖRFFER suddenly had an idea—and founded the HIDALGO Festival with a small team. This season, he’s leaving us as Artistic Director and Co–Managing Director. We look back with him: on the beginnings, on moments of failure and great happiness.
Interview: Philipp Nowotny
Tom, can you still remember the moment when you got the idea for HIDALGO?
That was in August 20216 at a very classical orchestra concert in the Residenz in Munich. While I was listening, a switch flipped inside of me. I had been away for a few years for my studies and during that time, a lot had happened in Munich’s young scene. Suddenly I knew that a link between State Opera and Bahnwärter Thiel was needed.
What do these two places stand for?
The State Opera stands for highest artistic quality and the highest demands. The Bahnwärter Thiel stands for places where our generation likes to spend their time, that are full of life. These two worlds were what I wanted to connect. In two nights, I wrote a concept paper and then went to the people in my network with it. Out of that, a small team formed; that was the beginning.
When did you know for yourself that HIDALGO was going to work out?
Basically from the first moment. I knew this was something big now. Of course there are moments of doubt from time to time, for example when the money is tight again, but the fundamental conviction was always there. But this kind of optimism, that it will work, is what you need, whether artistic or entrepreneurial.
In the first festival year, for example, we realized five formats with just around 40.000€.
And that was only possible with a lot of self-exploitation. Over the years, the budget has grown, but professionalization also costs money, of course. In the end, you need to adapt to the circumstances a lot: Ideas, grand ambitions, the number of formats and rehearsal times. That has always been part of our process and can be very frustrating and tiring. Sometimes I think: What would be possible artistically if you didn’t have to invest so much time in applications and accounting.
In what moments did we fail miserably?
For me personally, it was the format SCROLLEN IN TIEFSEE in 2019. I pretentiously went into it with the vision of taking a contemporary poem, interpreting it using video, building a canvas dome, setting it to music—and then all of that was supposed to come together, too. I had imagined it very naively at the time in the way of my Hollywood and Netflix viewing habits, but only had a budget that allowed for a voluntary film crew. The participants had never worked together. It didn’t work, the format got stuck in a workshop-state. When the Süddeutsche Zeitung tore it apart, it felt devastating at the time and had me doubt everything.
But this failure was the starting point for the HIDALGO Kollektiv.
With this production came the realization that we simply aren’t a theatre with set-in-stone processes, but that we wanted to create a collective in which we bring artists from different disciplines together. The artists should get to know the working processes of the others and build trust among each other—and with that, new works can be created. That’s the idea behind our Kollektiv and our recent formats have proven it works.
With the knowledge you have today, would you have decided to found a festival back then?
If we had known what an effort it would take—building a company and a team, fighting for funds time and time again—I don’t know if we would have done it.
What has HIDALGO changed in your life?
I think about everything I got to learn. We taught ourselves everything in the management team. I learned a lot from an entrepreneurial point of view, in dealing and working with people, as well as the artistic craft, the knowledge of how all these trades work, how to light a room, set up a scene, what a functioning dramaturgy is. HIDALGO was a great educational journey for me, for which I’m immensely grateful.
What were some moving moments for you in your nearly eight years with HIDALGO?
The work at HIDALGO confronted me with the highest highs and lowest lows, it was incredibly intense. Those are moments with the team but also moments that I experienced alone.
Do you have an example of this?
Last year, we were commissioned by the Munich Residenztheater on short notice. I was already in rehearsals but didn’t have a text yet. I was desperate and didn’t know what to do. Then I sat down and wrote a text, opened up a science fiction world in it. I wrote page after page. When I was done, it was a high and a feeling of happiness that I had never experienced with any drug. That was fulfillment.
Such high-feelings can also arise in the team, right?
Yes, I’m thinking of the final rehearsal phases when you realize that everyone is throwing themselves into it, everyone is giving their all. We ride the wave together, we let ourselves be carried by the energy. That creates deep connections, also between people.
In a job like this, which is supposed to fulfill you and for which you are prepared to give your all, there is always the risk of burning out and overexerting yourself, right?
Exactly. Of course, it’s a matter of experience, too, to ensure that the necessary tension doesn’t turn into overload, both for others and for yourself. That hasn’t worked well for me in the last year. In the past few years, I have repeatedly asked myself: What does art need? What does HIDALGO and its Team need? And what do I need myself? I’ve now reached the point where I can’t maintain this balance in the long term, which is why it’s now time for me to take a step back.
How do you envision your future?
I’m open to that at the moment. I feel a great sense of freedom, for which I’m very grateful. For the first time in eight years, I don’t have a plan. At the same time, I have the knowledge and confidence that the next thing will come my way. The decision to leave HIDALGO was scary, there were moments of panic. It’s like a relationship coming to an end, after all it was a whole period of my life, and HIDALGO is my baby, in which I sometimes invested 60 to 80 hours a week. It was the first and last thing I thought about every day. Now this child has learned to walk. There’s a team with people who are passionate about it, who have become a part of HIDALGO and know how to move forward. People who will have and pursue their own ideas. Letting go hasn’t been easy, but I now feel a great sense of calm.
Where do you see HIDALGO right now?
We’re established in Munich, at least in the cultural and art scene, people have heard of us throughout Germany and more and more international cooperations and commissions are emerging for the Kollektiv. HIDALGO is on the move.