The tenth edition of the Literary Heights Festival starts on July 4, 2024. The festival will last until July 14. The meetings with authors, concerts, performances, exhibitions and workshops will take place, among others, in Nowa Ruda, Ludwikowice Kłodzkie, Kłodzko, Wałbrzych, Świdnica and, of course, at the Sarny Castle in Ścinawka Górna.
The festival was established in 2015 on the initiative of Olga Tokarczuk. A writer living near Nowa Ruda initiated a unique literary and social event, the main goals of which were and remain: cultural and civic activation of residents, cultural education, diagnoses and discussions on ecology, equal rights, identity, freedom of speech, German, Czech and Polish heritage. cultural, cross-border cooperation and sustainable development of the region through culture.
The festival organizers write:
"However, 2024 is not only the anniversary of the Festival. It is also the 35th anniversary of the first partially free elections in Poland, the 25th anniversary of Poland's accession to NATO and the 20th anniversary of our country's entry into the European Union. It is also the next year of Russia's aggression against Ukraine and the continuation war in Gaza. It is a time of symbolic and real political changes in Poland, Europe and the world. It is a period of anxiety and uncertainty, often chaotic and difficult to define, and at the same time a period of hope and opportunities for stabilization and democratization the division of experiences and expectations, local solace and global catastrophes, as well as the above-mentioned anniversaries, dictated the program of this year's Festival. We believe that it is culture and art that best, fastest and most uncompromisingly diagnose the situation of both worlds: the real and the unreal. We constantly believe in the words from our Nobel speech Founders, we have chosen as our motto: when the story changes, the world changes.
We treated the huge turnout during last year's edition (thirty-five thousand people in front of our stages and half a million online) and the great reception of the Festival as a challenge and an encouragement to continue working. Therefore, we invite you to a record number of events in our history: over 150. Over 11 days, our stages in 23 locations in the Kłodzko Region and the Wałbrzych Agglomeration will be visited by over 230 guests. We will play as many as 11 concerts, show 9 films, organize 5 exhibitions, invite you to 2 theater performances and 33 workshops and seminars of the Flying People's University. For the first time, we will include another event in the Literary Heights Festival: the Olga Tokarczuk Translators' Festival, during which we will be visited by over 30 Nobel Prize-winning translators and translators from all over the world (and beyond; they are also authors and translators of other Polish artists). The Translators' Festival is a continuation of the series of meetings and conversations about Polish literature we started two years ago, seen from the perspective of the most important ambassadors of our culture - those who take it beyond language borders.
The festival program is available at: https://fundacjaolgitokarczuk.org/aktualnosci/
source: Olga Tokarczuk Foundation
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