Käerjeng, municipality of the month – from 22 February to 21 March 2022

From 22 February to 21 March 2022, the Luxembourgian municipality of Käerjeng, which covers 33.7 sq km and is home to 10,541 inhabitants of 92 nationalities, will be in the spotlight thanks to two projects: the ‘Fire Festival’ and ‘Au goût du terroir’. 

Over the weekend of 5 and 6 March 2022, the ‘Fire Festival’ will step up the traditional ‘Buergbrennen’ (Bonfire Night) by inviting artists to create and burn fire sculptures inspired by Land Art and great American festivals such as ‘Burning Man’ in Black Rock City (Nevada) or the ‘Fire Arts Festival’ in Oakland (California). As part of the traditional Luxembourgish ‘Buergbrennen’, which celebrates the rebirth of spring after winter, the village youth come together to collect combustible materials from farmers and build a pyre. After parading through the village, locals and visitors set the pyre ablaze at nightfall. Today, the youth associations Féngiger Jugend and the Clemency Youth Club perpetuate this tradition. The ‘Fire Festival’ organise as part of Esch2022 will boast genuine fire sculptures made of carved and sculpted tree trunks, wood and straw, metal structures soaked in fire accelerators, and various other materials used by a dozen artists from Luxembourg and the rest of Europe to create unique works. Two weeks before the start of the festival, pupils from schools in Käerjeng will be invited to participate in creative workshops, resulting in works that will be presented during this exceptional weekend. Following the festival, a series of lectures will look at ancestral European customs aimed at ‘chasing away’ winter, and a grant will be awarded to a doctoral student doing research in this field. 

During the autumn, a large regional products market and fair will be held as part of the ‘Man and Biosphere’ project, launched by the Our Natural Park in collaboration with the municipal administration of Käerjeng and the inter-municipal union Pro-Sud. Named ‘Au goût du terroir’, this event will emphasise the social and ecological importance of food by presenting a diverse range of artisanal products from rural regions in the Grand Duchy and the Greater Region. The ‘Salon des Saveurs’ will thereby encourage direct contact between producers, residents, visitors and professionals in the catering trade. This initiative builds on the resounding success of the first ‘Salon des Saveurs’ edition organised at the Rotondes in the framework of Luxembourg and the Greater Region, European Capital of Culture 2007. It is also part of the ‘Man and Biosphere’ strategy of the ‘Minett UNESCO Biosphere’ project, which among other things aims to redefine the former mining region around new identity products and to stimulate networking. Following on from the regional farmers’ market, various pilot projects, panel debates and talks will promote discussion between producers and consumers on issues such as the ecological footprint of food, its impact on the landscape, ‘Zero Waste’ objectives, the ‘0-km-Plate’, and much more.

Find more information about Käerjeng here.