City of Women: The handover of the festival baton and official opening with a concert by Wunder Tandem

Ljubljana is a city of numerous festivals, which celebrate different artistic communities and the joyful sharing of creative works by a diverse range of artists. These festivals elate and inspire us. However, festivals can also exclude one another because hyperproduction in such a limited space creates closed-off microscenes that coexist yet have no opportunity to interact and move into a dialogue. This causes them to unknowingly or knowingly encroach on one another.

For this reason, we decided to pay special attention to finding our niche in the festival landscape, specifically between two existing festivals. The first is the TO)pot Festival of Radical Soundwalks, with which we organised a joint pre-festival event. We agreed to hold a baton handover to express our mutual support and affinity. The second is the Indigo Festival, which this year has the theme Hyperconsumption – The Age of Unpredictability. We are concluding this year’s City of Women festival with a joint concert with Coucou Chloe, after which we will pass the festival baton to them.

Following the baton handover, we will open the festival with addresses by the Programme Directors and the Honorary President of the City of Women.

After the opening, we will transition from theory to practice with a joyful dance party at the Wunder Tandem concert. This project by Italian street artists and musicians began as a challenge: how to mix and reshape sounds and tracks like a DJ using an accordion, a miniature drum kit, and two voices. Their costumes, complete with fuchsia tiger motifs, wigs, and a touch of eccentricity, helped them to create two anonymous characters. Their anonymity enables them to say and do whatever they might want.

Organisation: City of Women in collaboration with Bunker Institute and The Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana.