Cultural highlightsorganized byLjubljana Festival
Registration for the Ljubljana Festival Club
Currentevents
Little Arts Colony
Over the course of four days, children will create musical instruments, mosaics, and prints using various materials while exploring different art techniques. The workshops will conclude with an exhibition of their artistic creations.
XXVIII. International Arts Colony
Despite technological advancements, art enriches us with spiritual peace and genuine emotions that technology cannot replace, which is why we must value and preserve it.
Edward Clug: Cluster
»Edward Clug captivates with performances that combine exceptional dance skill and original music, while exploring the complexity of human experience.«
Phantom of the Opera
In the summer of 2025, the award-winning musical The Phantom of the Opera will premiere at Cankarjev dom, bringing its emotionally powerful love story to audiences and winning hearts around the world.
Re5piraciònes (Od Gardela do Piazzolle)
The accordion quartet 4 Bellows 4 Tales and Rodolfo Mederos blend tango with jazz and rock, creating a fresh and unique musical experience.
An evening with legends of Cuban music
EuroCubans blend Cuban rhythms with modern sounds in an energetic performance that has already captivated audiences around the world, creating an unforgettable dance atmosphere.
Initiative for the Establishment
»Out of love for beloved Ljubljana, a beautiful idea was born: to breathe life into the Slovenian capital with summer cultural and artistic events that would celebrate its name across the European cultural scene; to transform it into an important festival and cultural hub. A gentle dream began to glimmer: Ljubljana should become the Salzburg, Verona, Bayreuth, or Edinburgh of Southeastern Europe.«
Dr. Fran Vatovec, initiator of the establishment of the Ljubljana Summer Festival
From the book Festival Ljubljana, 20 Years, Ljubljana, 1972
The institution ensures the continuous and uninterrupted provision of public cultural goods across all types of cultural events, including theatre, music, visual arts and other activities. As part of its mission, Festival Ljubljana organises the international summer festival as its central event, featuring symphonic and chamber music concerts, opera, ballet and theatre performances with top domestic and international artists. The summer festival programme is further enriched by the International Fine Arts Colony, which brings together Slovenian and international visual artists each year in the inspiring setting of Plečnik’s Križanke, as well as children’s and youth workshops led by acclaimed and established artists.
Ljubljana Festival also organises the Slovenian Music Days, a festival of contemporary music that reflects on Slovenian musical creativity while focusing on the performance of new, primarily Slovenian compositions. Held in late spring, the festival is divided into a concert section and a symposium section, the latter bringing together renowned musicologists from across Europe each year to explore a new theme. The Slovenian Music Days are complemented by a variety of accompanying events, such as panel discussions, exhibitions, book presentations and more. Through its choice of musicological topics, Festival Ljubljana also draws attention to the rich heritage of the entire Slovenian cultural space. The conference proceedings, published annually and containing papers presented at the symposium, serve as an important chronicle of the time and context.
Ljubljana Festival also dedicates part of its regular programme to discovering young musical talent. For many years, it has organised the Young Virtuosi concert cycle, aimed at presenting the most promising Slovenian musicians to a wider audience, most of them winners of the Young Musicians Competition of the Republic of Slovenia (TEMSIG). The concerts are organised in cooperation with RTV Slovenia, with most of them recorded and broadcast on Radio ARS, which plays a key role in promoting the careers of these young artists.
In December, pupils from music schools traditionally perform on the stage of the Knights’ Hall at Križanke, with many of them experiencing a real concert stage and performing for an audience for the very first time. During the festive season, the Knights’ Hall also serves as a venue for various gatherings and events.
In 2017, Festival Ljubljana began efforts to introduce the Winter Festival into its regular programme. The concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, held on 9 February 2017, marked the first announcement of what would become an annual event taking place at the beginning of each calendar year.
In 2023, the institution organised the 1st International Piano Competition of the Ljubljana Festival, held under the artistic direction of Epifanio Comis, from 25 February to 4 March. The nine-member international jury was chaired by pianist Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak, and the first prize was awarded to Kai-Min Chang from Taiwan, China.
Recognition
The public institution Ljubljana Festival is one of the most important cultural and artistic organisations in Europe. What sets it apart from similar institutions is its long standing tradition and strong integration into international cultural and artistic networks. Festival Ljubljana preserves tradition while contributing to Ljubljana’s high reputation on the global map of festival cities and enriching the city’s tourist offering. One of its guiding principles is: “Our core mission is a strong artistic programme, cultural tourism should be its consequence.”
