Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures

Audience at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures is a nine-day event with a 26-year tradition, taking place in the second half of August at various locations throughout Velenje. Its name originates from local folklore, narrating the tale of a beautiful young girl who supposedly lived in Velenje Castle. She was a castle maiden accused of witchcraft and thrown into the castle well as punishment, rumored to have haunted the castle hallways since then. However, the festival, organized since 1998, aims to honor the innocent girl with a celebration of young people's culture, challenging the misconception that they are not cultured enough. Like Kunigunda, alternative culture seeks its place under the sun. The festival does not judge but offers an opportunity for it to flourish with charm and youthful enthusiasm. Kunigunda evolves and improves each year, allowing visitors to get to know, befriend, and enjoy it.

Every year, the festival adopts a new visual identity and logo, considering its promotion and brand identity as a work of art. The heart has been Kunigunda's official logo since its early days, symbolizing a rhythmically pulsating organ that drives the body, the motor of life, and a symbol of love. It communicates that everything at Kunigunda Festival is done with love and comes from the heart.

Creating music with (un)ordinary object, music workshop at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Lara Lukše

Drag Queen show at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Skate and bike contest, 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje, 2023. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Background

The festival began in 1998 when three founders, with great aspirations but almost no funding, started laying the foundation. Their efforts, with a strong focus on alternative culture, turned Kunigunda into one of the driving forces of the youth scene in Velenje. Graffiti art adorned the Red Hall, and local bands increasingly gained opportunities to perform on the big stage. As early as the second year, the team organized an international camp, gradually acquired their equipment, and involved enthusiastic youth in leaving their mark on the local cultural scene.

Interactive programme activities at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Programme

Now in its late twenties, Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures is a symbol of young alternative culture in Velenje. The mosaic of local subcultures that gets shaped during the year on the local cultural scene is reflected in the festival’s program. It wouldn’t be wrong to describe its creators as a group of people who represent the passing of knowledge between generations of young, eager, socially critical, and informed individuals who care about events in Šalek Valley and the surrounding area. It was the passing of knowledge, combined with spending quality time and ensuring employment opportunities for those who want to work, that became a value that the festival began to emphasize as soon as the concept spread its wings. Interested and promising individuals are getting irreplaceable work opportunities in all areas that the organization of such a festival entail.

The program is conceptually wide and diverse, comprising music, visual arts, dance, theatre, puppetry, installations, film and video screenings, literary evenings, new media art events, lectures, different own productions and urban sports.

The events are spread throughout the city, from its parks and streets, from caves to museums and elsewhere, to the main stage at the Youth cultural club eMCe and the Open-air cinema at Škale lake.

We hosted big names in music and other areas – from Dragan Živadinov, Gašper Tič and Sebastian Cavazza, to Borut Veselko, Uroš Kuzman, Aleksandar Perišić, Mitja Obed, Pia Zemljič, Janez Škof, Jože Slaček, Staša Guček, Saša Spačal and others. Along with top artists, Kunigunda’s organizational team is getting increasingly involved in the program. Projects like the national beatboxing championship and City on Water found their place at Kunigunda, while our own team produced projects critical to society, like Experiment: Tito’s Velenje, The Wedding: a celebration of love, Kunigudra and founding of the Autonomous Republic of Kunigunda (ARK).

Croatian band Brkovi performing at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Open-air cinema at Škale lake, Velenje 2023. Photo: Lara Lukše

Kunigunda is constantly evolving, reconstructing, and reconfiguring itself, injecting culture in veins, slapping the faces of the prepared and unprepared alike. And will continue to do so in the years to come.

Music

Kunigunda’s stage was a host to many well-known artists from all directions (in an abstract as well as artistic sense). In the spirit of emphasizing all cultures and musical genres, we headbanged with metal heads, banged with rappers and MC’s, raved with DJ’s, danced to reggae and ska and enjoyed everything that fits anywhere in between.

Bands like S.A.R.S, Dubioza Kolektiv and Kultur Shock visited the castle maiden before they put their names up with those most well-known. The festival hosted many other famous artists – Jeru the Damaja, Senser, Edo Maajka, Kiril Džajkovski, Torul, Elemental, Dječaci, Matter, Let 3, Sassja, Kandžija i gole Žene, Within Destruction, General WOO, Velebor, The Stroj, Ana Pupedan, Kiša Metaka, Anja Bukovec and Terrafolk, Raggalution, Vojko V, Brkovi, Koikoi, Smoke Mardeljano, Ajs Nigrutin, Stoka, King Buffalo, Demolition Group, Nervecell, Niko Novak, Battalion of Saints, Vazz, Masayah, Noctiferia, Repetitor, Kaoz, Bakalina Velika and many others – all of which shaped the musical image of Kunigunda.

Concert atmosphere at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures, Velenje 2023. Photo: Lara Lukše

Kunigunda aftermovie 2023 by MMC Nukleus on YouTube

25. Festival mladih kultur Kunigunda: Aftermovie by MMC Nukleus on YouTube

External links

Kunigunda Festival website (in Slovenian)

Gallery

Audience at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Visual identity for the 26th Kunigunda Festival, 2023. Author: Žiga Gojević

Croatian band Brkovi performing at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Open-air cinema at Škale lake, Velenje 2023. Photo: Lara Lukše

Drag Queen show at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Interactive programme activities at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Creating music with (un)ordinary object, music workshop at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje. Photo: Lara Lukše

A band performing out of a van at Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures, 2015

A slack-lining workshop taking place during the Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures, 2011

A poster for the Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures 2015

During Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures Mr. Van Punk performed at various locations around Velenje, setting up their gigs directly out of their van, 2016

Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures poster, 2016

Skate and bike contest, 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures in Velenje, 2023. Photo: Staš Gregorič

Concert atmosphere at the 26th Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures, Velenje 2023. Photo: Lara Lukše

Kunigunda Festival of Young Cultures

Contents

Background

Programme

Music

See also

External links

Gallery

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