Traditional sheep "parade" takes place in the ancient French town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
AUSTRIA
Novarock, June 19-21, Nickelsdorf. The weekend of modern music has been held in Nickelsdorf for 5 years, but this year the venue has expanded due to the festival's success, and the program has become even richer. In addition to the beautiful landscape of Pannonia and other charms of the Austrian province bordering Hungary, festival guests can expect Metallica, Die Toten Hosen, Placebo, Slipknot, Faith No More, Limp Bizkit, Machine Head, Guano Apes and many others. Tickets, which cost from €109 to €190 (VIP) for three days or €60-70 per day, can be purchased at all Raiffeisenbank branches in Austria, at Vienna music box offices, and online. //www.novarock.at
BELGIUM
"Beer Passion", June 26-28, Antwerp. The festival organizers promise guests over 150 beer varieties from numerous breweries. From 5:00 PM Friday to 8:00 PM Sunday, visitors will be treated to Flemish, Walloon, Czech and German beer. If rumors are to be believed, festival guests drink over 10,000 mugs of beer annually to the music of street brass bands. To get into the festival, all you need to do is drink an "entry" mug for €2. The celebration will take place in the old city center on Groenplaats square, at the foot of the Rubens monument. //www.beerpassion.com
UNITED KINGDOM
Celebration of the 500th anniversary of the coronation of Henry VIII, Hampton Court Palace, June 20-21, Richmond-upon-Thames. The 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's coronation is celebrated with a reenactment of the ceremonial voyage of the royal fleet along the Thames from the Tower to Hampton Court. At 10 AM Greenwich Time, Henry along with his wife Catherine of Aragon will board a skiff at the Tower and, accompanied by a flotilla of traditional "skiff" boats, the king will proceed up the Thames. In Richmond, on the way to Hampton Court, where the flotilla will arrive around 3 PM, several more boats will join the procession. Subjects and guests are allowed to greet the king along the riverbanks during this time. Meanwhile, preparations for a feast will be underway at the palace, which will take place in the famous gardens with musicians and jesters. The next day, the king and guests will be treated to boat races, tug-of-war, and other entertainments. In the evening, the flotilla will head downriver to the Tower, where the celebration will end. //www.hrp.org.uk
Glustonbury, June 24-28, Glastonbury. This is the largest and most popular open-air festival in Europe dedicated to contemporary music. This year, organizers are keeping a theatrical pause in announcing the full lineup, but it is already known that at Glustonbury-2009 will perform Lily Allen, Fleet Foxes, Neil Young, Blur, Bruce Springsteen, Emiliana Torrini, Doves, Franz Ferdinand, The Ting Tings, Echo And The Bunnymen, White Lies, Florence And The Machine and Kasabian. Another surprise from the organizers is that ticket sales for the festival have already closed. Apparently, Glustonbury is so popular that all tickets this year were snapped up back in April. However, you and I know that for true fans of contemporary music, some mere tickets are not a problem. No, we are not encouraging anything illegal, but if you somehow manage to sneak into Glustonbury without a ticket, be sure to tell us about it. //www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk
GERMANY
Munich Film Festival, June 26 – July 4, Munich. This is the largest film festival in Germany after the Berlin Film Festival. Since 1983, when the festival was first held, it has screened 4,000 feature, documentary, short and television films. As part of the festival program each year, one can watch new German films, German television films, new French cinema, US independent cinema, children's cinema and retrospective screenings. This year, the special guest of Munich will be British director Stephen Frears. Film screenings in cinemas and the festival program are presented on its official website. //www.filmfest-muenchen.de
Beer Exchange, June 19-21, Leipzig; June 26-28, Cologne. For the eleventh time, the exchange will take place in two old German cities. In Leipzig, there is a great chance to try the Gose beer variety, whose sour taste is especially good in hot weather, and in Cologne – the famous Kölsch. You don't have to choose; you can visit both events, especially since they follow each other on the calendar. In Leipzig, guests are awaited in the wonderful parks near the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, dedicated to the grand battle against Napoleon. In Cologne, the largest city on the Rhine, the exchange will take place in the huge picturesque Tanzbrunnen park right on the riverbank. //www.bierboerse.com
DENMARK
Viking Festival, June 23 – July 13, Frederikssund. Every summer, Danes happily recall their roots by organizing Viking festivals with reenactments of the past and fictional events. One of the largest and perhaps the best is the festival in Frederikssund. For half a century, about 250 adults and children dress up in costumes and every evening act out events from the Viking Age on open-air stages. As a rule, the performances are based on Danish folklore motifs. This year, the main event of the festival will be a production by Pierre Mille-Renard, based on the play 'The Warrior Starkad' by Per Buckhøj, a Danish actor and screenwriter, written back in 1959. In addition to performances and reenactments, visitors can visit the Viking village, dine like Vikings, explore the market there, and take away not only memories but also a souvenir item. //www.vikingespil.dk
IRELAND
The Derby horse racing festival, June 26-28, Curragh racecourse. The Derby races got their name from the English Lord Derby, who first organized competitions for three-year-old horses over a distance of about 1.5 miles back in the 18th century. Since then, the aristocrat's name has become a common noun; derbies are held all over the world, including in Russia and Ireland, where they have been known since the 19th century.