The Festival Through History
The origins of the Ljubljana Summer Festival date back to 1952, when the Ljubljana Tourist Association organised the first Tourism Week. In 1953, the first official Ljubljana Festival was held, featuring a wide variety of cultural, economic, folkloric, tourist and sports events.
Since 1953, Ljubljana has hosted Summer Festivals every year, bringing the city’s stages to life each summer with performances by domestic and international musicians, actors, dancers, and visual artists. Over the decades, Festival Ljubljana has welcomed some of the most celebrated names in the world of art and culture, including Dubravka Tomšič, Marjana Lipovšek, Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Katia Ricciarelli, Grace Bumbry, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, José Carreras, Slide Hampton, Pierre Amoyal, Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky, Shlomo Mintz, Krzysztof Penderecki, Riccardo Muti, Charles Dutoit, Fabio Luisi, Gidon Kremer, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Julian Rachlin, Angela Gheorghiu, Maceo Parker, Celia Cruz, Gilberto Gil, Wynton Marsalis, Alexander Vedernikov, Marcelo Álvarez, Bernarda Fink and Mojca Zlobko Vajgl, Vadim Repin, Zubin Mehta, Sir Andrew Davis, Midori, Ennio Morricone, Manhattan Transfer and many others.
The festival has also hosted some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from London, and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra from St. Petersburg, as well as prestigious opera houses, most notably the legendary Bolshoi Theatre from Moscow and La Scala from Milan.
Over the years, the festival has grown, evolved, and made a lasting impact on cultural life in Slovenia. In recent years, the Ljubljana Summer Festival has featured between 70 and 80 events of various genres, attracting around 80,000 domestic and international visitors. This reflects the scale and significance of the festival, and the organisers remain committed to delivering programmes of the highest artistic calibre in the future as well.
Top Quality
Ljubljana Festival provides Slovenian and international audiences with cultural and artistic content of the highest quality by elite artists of international acclaim. This has been its guiding principle since the very first edition of the Ljubljana Festival, held from 4 to 13 July 1953. The long list of outstanding soloists, orchestras, ensembles, conductors, choreographers, directors, actors and others who have performed in Ljubljana during the summer, especially over the past twenty years, stands as proof of this commitment.
Among them are the Vienna Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre from Saint Petersburg, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from London, the Béjart Ballet from Lausanne, the Boris Eifman State Ballet from Saint Petersburg, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra from Leipzig, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, La Fura dels Baus, and Laibach. Renowned conductors include Valery Gergiev, Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Harding, Zubin Mehta, Ennio Morricone, Riccardo Muti, Charles Dutoit, Fabio Luisi, Mstislav Rostropovich,
En Shao, Vasily Petrenko, Andris Nelsons, Herbert Blomstedt, and Iván Fischer. Among the soloists are Yuri Bashmet, Denis Matsuev, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Julian Rachlin, Vadim Repin, Alexander Rudin, Mojca Zlobko, Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak, Martha Argerich, Lang Lang, Hélène Grimaud, Jean Yves Thibaudet, and Simon Trpčeski. Vocal soloists include Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Riccardo Zanellato, Paata Burchuladze, Joseph Calleja, José Carreras, Marjana Fink, Marjana Lipovšek, Ramón Vargas, Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau, Nicolas Testé, Plácido Domingo, Sondra Radvanovsky, Piotr Beczała, Ute Lemper, Jonathan Tetelman, Ludovic Tézier, and many others.
Education
Ljubljana Festival enriches and educates society through high quality cultural content, fostering greater cultural awareness and knowledge while offering experiences that broaden perspectives. It provides gifted young artists with the opportunity to perform for wider audiences. Throughout its history, the festival has supported youth orchestras and masterclasses. For more than thirty one years, it has organised the International Music Cycle Young Virtuosi, showcasing talents and winners of various competitions. Under the guidance of respected professionals, Ljubljana Festival also runs workshops for children and young people. These offer them unforgettable holidays combined with artistic education in visual arts, rhythm, dance and singing. For many participants, these workshops, along with visits to performances and encounters with artists, represent their first real contact with culture and the arts. In doing so, Ljubljana Festival plays an essential role in cultivating the future audience of summer cultural events.
Social Responsibility
Ljubljana Festival ensures access to a wide range of cultural programmes for the broadest possible audience through an inclusive pricing policy. All events within the Young Virtuosi cycle and several concerts during the Slovenian Music Days are free of charge. In addition, persons with mobility impairments (wheelchair users) can attend all Ljubljana Festival events free of charge.
