Entertainment service company, DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG, believes there is a successful future for literary festivals as its Classics AG is to acquire 66.6% of the shares in the literature festival lit.COLOGNE.
The subsidiary DEAG Classics AG has invested in the activities in the field of what it calls ‘literatainment’ and hopes to bring culture and entertainment to wider audiences in Europe.
Rainer Osnowski, managing partner and co-founder of lit.COLOGNE will remain in a position as shareholder and managing director, and will continue to run the business with this team.
The literary company was founded in 2000 and holds up to 200 events including a version for children and teenagers, and is now considered one of the biggest literary festivals in Europe. It boasts more than 100,000 visitors and has brought together on stage internally-renowned authors, actors and fashion figures including Karl Lagerfeld and Christoph Waltz.
“We are very pleased with out partnership with Rainer Osnowski and his team, who have built up Europe’s largest literature festival and also know how to inspire their audiences with new formats such as lit.RUHR and phil.COLOGNE,” said Peter Schwenkow, chief executive of DEAG and Jacqueline Zich, divisional board member of DEAG Classics AG.
They added: “Being able to contribute to the further development of formats and support the long-term direction of the festivals with our live expertise and our European network fills us with great joy.”
Osnowski, managing director of lit.COLOGNE, said: “The partnership with DEAG Classics in this form, which leaves the festival as such untouched in terms of content and structure, is certainly something of a rarity these days. On the one hand, this partnership is a further step towards securing the long-term future of the festival alongside the great commitment of our main sponsors and partners.
“On the other hand, this alliance offers the mutual know-how in the live sector and the passion for first-class live events with many opportunities for further joint development. I am very pleased about this and look forward to working together.”
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