In 2009, the Irish Classic Derby festival will open with evening races accompanied by live music and gastronomic amusements. On Saturday, June 27, the day will be dedicated to ladies, so the best-dressed female spectators will receive special prizes. The races that day will feature thoroughbred mares aged at least three years, and the entire race is named after the horse Pretty Polly, who won the British Triple Crown in 1904. On Sunday, the highlight will be the celebration of the 143rd anniversary of the running of the Irish Classic Derby. A three-day ticket costs €70, day tickets range from €17 to €150. //www.curragh-derby-festival.com
SPAIN
Multimedia festival SONAR, June 18-20, Barcelona. For several years now, the most fashionable and advanced (at least they think so) young people gather in Barcelona in the summer to once again see what the organizers of the Europe-wide famous SONAR have prepared for them. One of the main components of the festival is the music part. This year, about a hundred popular DJs and musical groups performing electronic music in all its diverse forms will entertain the young audience.
However, electronic experiments are not the only reason SONAR is so famous: the exhibitions of photographic works and video art here are also notable. This year's theme is surrealism and snow. The public will be presented with short films whose central characters will be 'surrealistic majorettes from the world of dreams who have lost their bearings as a result of phone booth calls.' Did you understand anything? We didn't. //www.sonar.es
ITALY
Regatta of the Maritime Republics, June 2, Pisa. The spectacular race of ancient ships and a costumed procession are the two components of the Regatta of the Maritime Republics, which is hosted in turn by four cities: Genoa, Venice, Pisa, and Amalfi. This year the regatta will take place in Pisa. The first part of the celebration is a large costumed parade with reenactments of scenes from the medieval history of the four republic cities. The cities represent themselves with clothes of their traditional colors and emblems: blue and a winged horse for Amalfi, white and a griffin for Genoa, green and a lion for Venice, and red with an eagle for Pisa.
The second part of the celebration is the regatta itself, which is a tense competition between the four rival cities. Genoa, by the way, has not won the race for 8 years, and last year Amalfi won. //www.comune.pisa.it
NETHERLANDS
Holland Festival, June 4-28, Amsterdam. It is impossible to name any dominant genre presented at the festival. The program each year includes music, from classical to popular, theater, dance, cinema, and various synthetic performances. Perhaps that is why it is called simply 'Holland' and not, say, 'Theater'.
Dance this year will be represented by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Anna Laguna with the program 'Three Solos and One Duet.' The music part of the festival will be occupied by the 70th anniversary of Louis Andriessen, and the film program will be partly dedicated to Michelangelo Antonioni (a retrospective of his films will be held). The festival will conclude with a performance by the traditional Japanese puppet theater 'Bunraku' led by master Yoshida Minosuke. By the way, this season the only opportunity to see this traditional theater outside Japan will be in Amsterdam. //www.hollandfestival.nl
FRANCE
Sheep Drive to Summer Pastures, June 1, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Every year at the beginning of summer, when the pastures at the foot of the hills become too dry and poor, sheep are driven to the lush mountain meadows. Before the invention of the car, shepherds and sheep made the entire journey on foot, and then they began to be transported by trucks. However, the traditional sheep 'parade' through the old town was retained. A good reason for a celebration!
On Pentecost Day from 10:30, the entire city will be flooded with a sea of three thousand sheep, shepherds in traditional clothing, pack mules, and herding dogs. A walk through the streets will be pleasant: craft shops, a flea market, concerts, street bands, restaurants – all ready to entertain guests all day long. At 17:00 to the north of the city, on the Plateau of Petit Crau, herding dog competitions will take place, and in the evening the dogs will again divide the huge flock into separate herds and the whole procession will head to the summer pastures. //www.avignon-et-provence.com
CZECH REPUBLIC
Writers' Festival, June 7-11, Prague. This year the festival is dedicated to the art of storytelling. Its guests will be playwright and writer Gao Xingjian, 2000 Nobel laureate Ahmed Said Esber, better known as Adonis, the greatest living Arab poet, Scottish science fiction writer Iain Banks, author of 'The Wasp Factory', German bard Wolf Biermann, a former member of Bertolt Brecht's 'Berliner Ensemble', and many others. The festival's headquarters will be the famous Prague theater Laterna Magika, whose performances can be visited in the evenings after the festival events. Festival events will also take place at the American Center, the Prague Municipal Library, and the 'Big Ben' bookstore. //www.pwf.cz
SWITZERLAND
Theater Festival, June 19 – July 12, Zurich. This year the festival will present various genres of performing arts to the audience: opera, dance, drama, as well as classical music concerts. Despite the fact that the main figure of the festival will be Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, since this year marks the 200th anniversary of his birth, the program will open with the premiere of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" at the Zurich Opera. Franz Welser-Möst will be at the conductor's podium.
On the drama stage, Peter Stein will present "The Broken Jug" with Klaus Maria Brandauer in the lead role. Among the accompanying cultural events of the festival, the first retrospective solo exhibition of sculptor Katharina Fritsch is also of interest. Guests can look forward to the festival opening party at the Gessnerallee theater, a midnight ball, broadcasts of festival events on three screens located in open-air venues, and much more. //www.zuercher-festspiele.ch