For the second year in a row, a group of Religion students from the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, from the Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East hub, along with volunteers from the diocesan pastoral care team, offered a space for spiritual guidance and rest to the participants of the traditional rock festival Open Air am Berg.
The festival, a two-day open-air concert, took place on the slopes of the Blumenberg mountain near Eichstätt. The young people were provided with tents where they could take a break from the hustle and bustle with earplugs, talk to someone if they weren’t feeling their best, have a cup of tea, or simply recharge their mobile phones.
The activity is part of a service-learning project of the Eichstätt University’s School of Transformation and Sustainability Department. The project aims at integrating diocesan pastoral care into large events and concerts., encouraging students to get out of the classroom and interact in non-religious settings. The students forming the ‘awareness-raising team’ at Open Air am Berg 2024 developed the proposals together with Professor Simone Birkel and Deacon Thomas Rieger, Head of Emergency Pastoral Care in the Diocese of Eichstätt.
The festival organizer, the Cultural Association JOKE e.V., authorized the pastoral care service to participate, recognizing its potential to increase the safety and well-being of the festival participants.