Following last year’s great success, the Bamberg World Heritage Center is once again celebrating UNESCO World Heritage Day 2023 with a White Dinner in the Gärtnerstadt! This cozy potluck picnic, where everyone dresses in white, will take place on Saturday, May 27, 2023, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the Böhmerwiese. The brass quintet of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra will open the event with a musical performance. Guests of honor will include Melanie Huml, Bavarian Minister of State for European Affairs and International Relations, as well as an international group of students from the Technical University of Berlin.
“Gärtnerstadt is still an underappreciated part of our World Heritage site,” says Diana Büttner, acting director of the Bamberg World Heritage Center, “yet it serves as a model for the sustainable preservation of heritage: Here, the connection between World Heritage and intangible cultural heritage in the form of urban gardening is still uniquely alive today. It is therefore a matter close to our hearts to celebrate UNESCO World Heritage Day 2023, which focuses on encounter and dialogue, in the Gärtnerstadt.”
White attire is required for the traditional White Dinner. Guests are asked to bring their own filled picnic baskets, white tableware, and cutlery. Beverages will be available for purchase on site.
Tickets for the White Dinner can be purchased for 18 euros at the World Heritage Visitor Center shop (Untere Mühlbrücke 5), the Bamberg Stiftsladen (Hauptwachstraße 9), the Böhmerwiese Garden Center (Heiliggrabstraße 57), and online through the Tourism and Convention Service: www.bamberg.info/tc/whitedinner2023.
The ticket includes a seat at the white-set table, carafes of tap water, vegetable snacks from the Gärtnerstadt, and a musical program by Jazz Colors Bamberg. Children 12 and under are free.
The White Dinner is part of a series of events celebrating Bamberg’s 30th anniversary on the World Heritage List. In this anniversary year, the Bamberg World Heritage Center has put together a diverse program in collaboration with local and national partners. More information can be found at https://welterbe.bamberg.de/de/projekte/jubilaeum.
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UNESCO World Heritage Day
UNESCO World Heritage Day has been celebrated nationwide since 2005. The aim of this special day is not only to raise public awareness of World Heritage sites as places requiring particularly careful preservation, but also to strengthen their role as ambassadors of the UNESCO mission. Encounter and cultural dialogue are therefore at the heart of World Heritage Day.
White Dinner / Dîner en Blanc
In 1988, François Pasquier organized the first dîner en blanc in Paris with a handful of friends. Even today, more than 30 years later, the picnic takes place there every summer. In the early evening hours, French people dressed in white flock to the agreed-upon meeting place with picnic baskets. White tables and chairs brought by the participants are arranged to form a long table, transforming the public space into an open-air banquet hall. Since 2008, these events have also been held in German cities—in 2022, the World Heritage Center hosted Bamberg’s first White Dinner.
Photo: City of Bamberg, Jürgen Schraudner
