In the last few months of Spring and Summer, Cankarjev dom – CD Cultural and Congress Centre Ljubljana has hosted several acclaimed cultural and art festivals. In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cankarjev dom offered hybrid meetings and events as one of the pioneers of this practice. Later on, the restrictive measures brought the switch to the digital environment.
OnAir, the platform provided by EventsAir made diverse types of events possible, while Cankarjev dom also obtained an international certificate of virtual event management. With OnAir, Cankarjev dom was able to organize meeting comprehensively – from plenary sessions, sections, exhibitions, networking during breaks, conducting surveys and measuring the satisfaction of participants, etc.
Since Spring 2021, though, as the restrictions were easing, the Cankarjev dom worked on welcoming audiences to the festivals live. This way Cankarjev dom successfully organised and hosted the 62nd Jazz Festival Ljubljana, one of the oldest and most praised jazz festivals in Europe. The whole event was, to much delight of music lovers, held live in the last few days of the month of July.
There were two more world-praised music festivals whose events Cankarjev dom hosted in its halls and outdoor areas and parks. In mid July, Cankarjev dom hosted events in the frame of the one of the largest international music festivals worldwide – the Europa Cantat Festival. Despite the huge programme’s adjustments to the pandemic situation, the festival gathered 1,200 singers, composers, conductors, and instrumentalists from all over the world.
Through the whole Summer, starting in June, Ljubljana was a center of the Ljubljana Festival, a synonym for high-profile events in Slovenia’s capital for hosting many of the biggest and world-wide famous thatre, music, and visual art names. As every year, this year too, many of the events were held in Cankarjev dom, a lot of them in the magnificent Gallus Hall.
Fabula Literature Festival, Slovenia’s main book festival produced by the Beletrina Publishing House in collaboration with Cankarjev dom bringing together world-class authors, was this year held between 8 May and 6 June. Featured authors consisted of Vladimir Sorokin, Claudia Durastanti, Jokha Alharti, Deborah Levy, Marek Šindelka and Enis Maci. Fabula holds separate events also in other months. For example, a series of Fabula in Theory provides round tables in Linhart Hall on 4 and 7 September 2021.
In early July, Cankarjev dom hosted the annual Storytelling Festival (Pripovedovalski festival) in its Club CD. In its 24th edition, the festival was this year moved from the month of March. Cankarjev dom collaborates every year as producer in the realisation of the festival that seeks to devvelopt, spread and enhance Slovenian practice of storytelling and the audience’s experience of storytelling.
