Austria
From June 21 to 25, the international festival of church singing will take place in Innsbruck. The culmination of the four-day celebration, during which choirs and soloists from different countries will perform, will be the performance of Mozart's Requiem by the Salzburg Orchestra.
The summer dance festival will begin in the same Innsbruck on June 23 and last until mid-July. This cultural event, one of the largest in Austria in terms of significance and scale, annually gathers 30,000 spectators. The festival will feature the most famous and popular dance companies in the world, in addition to their performances, master classes by renowned choreographers and a children's program are expected. The program is very diverse: from the perfectionism of Russian ballet (the festival will open with Boris Eifman's Hamlet) to the wild dances of Brazil.
Great Britain
The Royal Ascot horse races, a hallmark of the traditional English lifestyle and perhaps the most famous races in the world, will take place from June 17 to 20. This is not only a sporting competition but also an event in the world of high fashion. Ascot is a rare opportunity these days for high-society ladies to show off exquisite outfits and, above all, of course, hats: while thoroughbred horses compete in flat racing and steeplechase, the public follows the elegant and whimsical headpieces with no less excitement.
The famous racecourse was built in Ascot, near Windsor Castle, back in 1711 on the initiative of Queen Anne. At that time, the races, which were held only once a year, featured English hunting horses, with the main emphasis on endurance. Today's thoroughbred horses are undoubtedly a more exciting sight than their leisurely predecessors. Today, Ascot hosts 25 competitions a year: 16 flat races between May and October and 9 National Hunt races between November and April. The Royal races held in June, the most famous of all, combine top-level sporting competition, tradition, splendor, and style. About 500,000 visitors pass through Ascot racecourse annually, and there is no event of equal magnitude in the racing world. Queen Anne could be proud of her creation.
In the town of Wimborne on the southern coast of England (Dorset), a large folk festival will take place from June 13 to 15. Since 1980, in the shadow of the cathedral, a festival of folk music and dance has been held here every year, a culminating meeting of dancers and troupes from southern England and the most important event of its kind in the country. The festival takes place on the central streets of the town in an atmosphere of respect for traditions. The goal of the festival is to bring together the best performers of traditional music, as well as contemporary authors, but special attention is paid to Celtic music from both shores of the Irish Sea.
And in the Scottish town of Tarbert, the seafood festival runs until June 7. Carnival, live music, and, of course, delicious seafood, which can be tasted everywhere on the streets during the festival and learned to cook through cooking demonstrations. In addition, this year the picturesque Tarbert Bay will host traditional boat competitions, which will take place at the same time as the festival.
Germany
The international street musicians festival will take place in Ludwigsburg, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, from June 6 to 8 inclusive. More than fifty of the world's best street musicians and folk rock bands will perform in the blooming parks of the baroque town. Musical styles range from folk and classical to rock and pop, sometimes even with elements of clownery. The winner will receive a golden hat.
From June 14 to 21, a Jewish week is announced in Leipzig, dedicated to Jewish art that was created here before and is being created now. A wide variety of concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, public lectures, and seminars are expected.
In the northern part of Germany, at the end of June, the grand rock festival Hurricane will take place. The festival venue is the town of Scheeßel, located between Hamburg, Bremen, and Hanover. From June 20 to 22, a tent city is set up beyond the ring road, where parties and concerts continue day and night for three days. Every year since 1997, thousands of musicians have gathered here to perform rock, pop, jazz, and alternative music, including Radiohead, Coldplay, Massive Attack, Seeed, Guano Apes, Björk.
Netherlands
On June 12, the exhibition 'The Hague Sculpture 2003' will open on Lange Voorhout in The Hague. Under the magical trees of this boulevard, sculptures by famous masters and young talents will be placed. This year's theme is 'The Ideal Woman'. Woman has always been a favorite subject for sculptors, and 'The Hague Sculpture 2003' will demonstrate the amazing ways artists go about embodying their idea of a woman. The range of interpretations of the ideal woman is very wide: participants depict woman as an icon, a housewife, an allegory of glory, or a mother... The exhibition will feature works by both famous sculptors (César, Salvador Dalí, and many others) and young authors. As part of the exhibition, there will be a competition inspired by the myth of Pygmalion: specially selected artists will sculpt their works right on the spot, creating the ideal image of a woman of the 21st century. The winner will be announced at the sculpture ball on August 29, and the exhibition will close on September 7.
The big Dutch festival will begin in Amsterdam on June 5 and will last until the 29th. The annual festival, which defines new trends in art, is the culmination of the cultural season in the Netherlands. Since its inception in 1947, the festival has cultivated innovative achievements in the dramatic arts: music, opera, theater, dance, combining tradition with experiment. The artistic task of the festival, as the organizers formulate it, is to show art in its historical context, because art “creates a portrait of the future of our civilization, and history forms the memory of art. Art and history create a memory that reflects our future.” According to the organizers, the future belongs to mixed art: a pure genre, whether it be a concert, a performance or an exhibition, constrains the author, limiting his space for self-expression. Therefore, many works presented at the festival do not have an unambiguous genre definition. The festival strives not only to make a conscious contribution to erasing the boundaries between different types of dramatic art, but also to break the artificial boundary between “high” and “low” cultures, so the program includes, among other things, such popular genres as pop music and variety. So viewers are likely to be surprised by unprecedented combinations of different arts.
And in Naarden, until June 22, a photo festival, one of the largest in Europe, will take place.
Spain
In the city of Pontevedra (Galicia region), for the first three weeks of June, “A Rapa das Bestas” takes place, that is, breaking in horses: a true demonstration of machismo. On La Groba hill, a huge crowd whistles and applauds the daredevils who fight with wild unbroken animals: with bare hands they throw them to the ground, brand them, cut their manes and tails, and finally lead them into a pen. This festival, with a history of more than two hundred years, is dedicated to the local patron, St. Lawrence, who, according to legend, looked after the animals and cared for them when the plague devastated this area.
Sonar - the International Festival of the Cutting Edge of Contemporary Music and Multimedia Arts - will be held in Barcelona from June 12 to 14. This festival, which creates and disseminates new trends in music and urban culture in general, is a key date on the international cultural calendar. Three days and three nights are devoted to electronic music and various arts: concerts, DJ performances, film screenings, conferences, about 60 works in all multimedia formats. Sonar resembles other European events of this kind, but the local Mediterranean flavor gives the festival a unique festive atmosphere.
Imagine a space of more than 10,000 square meters, including enclosed venues and open-air venues, where DJs perform simultaneously day and night and concerts covering a wide range of dance music take place. Classics and daring experiments form one artistic whole; festival guests have the opportunity to discover the most innovative and surprising examples of electronic music from different countries. The program is distinguished by its wide scope and stylistic diversity and presents the latest trends in such different directions as electronica, hip-hop, house, electro-pop, electro-jazz, microhouse, and digital concretism.
Italy
The International Festival of Commedia dell'Arte and fairground theaters will be held from June 5 to 9 in Ravenna. Traditional theatrical and musical performances, shows, improvisations, and a fair on Piazza Cotignola.
And in Pesaro, on the Adriatic coast, from June 20 to 28, a film festival will take place, which since its foundation has become a window to new cinema. At one time it collected and showed all the major films of the New Wave that covered Eastern and Western Europe, Latin America, and Asia in the 60s and 70s. Over the years, the festival anticipated the worldwide fame of many directors and organized meetings and discussions with distinguished guests, among whom were, for example, Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, Pier Paolo Pasolini... Later, the festival's main task became discovering new directors, with an emphasis on such countries as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Iran.
This year, the festival will focus on contemporary French cinema. 20 feature films and the same number of short films created in the last five years will give viewers the opportunity to get an idea of little-known French cinema and its new names. Underground and experimental cinema will be presented separately: this section will show the work of young directors defined as post-surrealists. In addition, the documentary genre will attract a lot of attention, which has only recently hit the big screen but is already making impressive box office receipts. The French cinema program also includes a wide selection of student works.
On the main square of Pesaro, as part of the festival, nine evening open-air film screenings will be held, and viewers will traditionally vote to choose the best film.
Malta
On June 1, 8, and 22, the traditional costumed military parade called “On Guard” will take place at Fort St. Elmo. About 90 officers and soldiers in historical costumes will demonstrate a number of drill exercises on the parade ground. The ceremony includes marching, changing of the guard, rifle drills, a ceremonial parade, a cannon salute...
From June 2 to 7, the 10th Games of the Small States of Europe will be held here: athletes from eight countries - Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, San Marino, and Malta - will compete in athletics, basketball, judo, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, and yachting.
The feast of Saints Peter and Paul has its traditional name in Malta - Mnarja, derived from the word "luminaria", meaning illumination, and dating back to the times when Mdina, the medieval capital of Malta, was lit by bonfires during holidays. On the evening of June 28, folk music concerts begin in the open air, and an agricultural exhibition and an exhibition of traditional crafts open. On the 29th, from early morning, performances of street musicians, parades, and livestock competitions resume. In the afternoon - traditional horse races.
Norway
The International Theatre Festival will take place in Porsgrunn from June 13 to 21. Over nine years of existence, the festival has expanded its audience from two to thirty thousand people. This event is a meeting of Norway and Europe, folk theatre and avant-garde. The program includes a wide variety of performances in theatres and on the streets, master classes, children's performances...
This year marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of Henrik Ibsen, the famous native of these places. The festival will pay special attention to this event, in particular, as many as four versions of "Peer Gynt" will be shown, so everyone will be able to see at least one of the versions. However, theatre is an art of great possibilities, and the text of the work gives such scope for interpretations that perhaps it is worth watching all four versions.
