Austria
From September 16 to October 18, the autumn festival is held for the sixth time in the picturesque surroundings of the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz (Holy Cross). Concerts will take place in the Royal Hall, a ceremonial hall from the 16th century. Despite being a relatively young festival, it has already become one of the most popular in Austria.
This year's motto is “Gone but not forgotten”: the festival is dedicated to the memory of Sergei Prokofiev (on the 50th anniversary of whose death it falls) and other great composers who died in poverty or obscurity. In addition to concerts, guests have the opportunity to attend evenings where the monastery brethren will perform Gregorian chants.
Great Britain
The Braemar Gathering is a festival with a long history. Every year in the Scottish town of Braemar, a harvest festival takes place, where Highlanders compete in ancient Scottish forms of “sport” (for example, tossing the caber), folk dances, and playing the bagpipes. Braemar (which, by the way, was dearly loved by Stevenson) maintains many ties with the ancient Scottish kingdom; legends say that King Malcolm Canmore and his army stopped here on the way to battle Macbeth in 1057.
The Braemar Games began with competitions among three neighboring Highland clans, to which outside players gradually began to join. The advent of cars and railways allowed participants and spectators to come to the festival from the center of the country, from distant Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Games have become increasingly popular and are now known beyond the kingdom. However, the festival retains its old-time charm; neither the village itself nor the cultural program has changed. On the day of the games, September 6, the air over the surrounding hills is full of the sounds of competing bagpipes, the meadows are bright with traditional Scottish tartans, and strongmen compete in hammer throwing, stone putting, or hill racing. The most popular events with the public are wrestling and dancing competitions and the aforementioned caber toss.
At Hexham Abbey, Northumberland, a festival of music and arts will take place from September 12 to 21. This year's program includes vocal works, folk and organ music, poetry readings “A Millennium of English Poetry,” a Latin American fiesta, gospel, the ensemble “Kintamarni” – young saxophonists combining folk melodies with jazz influences and contemporary music – performances by David Good, a young organist, and the festival's climax is a traditional candlelight concert.
Germany
From September 20 to October 5, Munich will host the famous beer festival “Oktoberfest.” It all began with the marriage of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, later known as Louis the First, and Princess Therese of Saxony on October 12, 1810. Five days later, the National Guard held a grand parade and banquet, and it was decided to celebrate the event annually, combining it with the local harvest festival.
The festival offers guests a wide range of entertainment, including carousels, amusement rides, and a shooting gallery. But the main thing, of course, is the stalls and even entire “palaces” with beer and sausages. After the ceremonial parade of brewers, the mayor of Munich taps the first beer barrel, signaling the start of the fun. On the following day, Sunday, a second parade brings together musicians and townspeople in traditional costumes. On the second Sunday of the festival, there is a huge open-air concert, and the festival ends with a salute by 60 marksmen.
Holland
The port festival, held in Rotterdam from September 5 to 7, has in our time become an event of national scale in the Netherlands. People gather in Rotterdam harbor from all over the country, numbering four hundred thousand. The program includes a musical relay race of various bands, a “light parade” of boats on the Maas River... On the embankment, from morning to night, the public admires a spectacle presented by naval vessels, huge cruise steamers, and fishing boats. The evening ends with fireworks.
The focus of the festival's guests is water and watercraft: numerous exhibitions cover this topic in all its aspects, from ecology to the organization of supplying fresh water to a modern ship. Port companies offer excursions, introducing all comers to the technical intricacies of maritime affairs, and boats and river taxis take tourists on cruises.
The “Water Music” festival, to be held in Amsterdam from September 5 to 7, presents a series of chamber music concerts in various styles with one common feature: they all take place on the water. The stage becomes pontoons, old ships, and barges. On the embankment, every half hour, famous carillonneurs perform pieces for bells. Local residents traditionally arrive at the concerts in their own boats, and those without boats listen to the musicians from the shore.
On September 13 and 14, heritage days are held throughout the Netherlands: thousands of churches, castles, town halls, residences, and other historic buildings open their doors to visitors. Many of these places also offer a cultural program: performances, exhibitions, and excursions. This year, the festival's theme will be Dutch rural architecture.
Spain
The Sherry Festival takes place in Andalusia, in the famous old town of Jerez de la Frontera, every year on the first Saturday of September. It is one of the three Spanish cities that produce sherry, and here they celebrate the new wine harvest with an abundance of flowers and universal rejoicing, especially since the festival falls on the eve of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, which is particularly venerated in Catholic Spain. The festival begins with the election of the Harvest Queen, who, along with her attendants, takes a place of honor on a cart decorated with draperies, flowers, and grapes. Around the cart, courtiers in masquerade costumes throw sweets and candies to the children. The people gather in the square to pay homage to the queen and, of course, to taste the sherry, which on this day flows like a river from oak barrels.
During the festival there are parties, bullfights, motorcycle races, exhibitions, concerts, and flamenco performances. The solemn mass following the blessing of the wine deserves special attention.
