Biggest Floating Castle festival brings touch of magic

Ljubljana – Snežnik Castle will host Floating Castle, four days of music, dance, theatre and more in what is the largest festival in its nine-year history. A magical outdoor location under Mount Snežnik in south-western Slovenia will come alive with more than 120 musical groups and 400 artists from around the globe from 22 to 25 July.

The festival, the brainchild of artist Matija Solce, will bring 14 stages to be erected in forests and meadows, on rocks and rivers around the mediaeval Snežnik Castle.

As many as 20 set-design artists will prepare the venue and site-specific installations, which will focus on horse smugglers, Solce says in the festival’s announcement.

The horse smugglers will be interpreted with sound and light installations, land-art, or sculptures as described by local chronicler Matevž Hace.

The festival will fuse world, jazz, electronic and experimental music, as well as puppet shows, dance, circus, inter-media events and theatre, including street theatre.

Shows for children will be also available alongside a market place, workshops, seminars, organic food and a “24/7 jam session”.

Refugees from the Balkan route will present their stories, while painters will exhibit outdoors their works made as part of the Kingdom of Lynx workshop.

Festival goers will have a chance to play old games, relax at chill-out areas or read along a brook.

Solce says the Floating Castle is more than just a festival. “It is a family, a platform to unite artists with people and everyday life.”

He believes the festival is “a space of surprise” where visitors experience what cannot be repeated.

Pre-festival concerts by Etno Histeria World Orchestra, a 70-member international group which will also open the festival, will start on 15 July in the town of Kubed, with some festival events visiting Koper on 26 July and Ljubljana on 27 July.

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