Birthday guests can do more than just listen. At the Dixieland ABC they are invited to clap, sing and shake rattles – and help make the music themselves. For the second children’s event marking Dixie's fortieth birthday, Sunshine Brass from Suhl will provide the musical accompaniment. The celebration audience sits in the hall, but their contributions are very much part of the programme.

The festival hippo is turning 40, and so is the participatory revue. Both have been part of the festival since 1987. Behind the little ABC lies a big idea: children should not only be told about rhythm and instruments, but should get to know them through making music together. The birthday provides the occasion for that. Simple sounds become music, and many people help shape it.

For some adult companions, their own childhood may not be so far away either. Anyone who experienced the Dixieland ABC back then can now return with children or grandchildren. In this way, the anniversary brings different generations together, without the youngest having to know forty years of festival history first. Dixie needs birthday music, and the children can help provide it.

Sunshine Brass has been part of the revue since 2023. The Thuringian band brings with it a brass-band tradition that has always been close to jazz. The early jazz of New Orleans was music for parades, celebrations and dance events. It was heard right among the people, not just in front of a quietly listening audience. In the children's revue, this link between music and active participation has a place of its own.

The Rundkino on Prager Straße, opened in 1972 as a circular building, is not hosting a film-history event this time, but a birthday celebration with live music. Invited are kindergarten groups and school starters with their carers and teachers, as well as families with parents, siblings and grandparents. Whether the adults grew up with the Festivalnilpferd or are only just getting to know it, the children's contributions are created here and now – from voices, clapping and rattles.