The International Film Festival takes place in San Sebastián from September 18 to 27 for the fifty-first time. In addition to the main program, which consists mainly of films by young Spanish directors, a rich selection of retrospectives and special sections is expected. The official section gathers the best films of the moment; only new films that have not been shown at other festivals are submitted to the competition. Thus, the public will have the opportunity to see the latest works of the most sought-after Spanish directors. Classic retrospectives present little-known works by masters of world cinema to the general public.
"Cinema in Development" is a project in which two festivals (San Sebastián and Toulouse) jointly present to a wide audience new discoveries of Latin American cinema, which is currently in difficult conditions. This section includes films made by Latin American directors both at home and in Spain, famous and as yet unknown.
The thematic retrospective section this year is devoted to Maghreb cinema. Works by interesting directors from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia win over European audiences with their powerful vitality and give an idea of a different worldview, and thus an opportunity to look at ourselves from a new angle. A wealth of intellectual directors offers their view on themes of war and occupation, relations with colonizers, the status of women, the tragedy of emigration, and subsequent existence in a foreign country.
Italy
The September music festival will be held in Turin from the 4th to the 21st. The theme of the festival is music of all times, musical theater, and dance. This year there will be a symbolic meeting between the Turin September Music Festival and a similar dance festival. This project will replace the traditional alternating biennales, opening new horizons for creativity in both fields.
The Turin festival has a reputation as a youth event attracting the most socially and culturally mobile audience. The festival strives to become a mirror of musical evolution: although the program includes symphonic concerts, chamber music, ethnic music, special attention is paid to works by contemporary composers.
In Naples, from September 12 to 14, a festival of street musicians and strolling actors called "Street Festival" will take place. For three days, hundreds of musicians, actors, jugglers, mimes, and fire-eaters fill the streets and squares in the city center. The festival is being held for the fifth time; last year it brought together more than 250,000 people and artists from more than thirty countries.
France
The "Paradise Garden" festival will be held in Paris from September 3 to October 12. It is an eclectic event welcoming all forms of contemporary art and culture, including music, literature, theater, painting, and circus. This year, Mediterranean music and literature will create a sunny atmosphere, especially the art of Algeria, which will become the main theme of the festival in connection with the Year of Algeria declared in France. The festival will open at the Parc de la Villette with a concert of traditional Algerian music, followed by rhythms from southern Spain. In total, about 40 concerts of contemporary, classical, and baroque music, puppet theater performances, pantomime, and master classes will take place. The festival not only tries to cover the widest cultural spectrum but also to open alternative and unusual paths for the development of art.
From September 19 to 28, an international puppet theater festival will be held in Charleville. For sixty years now, Charleville has been a Mecca for puppeteers from different countries. It all started with a group of young people who, during the war, formed a puppet theater troupe to somehow keep local children occupied. In 1961, the first festival took place, with troupes from England, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France itself. In 1981, the International Marionette Institute was founded, and in 1986, the Higher School of Puppet Art. "Street" and "freedom" are the key concepts shaping the festival's atmosphere. There is no selection, no competitions, no strategy, and indeed no specific concept. Here museum and laboratory, folk art and aristocratic amusements, the charming and the shocking, the gigantic and the tiny are combined. And above all - marionettes from different times and countries.
The festival has an international orientation, but this year the Francophone countries play first fiddle. French language and culture will be in the spotlight, as were other languages and cultures in past years. Along with numerous French troupes, 450 performances from Africa, Asia, America, and Europe are expected. Troupes from Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Quebec, Algeria, Switzerland, and Belgium are especially anticipated. In addition, foreign troupes that have created performances in French specifically for this festival are invited.
Norway
The chamber music festival will be held in Trondheim from September 23 to 28. Combining different styles of contemporary chamber music, the Trondheim festival aims to build bridges between different musical genres and create connections between music and other art forms such as literature, painting, or even cooking. This year, the festival program focuses on the work of Steve Reich, a composer who was at the center of the development of the minimalist style in New York in the 1960s: this style of music paid much attention to rhythm and attracted mainly a young audience.
Since its inception in 1996, the festival has focused on presenting young musicians of a high level in various genres of chamber music, and today more than half of its audience are students. The program includes classical music, jazz, folk melodies, and performances combining music with literature or food and wine, which are the festival's signature dish. Notable guests include, for example, Reich, who will play percussion together with local musicians, Gidon Kremer, Nash, an ensemble from London, and others.
For the second time, the festival will host a competition of piano trios from eight countries. The jury consists of world-famous musicians who will also give concerts at the same time.
Finland
The sixteenth Helsinki International Film Festival will turn the Finnish capital into a paradise for cinephiles for ten feverish days (from September 18 to 28). The festival encourages inventive, original, and controversial films by promising directors of tomorrow. Helsinki Film Festival is the largest and most popular film festival in Europe, presenting various directions: the best of young European cinema, contemporary cinema of Asia and Third World countries, gay and lesbian cinema, independent American cinema, fantasy, documentary and animated films. The festival's slogan, “Love and Anarchy,” symbolizes everything strange, funny, and provocative in contemporary cinema.