Difference between revisions of "Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures"

Revision as of 14:38, 19 January 2024

During Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures Mr. Van Punk performed at various locations around Velenje, setting up their gigs directly out of their van, 2016

The Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures is a summer festival launched in the city of Velenje in 1998. The festival puts a special emphasis on the presentation and promotion of younger Slovene artists as well as international ones, of all generations. The festival's extremely varied programme features current happenings in the field of alternative arts as well as events for children, various sports activities, and some occasional mainstream-profiled acts. Thanks to its imaginative programming and its integration into the urban fabric of the city, Kunigunda is one of the more popular regional or "city" festivals in Slovenia.

Background

The festival was launched by Velenje Youth Centre (MC Velenje) in cooperation with the local student club, Šaleški študentski klub. Its venues are many and mainly open-air, yet can also include the Velenje Castle, the Velenje Youth Centre (MC Velenje), and the Club eMCe plac.

The festival's name has its origins in local folklore story about Kunigunda, a beautiful young girl who supposedly lived in Velenje Castle. She was a castle maiden, accused of witchcraft and thrown into the castle well to die. There is a rumour that she has been haunting the castle hallways ever since. The festival honours the innocent girl with a celebration of young people’s culture, since they are also often mistakenly accused of not being cultural enough. Like Kunigunda, alternative culture is searching for its place under the sun. Kunigunda gives its visitors a chance to get to know it and enjoy it.

A band performing out of a van at Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures, 2015

Programme

Now in its late twenties, Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures is a symbol of young alternative culture in Velenje. The mosaic of local subcultures that gets shaped during the year on the local cultural scene is reflected in the festival’s program. It wouldn’t be wrong to describe its creators as a group of people who represent the passing of knowledge between generations of young, eager, socially critical, and informed individuals who care about events in Šalek Valley and the surrounding area. It was the passing of knowledge, combined with spending quality time and ensuring employment opportunities for those who want to work, that became a value that the festival began to emphasize as soon as the concept spread its wings. Interested and promising individuals are getting irreplaceable work opportunities in all areas that the organization of such a festival entail. The program is conceptually wide and diverse, comprising music, visual arts, dance, theatre, puppetry, installations, film and video screenings, literary evenings, new media art events, lectures, different own productions and urban sports. The events are spread throughout the city, from its parks and streets, from caves to museums and elsewhere, to the main stage at the Youth cultural club eMCe and the Open-air cinema at Škale lake. We hosted big names in music and other areas – from Dragan Živadinov, Gašper Tič and Sebastian Cavazza, to Borut Veselko, Uroš Kuzman, Aleksandar Perišić, Mitja Obed, Pia Zemljič, Janez Škof, Jože Slaček, Staša Guček, Saša Spačal and others. Along with top artists, Kunigunda’s organizational team is getting increasingly involved in the program. Projects like the national beatboxing championship and City on Water found their place at Kunigunda, while our own team produced projects critical to society, like Experiment: Tito’s Velenje, The Wedding: a celebration of love, Kunigudra and founding of the Autonomous Republic of Kunigunda (ARK). Kunigunda is constantly evolving, reconstructing, and reconfiguring itself, injecting culture in veins, slapping the faces of the prepared and unprepared alike. And will continue to do so in the years to come.

Music

Kunigunda’s stage was a host to many well-known artists from all directions (in an abstract as well as artistic sense). In the spirit of emphasizing all cultures and musical genres, we headbanged with metal heads, banged with rappers and MC’s, raved with DJ’s, danced to reggae and ska and enjoyed everything that fits anywhere in between. Bands like S.A.R.S, Dubioza Kolektiv and Kultur Shock visited the castle maiden before they put their names up with those most well-known. The festival hosted many other famous artists – Jeru the Damaja, Senser, Edo Maajka, Kiril Džajkovski, Torul, Elemental, Dječaci, Matter, Let 3, Sassja, Kandžija i gole Žene, Within Destruction, General WOO, Velebor, The Stroj, Ana Pupedan, Kiša Metaka, Anja Bukovec and Terrafolk, Raggalution, Vojko V, Brkovi, Koikoi, Smoke Mardeljano, Ajs Nigrutin, Stoka, King Buffalo, Demolition Group, Nervecell, Niko Novak, Battalion of Saints, Vazz, Masayah, Noctiferia, Repetitor, Kaoz, Bakalina Velika and many others – all of which shaped the musical image of Kunigunda.

Kunigunda aftermovie 2023 by MMC Nukleus on YouTube

External links

Kunigunda Festival website (in Slovenian)

Gallery

Audience at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Visual identity for the 26th Kunigunda Festival, 2023. Author: Žiga Gojević

Croatian band Brkovi performing at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Open-air cinema at Škale lake, Velenje 2023. Photo: Lara Lukše

Drag Queen show at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Interactive programme activities at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Creating music with (un)ordinary object, music workshop at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Lara Lukše

A band performing out of a van at Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures, 2015

A slack-lining workshop taking place during the Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures, 2011

A poster for the Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures 2015

During Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures Mr. Van Punk performed at various locations around Velenje, setting up their gigs directly out of their van, 2016

Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures poster, 2016

Skate and bike contest, 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje, 2023. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Concert atmosphere at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures, Velenje 2023. Photo: Lara Lukše

