On January 16, we had the pleasure of presenting the PopBoard NRW to the Committee for Culture and Media in the Düsseldorf state parliament. Dorette Gonschorek, Norbert Oberhaus and Karla König had been preparing for this event for a long time; it was actually scheduled for mid-December. Despite handing over the management of the PopBoard to Anna and Till, Dorette and Norbert were happy to report on the PopBoard even after their time on the Culture Committee had come to an end. A 20-minute presentation provided compact information, showed our pop map and drew comparisons with pop initiatives in other federal states.

In the presence of NRW Culture Minister Ina Brandes (CDU) and Media Minister Nathanael Liminski (CDU), the team not only presented the history of the PopBoard and the projects of recent years, but also made concrete demands to the politicians present:“The pop scene in NRW needs planning security, a fixed quota of the funding volume of the cultural budget, experienced contact persons in the ministry and a joint approach to culture and the creative industries.”

In addition to the 20 or so members of the parliamentary group, there were numerous guests in the committee, including representatives of our partners, such as the Landesmusikrat NRW and Soziokultur NRW. Other members of the audience also came to the meeting because of a previous demonstration – “Cheers for Fears” had invited people to a rally in front of the state parliament on Thursday afternoon. The alliance had called on actors from the independent scene in NRW to demonstrate against the planned cuts.

We were particularly pleased to receive invitations from several political groups for in-depth individual discussions, which we will of course be very happy to take up.