Another item of the festival is the Balkan conflict, chosen from all the diversity of political upheavals of this spring precisely because of the great distance: Norwegians and Britons will comment on events from the position of an outside observer, but the Serbian theatre, which survived the bombings, will also present its point of view.
The Vestfold International Festival is the only festival covering the whole of Norway. Musical and theatrical performances will present in all their splendor the cultural heritage of the region - from tradition to avant-garde. Amateurs and professionals, Norwegians and foreign artists take part in the festival on equal terms. In addition to the informal, sunny atmosphere, the distinctive feature of this festival is its pervasiveness: the whole country becomes a stage for performances, coastal rocks and waterfalls become scenery.
Finland
From June 11 to 14, the Sibelius Festival will be held in Lovisa for the tenth time, this year's theme being the music of Finnish composers: Sibelius himself and many others. The four-day music celebration will bring together many performers from all over Finland and neighboring countries.
From June 12 to 18, the dance festival in Kuopio will take place. The program of this famous northern festival includes Franco-Russian-Finnish ballet, dancers from Israel, Portugal, Sweden... Genres range from classical ballet (which will be presented, among others, by stars of the Mariinsky Theatre) to contemporary dance. Carefully selected participants of international choreographic competitions will perform in the municipal theatre and in open-air venues; in addition, children's dance performances and an international seminar on dance pedagogy are planned. Choreography courses will attract hundreds of enthusiasts, from complete beginners to experienced professionals. Throughout the festival, performances will be held on the market square, and 40,000 festival guests will dance on every corner.
France
From June 2 to 7, the first international-level festival entirely dedicated to the art of animation will take place in Annecy. As part of the festival, a competition for the best animated film will be held in four categories: short and full-length animated films, collective works (television production, commercials, and the like), student works in a wide variety of techniques - from watercolor to three-dimensional graphics, including paper cutting and plasticine modeling, as well as short films and animated series intended for reproduction on the Internet.
The rich opportunities for promoting animated films in all their forms make Annecy a meeting place for professional animators from around the world. This year, in addition to the screening of competition works, various retrospectives will be held here - for example, of Australian animated films, which differ from Anglo-Saxon animation in their execution style and special sense of humor, a screening of the most complete collection of Charlie Bowers' films - 16 fully restored short films - a retrospective dedicated to the anniversary of the Weston Woods company, which has been adapting children's literature for the screen for 50 years.
In addition, the program includes a series of pre-premiere screenings, including "Kiki's Delivery Service" by Hayao Miyazaki. This film, released in 1989 and never shown outside Japan, is new evidence of the talent of the famous animator, who was recently awarded an Oscar for the best full-length animated film "Spirited Away". The result of a hundred-year history of the art of animation will be summed up by "The Animated Century", a documentary by Irina Margolina and Adam Schneider. Well, the highlight of the program will be erotic cartoons, which enjoyed noisy success in Annecy last year.
In Brittany, in the town of Saint-Brieuc, the "Art-Rock" festival will take place from June 6 to 8. For three days, the town on the coast of the English Channel will turn into an experimental laboratory of avant-garde art. The festival mixes various musical genres - rock, rap, funk, hip-hop, the work of today's chansonniers - and genres of contemporary art: multimedia, dance, circus... This is an important event in the context of French youth culture, which attracts artists and musicians from different countries.
"At the Court of King Francis": On June 25, performances begin at the Château d'Amboise, in the very heart of the Loire Valley, and will run all summer: every Wednesday and Saturday, colorful shows take place in the historic residence of the French kings, including costumed equestrian performances, Renaissance music and dance, fireworks... After healing the wounds of the Hundred Years' War, the country plunged into an atmosphere of luxury and eternal celebration: Francis the First cultivates the Renaissance in France, invites writers and artists to court, including Leonardo da Vinci, who ended his days in the castle. It is this era that is recreated by the show, conceived and staged by the residents of Amboise, who play their ancestors with amateur enthusiasm and enjoy steady success.
Czech Republic
The International Marionette Institute invites puppet theaters and audiences from all over the world to a puppet festival, which will be held in Prague from June 2 to 8. The program includes performances for every taste: for children and adults, traditional and innovative. An international jury will award prizes to virtuoso puppet performers (actor and actress separately), best performance, best puppet designer, best script, original musical accompaniment, the most successful performance in a traditional style, and special prizes are also provided.
International Festival of Contemporary Dance: for the 14th time, Prague welcomes summer with dance. The main focus of the festival is modern dance. Almost all of June, from the 9th to the 28th, ensembles and solo dancers will perform. The program is diverse: pure dance and theatrical performances, dance in dialogue with other art forms, with audiences, with different eras.
Sweden
The rock festival in Hultsfred, taking place June 12-14, is the largest musical event in Sweden. At various times, the festival has hosted such bands as Black Sabbath, Björk, Nick Cave, The Prodigy, Garbage, Marilyn Manson. This year's program features Radiohead and many others: about 140 performers are expected.