@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 ==Programme==
-The programme is conceptually wide and diverse, comprising music, visual arts, contemporary dance, theatre, puppetry, sculptural installations, documentary film and video screenings, literary evenings, new media art events, lectures, and art auctions. The events are spread throughout the city, from its parks and streets (and even its lake) to the main stage in the city centre, the local skate park and the ''Pekarna'' exhibitions grounds (a venue created at the site of an abandoned industrial building in the course of a past festival edition).
+Now in its late twenties, [[Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures]] is a symbol of young alternative culture in Velenje. The mosaic of local subcultures that gets shaped during the year on the local cultural scene is reflected in the festival’s program. It wouldn’t be wrong to describe its creators as a group of people who represent the passing of knowledge between generations of young, eager, socially critical, and informed individuals who care about events in Šalek Valley and the surrounding area. It was the passing of knowledge, combined with spending quality time and ensuring employment opportunities for those who want to work, that became a value that the festival began to emphasize as soon as the concept spread its wings. Interested and promising individuals are getting irreplaceable work opportunities in all areas that the organization of such a festival entail.
+The program is conceptually wide and diverse, comprising music, visual arts, dance, theatre, puppetry, installations, film and video screenings, literary evenings, new media art events, lectures, different own productions and urban sports.
+The events are spread throughout the city, from its parks and streets, from caves to museums and elsewhere, to the main stage at the Youth cultural club eMCe and the Open-air cinema at Škale lake.
+We hosted big names in music and other areas – from Dragan Živadinov, Gašper Tič and Sebastian Cavazza, to Borut Veselko, Uroš Kuzman, Aleksandar Perišić, Mitja Obed, Pia Zemljič, Janez Škof, Jože Slaček, Staša Guček, Saša Spačal and others. Along with top artists, Kunigunda’s organizational team is getting increasingly involved in the program. Projects like the national beatboxing championship and ''City on Water'' found their place at Kunigunda, while our own team produced projects critical to society, like ''Experiment: Tito’s Velenje'', ''The Wedding: a celebration of love'', ''Kunigudra and founding of the Autonomous Republic of Kunigunda (ARK)''. Kunigunda is constantly evolving, reconstructing, and reconfiguring itself, injecting culture in veins, slapping the faces of the prepared and unprepared alike. And will continue to do so in the years to come.
-There are also other, more temporary interventions into urban space like setting up artist residencies at floating dwellings on the local lake and transforming one of the city parks into a creative polygon. The streets also hold theatre shows and arts performances (for example, ''Pocestnica'' by [[KUD Ljud]]), slack-line and roller-blade gatherings, photography exhibitions, and so on.
-The festival also holds lectures on topics like the American poet Walt Whitman, appearances of artists like [[Dragan Živadinov]], workshops on sound sculpting and other arts performances and installations that are rather atypical for this type of a festival.
-Kunigunda has produced also projects critical to society, like ''Experiment: Tito’s Velenje'', ''The Wedding: a celebration of love'', ''Kunigudra and founding of the Autonomous Republic of Kunigunda'' (ARK). Kunigunda is constantly evolving, reconstructing and reconfiguring itself.
 ===Music===
-Music-wise, there is combination of well-known local and foreign musicians like Lombego Surfers (US), Let 3 (HR), Kultur Shock (US), Disciplin A Kitschme (RS), Senser (UK) Bambi Molesters (HR), Damir Avdić (BA), Kiril Džajkovski (MK), [[Terrafolk]], [[Torul]], [[Demolition Group]], [[Srečna mladina]], [[Noctiferia]], [[The Stroj]], [[Matter]], etc. This relatively rock-oriented programme is accompanied by many upcoming and fresh musicians of diverse musical expressions (jazz, electronica, reggae, etc.), coupled with a very strong hip hop focus with artists like General Woo (HR), Elemental (HR), Kiša metaka (HR), High 5 (HR) and even a national competition in beat boxing.
+Kunigunda’s stage was a host to many well-known artists from all directions (in an abstract as well as artistic sense). In the spirit of emphasizing all cultures and musical genres, we headbanged with metal heads, banged with rappers and MC’s, raved with DJ’s, danced to reggae and ska and enjoyed everything that fits anywhere in between. Bands like S.A.R.S, Dubioza Kolektiv and Kultur Shock visited the castle maiden before they put their names up with those most well-known. The festival hosted many other famous artists – Jeru the Damaja, Senser,  Edo Maajka, Kiril Džajkovski, Torul, Elemental, Dječaci, Matter, Let 3, Sassja, Kandžija i gole Žene, Within Destruction, General WOO, Velebor, The Stroj, Ana Pupedan, Kiša Metaka, Anja Bukovec and Terrafolk, Raggalution, Vojko V, Brkovi, Koikoi, Smoke Mardeljano, Ajs Nigrutin, Stoka, King Buffalo, Demolition Group, Nervecell, Niko Novak, Battalion of Saints, Vazz, Masayah, Noctiferia, Repetitor, Kaoz, Bakalina Velika and many others – all of which shaped the musical image of Kunigunda.
-{{YouTube|m3gGhRxrrKE}}
+{{YouTube|8cQGQUz7RJA}}
 == See also ==

Difference between revisions of "Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures"

Revision as of 14:38, 19 January 2024

Contents

Background

Programme

Music

See also

External links

Gallery

Operated by

Financed by