Minister of Culture wants to act: Why street festivals and festivals are key to citizen participation

The opinions of almost 2,000 Luxembourgers are available: In a representative survey by the Ministry of Culture and Ilres’s opinion researchers, 82 percent of the residents of the Grand Duchy stated that culture is « important » or even « very important ».

And yet: the cultural offer in the country is not visible enough and not everyone benefits from it. That is the rough balance. « Improvement », according to the minister, is the order of the day – not only to comply with the coalition agreement or the cultural development plan. The goal: « bring more culture to people and lead more people to culture, » said Minister of Culture Eric Thill.

Thill sees the survey on cultural life as an important building block of upcoming cultural policy. A certain gut feeling has been confirmed. But the last survey was 15 years ago and it is therefore important to take a closer look at how cultural life is experienced and lived there, especially in the Luxembourg cantons and regions.

Income, closeness to the offer and the level of education are crucial

The younger people in particular perceive their cultural experience significantly online. How do you inspire this age group – despite aid and cheap tickets – to participate offline? And: The higher the income, the closer the cultural institutions and the higher the level of education, the more the cultural offer is used.

This study is one of the most important surveys of the Ministry of Culture, said Laurence Brasseur. It stands by the “Observatoire de la Culture”, which is created internally in August 2024: « The survey illuminates, among other things, the cultural practices of the people living in Luxembourg, the importance that they attach to culture in their everyday life, as well as obstacles when accessing culture, » according to the official summary of the content.

What obstacles do you see? « In the first place, one third of the respondents mentioned the lack of information about the cultural offer, in particular from those who have been living in their region for less than two years (44 %). In second place is the lack of interest in the offer (26 %), which affects young people between the ages of 16 and 34, and the third place is the high admission prices, especially by people with financial difficulties (34 %), so » so The study authors.

Especially in the north (20 %) and especially in the canton of Wiltz (32 %), the study participants criticized the distance to cultural offers. The profiteers of the cultural offer include « residents of the city of Luxembourg (21 %), people over 55 years (23 %) and people who never have difficulty paying their bills (19 %) ». People aged 16 and over were interviewed from different age groups, training and job profiles, with different nationalities, languages ​​and places of residence in Luxembourg.

« It was time to underpin access to culture with new numbers, » emphasizes the minister. Also because those responsible want to discuss the data in detail at the next big meeting with the cultural scene that Assises want to discuss the access to the culture on June 25, 2025 in the Ettelbrücker Cape. In addition, throughout the Observatoire, all cultural people should be created to access this data and further surveys.

The results, as well as the consultations with ministries, such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and other state agencies, and not least with the municipalities, should be made into an official action plan. In the best case, this action plan should bundle measures and concrete goals as a cultural policy guideline, and in the spring of next year.

Because, for example, school classes can be better connected to the cultural offer, also depends on the guidelines of the Ministry of Education. The ministry sees opportunities in the field of culture and health care: How important is the role of culture, for example, for mental health and how can you look at the Ministry of Health, to build a broad focus on « which already exists in other countries? » Says the first government council in the Cultural Ministry, Carl Adalsteinsson.

How high is the importance of street festivals?

However, there are also a few blurring. What exactly is understood as a culture? A cinema, theater or museum visit? The study calculates digital offers as well as the Netflixstream or the Spotify subscription. But also folk festivals such as the classic wine festival are considered cultural activity. These are then clearly emphasized compared to the state -funded structures such as regional cultural centers.

This has consequences in the balance sheet: « After all, the information instruments and the cultural offer must be further developed in order to achieve a wider audience, especially new residents of a region and young people.

The complete study, your method and results can be found in detail at mcult.gouvernement.lu.