Ana Desetnica, International Street Theatre Fesatival

1998 to 2023:

• 26 editions since 1998 – in Ljubljana and 25+ other Slovenian towns;
• Genre-diverse performances and artistic interventions;
• 5.000+ artist from 40+ countries // 1.000+ events // almost 1.000.000 visitors;
• Strong social & ecological component;
• URBANA LJUBLJANA award of excellence;
• Peer to Peer international artistic exchange and educational content;
• Best of Ljubljana Culture – voted by people in 2018, 2019 & 2022.

With its urban art, national and international street theatre festival Ana Desetnica has been changing the intended purpose of the public space for a quarter of a century, making it accessible to everyone and often attracting those who don’t usually go to cultural events. Ana Desetnica is the largest and most diverse artistic cultural and social event in Slovenia. It has visited 28 Slovenian cities and attracts tens of thousands of visitors a year. Presenting exciting and excellent contemporary performing street art groups from Slovenia and abroad, the festival also makes room for newcomers and experimental projects involving several genres and disciplines.

2024: From 2 to 7 July 2024 and following the experience with the neighbourhood theatrical project Art Yard, we will be upgrading and innovating our festival concept. The festival will have two different spatial and social focuses - one in the traditional historic city center of Ljubljana, where usually all events happen and another one in a neighbourhood, called Šiška, which is culturally a bit deprived. The two focuses/places are not super far one from each other, but far enough, so that it is not possible to do both parallelly and at the same time. Especially, if we want audiences to mix and attend both. So we will do 3 days in one and 3 days in another. And in the middle, we will connect them with a parade from the Centre of the town to Šiška neighbourhood. It will be an inclusive parade where audience members and artists mix and go side by side. In this way, we intent to connect both focuses in a symbolic, but also concrete way. We will see how it will work. We hope for the best. For those who are interested in discussing and sharing experiences on this type of events and festivals, join us on the public symposium on 7.7. 2024 at 10:30 in Ljubljana, follow us on our web page and/or contact us directly.