29th MLADI LEVI International Festival
22nd – 29th August 2026
The Old Power Station and other locations in Ljubljana, Slovenia

The schedule of festival performances and the two-day event MANIFEST LESS is available below.

For Aplavz.art Lana Krmelj reviewed nearly three decades of the Mladi levi festival − its programmes, editorials, and transformations. She examined how the festival’s curatorial priorities, artistic practices, and ways of attempting to “grasp” the world have evolved over time: to understand it, to articulate it in ways different from language, and perhaps even to change it. Programmes record selections, while editorials testify to something else: aspirations, ambitions, and attempts to capture the spirit of the moment and to define goals, desires, and possibilities. What seemed important to us. What we thought was coming. What we wanted to say before the festival had even begun. One of the conclusions of her analysis is the notion of the Mladi levi Festival’s pre-actuality − a festival that has often recognized emerging questions before they became widely acknowledged.

This year’s editorial is written in a somewhat different frame of mind. Looking back through previous editorials, revisiting memories, and reflecting on the present moment, it seems that certain themes return with unsettling consistency: war, social fractures, the climate crisis, questions of community, solidarity and care, the erosion of stability, and the politics of space. Not only have these issues not disappeared — they have become even more urgent. Once, pre-actuality meant the ability to sense what was approaching, to articulate feelings that had not yet found words, and to anticipate change. Today, we are living in the midst of what was once approaching.

This is why, this year, words seem to fail us. Not because we have nothing to say, but because so much has already been said, while reality continues to outpace articulation with words. Yet there is no room for lamentation. Not because everything is fine, but because for far too many people the world has collapsed in a far more literal sense, and because, as the space for a dignified life continues to shrink, we cannot afford the comfort of despair.

Perhaps this is the ambition of this year’s festival. Not the promise that we or art will change the world, nor the conviction that it holds the answers or even asks the right questions. Rather, it is a commitment to sustaining spaces where we can think together, doubt together, listen to one another, and imagine different possibilities. Stability itself becomes a victory. No longer pre-actuality but meeting the world eye to eye. Persisting in care, connection, and the preservation of what is shared. A festival, too, is something we hold in common. It exists only if we care for it—not merely produce it. It exists when you attend it and become part of it.

Next year, the Mladi levi Festival will celebrate its 30th edition. At a time when everything is fragmenting into short-term thinking, short memories, and shrinking attention spans, endurance cannot be taken for granted. The thirtieth festival will not happen by itself. It will happen only if we persevere until then. This year’s festival is therefore not just another edition in a long series—it is the condition for the next one. We promise to keep going, and we hope to see you again next year for the 30th Mladi levi Festival. But first, let us meet at this year’s festival.

Mladi levi festival team