SPARK stands for a genre that unites the different disciplines – music, theatre, literature, dance and visual arts – at eye level and is characterised by collective, transdisciplinary work, experimental approaches, a willingness to take risks, radical thinking and relevance to current events. Contemporary music theatre thrives on the interconnection of fields, on borderline experiences and dealing with them, on the pooling of forces and cooperation, on the smooth interlocking of different processes on several levels at the same time. When the artistic disciplines do not work separately from each other but perform together, boundaries can be broken down and energies released, the spark can fly! SPARK is a festival of encounter and exchange. The invitation to a convivial get-together and collective experience is extended just as warmly to the artists as to the audience. The festival represents the vision of a cultural future defined by the values of an open, diverse, solidary, respectful and pluralistic society. What is to be experienced on stage will be dazzling, sensual and diverse. It may touch and disturb, it may raise socially relevant issues and focus on political hotspots. Together we want to celebrate a sensual experience that goes beyond intellectual reception. No one has to be an expert in new music, contemporary dance or experimental theatre! SPARK wants to pave the way for contemporary music theatre to regain the position it had for decades in Cologne. According to “cooperation instead of competition”, the aim is to intensively interlinking the Cologne art scene in order to develop a supra-regional appeal. Together with top-class and internationally active artists of various disciplines, we want to give an impulse to create sustainable production conditions for contemporary, independent music theatre and to open up new places for the scene in the long term: adequate rehearsal rooms, storage space and stages. SPARK will take place for the first time in April 2022 on the initiative and under the artistic direction of composer/musician Christina C. Messner and director Sandra Reitmayer. The new platform for artists of the independent scene from Cologne, Germany and other European countries is being developed in close cooperation between the two artists, the organiser and sponsor ON Cologne and the production office littlebit.