Development and Cooperation
Ljubljana Festival actively encourages and involves the Slovenian business sector in the development of culture and cultural artistic events. It also fosters cooperation between various institutions and organisations within Ljubljana, across Slovenia and beyond its borders, which is essential for the development of society as a whole and for raising cultural awareness. The festival also sees its role in supporting platforms that nurture the creativity of young and emerging musicians. Ljubljana Festival works to increase sponsorship funding, ticket revenue, venue rental income, and financial support from the City of Ljubljana, the Slovenian government and the European Union, all of which are crucial in delivering a top level artistic programme.
Venues
In the planning, organisation and execution of events, Ljubljana Festival collaborates with both domestic and international institutions. Cooperation at the local, national and international levels is essential for maintaining a high standard of cultural programming, as well as for fostering cultural awareness and promoting both Ljubljana Festival and the City of Ljubljana.
Ljubljana Festival collaborates with foreign embassies and cultural representatives in Slovenia, with European capitals and their festivals, mayors, ministries of culture and heads of government. It also maintains partnerships with major cultural institutions in Russia, Israel and China. As a partner, Festival Ljubljana actively participates in international project applications alongside Slovenian and foreign festivals, applying for EU funding programmes to support cultural initiatives.
The majority of Ljubljana Festival events are held at the Križanke complex, a venue that offers unique artistic experiences. In addition to the main Križanke Summer Theatre, events also take place in the Foyer, Pergola, Devil’s Courtyard, Knights’ Hall, and Church of the Teutonic Knights. The Križanke Monastery is a unique historical and architectural landmark in Ljubljana, offering performers a stunning backdrop for their shows.
In 2016, it was declared a cultural monument of national importance. Festival Ljubljana is committed to increasing awareness of Križanke as a historical and architectural gem and to promoting it as a space for unforgettable artistic experiences.
The festival also brings the spirit of excellence and artistic prestige from Križanke to other attractive locations throughout the capital. There is a strong desire to organise as many high profile events as possible at the iconic Congress Square, and to continue traditional collaborations with key cultural institutions such as Cankarjev dom, the Slovenian Philharmonic, the Ljubljana Opera and Ballet, the National Gallery, and others, as well as smaller venues such as the National and University Library, Glasbena matica, and the Conservatory of Music and Ballet. Ljubljana Festival is continuously looking for new venues in Ljubljana that are suitable for the staging of world class artistic projects.
International Activities
As part of various projects, Ljubljana Festival hosts around 6000 artists annually from over 50 countries. It is a member of the prestigious European Festivals Association (EFA), based in Ghent, Belgium, which for over 65 years has brought together around 200 festivals, national festival associations and cultural networks from more than 45 countries. Festival Ljubljana has been a member of the EFA since 1977.
Awards and Honours
Ljubljana Festival has received a prestigious national honour. On 6 November 2002, the former President of the Republic of Slovenia, Milan Kučan, awarded the festival the Honorary Badge of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia in recognition of its fifty years of contribution to promoting domestic and international artistic activity.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia awarded Ljubljana Festival a high commendation as the commissioner of the award winning project within the Phoenix Award for Project of the Year 2010. The Pristop agency received the first prize – the Phoenix statuette for its marketing and communication support of Ljubljana Festival. Additionally, on 5 July 2010, Festival Ljubljana received an award from the Canton of Sarajevo in recognition of the cultural cooperation between the City of Ljubljana and the Canton of Sarajevo.
On 9 May 2014, the City Municipality of Ljubljana awarded the public institution Festival Ljubljana the Plaque of the City of Ljubljana for the year 2014, with the following citation: “Ljubljana Festival has raised the quality of the cultural offer in Slovenia and its capital to an admirable level. With its carefully curated programme and performances by internationally renowned artists, it surpasses expectations year after year. Its support for presenting and exploring the achievements of Slovenian contemporary and historical musical creativity is also of great value, preserved in the published proceedings of international musicological symposia.”
In 2017, Ljubljana Festival received the EFFE Label for the second time. This label serves as a mark of quality and an important tool for the branding and promotion of each festival, every country and Europe as a whole.
The Director of Festival Ljubljana, Mr Darko Brlek, has received several prestigious awards: the Prešeren Award of the University of Ljubljana, the Betteto Award, the Župančič Award, the Honorary Citizenship of the Municipality of Hajdina, and in 2016, the Finance newspaper award for special economic achievements, earning the title "Manager in Culture."
In 2018, as long time Director and Artistic Director of Festival Ljubljana, Darko Brlek received the Order of Merit from the President of the Republic of Slovenia for his contribution to Slovenian culture and for his achievements in programming excellence and the international recognition of cultural and artistic events. In 2020, the Slovenian Ambassador Programme Commission awarded Darko Brlek the honorary title of Congress Ambassador of Slovenia 2021.