AMPLIFIER festival

The festival was in the spirit of worse weather but better attendance! The leitmotif of the 8th edition of the AMPLIFIER Festival, the restoration of sensitivity, tolerance and mutual understanding between people, attracted many spectators to Banská Štiavnica. Together we broke the ice and brought each other closer during 3 beneficial days, where we experienced unique human encounters and experiences thanks to a carefully selected program. Despite the mostly rainy weather (Saturday and Sunday), thanks to the promptness of our collaborators, we held all 25 programs, including 6 Slovak premieres of foreign programs. 90 artists from 7 countries performed on 12 stages around the city. On the periphery we could only realize 1 program within AMPLION CARAVANA, 2 reruns of the pilot production HUMAN CARAVANA had to be cancelled due to rain. However, the atmosphere of the festival was not compromised by the weather and we consider this year's edition to be exceptional in many respects.

We presented exceptional headliners: the world-famous Teatr KTO from Krakow and their wonderful performance ARCADIA, which not only received a standing ovation, but for some viewers rewrote their top performance from the previous AMPLIFIER. The second headliner was the Hungarian Firebirds company, who with their circus cabaret FREAK FUSION CONFUSION lit up the audience in the cultural centre.

In the street programme, the young Spanish acrobat NiMú created a sensitive and joyful experience for the whole family with her poetic-circus show on the rope JACUZZI. Spanish rhythms and temperament were brought to the festival by the highly sensitive band MiraMundo from Barcelona, and world-famous Parisian chansons were played and sung to great acclaim by the charming BON BON trio. Enthusiasm was brought to the streets of the whole city and into the veins of the spectators by the unique marching 22-member street brass band Orkest de Tegenwind from the Netherlands.

There was also a rich offer of cabarets. The whimsical literary cabaret Z VYTRACENA was performed by the Czech recessionist group Krvik Totr and the magical puppet cabaret not only for children by the Slovak performer Katanari. The jury of the 5th edition of the Czech-Slovak competition SKETCH UP, which was moderated by Martin Toman, also noted the higher artistic level of the contestants. There was also the travelling interdisciplinary performance of modern artistic performances NO SOFT, NO FUN, which was traditionally a strong experience of the festival.

Current social events aroused the interest of a large number of viewers in the programme HOW TO SAVE DEMOCRACY, in which a week before the parliamentary elections, the state of society was analysed with and without humour by distinguished guests and commentators Marián Leško, Martin M. Šimečka and Matúš Kostolný, moderated by Monika Tódová. The ART PUTIKA cycle of pub disputes was marked by the programme LAUGHTER THROUGH TEARS, in which Patrik Garaj, editor of Denník N, sensitively interviewed Valery Kupka, translator of the writer Yuri Andrukhovych, about his relationship to Russian and Ukrainian literature. In the second debate ICEBREAKING (V4+UA), the creators of the international theatre project discussed the issue of rapprochement and the premiere of the reportage film ICEBREAKING by Ukrainian director Sashko Brama about the coexistence of V4 locals with UA emigrants took place. Sashko joined us online and the whole programme was moderated by Anastasia Husarova from Kharkiv.

An exceptional experiential programme that animated the entire festival was the international non-verbal street procession production HUMAN CARAVANA. Its pilot version was staged thanks to the 5 theatres European cooperation project ICEBREAKING. Creators from Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia took part in it. The project was made possible thanks to the support of the International Visegrad Fund and the European Union, which is also gratifying and exceptional.

And who won the AMPLION ARGENTUM award? In the New Cabaret category, it went to the brilliant TEATR KTO (PL) and their breathtaking theatre of human life. In the Street Art category, the award went to Xandra Gutiérrez (ES) or niMú for their play Jacuzzi. In the Socially Engaged Art category we awarded WE: MEDIA THEATER from Lviv for the making of the documentary ICEBREAKING from 4 research trips to V4 countries exploring the human coexistence of V4 residents and UA expats. A special prize went to the Dutch street brass band Orkest de Tegenwind, which performed in Slovakia for the first time in its 22-member line-up and etched itself in the memory of perhaps every participant of the festival.

Although the weather of the 8th edition was not ideal, the audience did not disappoint us and filled the auditoriums of our productions. More than 1 500 people visited AMPLIFIER in 3 days. Several people also appreciated the novelty, the introduction of advantageous PERMANENTS also for students, adults and pensioners for the whole festival!

The 8th edition confirmed that the desire to be sensitised by quality culture and art is valid and brings lasting experiences and benefits to the audience. Thank you for choosing the AMPLIFIER Festival. We appreciate your sensitivity to culture and the arts, because TO BE SENSITIVE IS ART!