This year’s party during the Shalom on Szeroka Street wasn’t to be. “Man plans and God laughs,” according to a Jewish proverb. But the organisers of the Jewish Culture Festival aren’t wringing their hands in despair – instead they are inviting us to join them for the Prologue!
A round, 30th edition of the Jewish Culture Festival will be held between 25 June and 4 July in Krakow’s district of Kazimierz.
This year, organisers also gives the floor to women – the festival will focus on their point of view on various matters of the contemporary world and we will show you how Jewish women have won their place in the traditionally patriarchal world.
Although several iconic events (such as Shalom at Szeroka or the opening Cantors’ Concert) are missing from this year’s programme, the new formula of the festival and many new formats and proposals will bring definitely new quality to the event which is already over 30 years old.
The Festival centre will be located in the JCF Tent which will stand at the corner of ulica Józefa and Wąska. Most festival events will take place there: from morning to evening, you will have the opportunity to participate in lectures, discussions, live radio broadcasts, listen to DJ sets or concerts for free.
It is in the JCF Tent that Aga Kozak will debut with her morning series of meetings about the Jewish outlook on the contemporary world: cuisine, design, and identity. Marta Majchrzak, the author of the herstories.pl blog, has organised a series of meetings about Sisterhood, while Anda Rottenberg, professor Jacek Leociak, Janusz Makuch and professor Ernest Niemczyk will talk about fire. You will hear Janek Młynarski and his new band, Israeli-German punk performed by Jealous, electronic music straight from Tel Aviv with Dark Matter as well as the amazing female vocal trio Gurgulitza.
Apart from the JCF Tent, we would like to invite you to the Museum of Urban Engineering for a concert of Łona and Webber + The Pimps, to Collegium Maius, where the Israeli Dark Matter together with the Polish singer Erith will pay a contemporary tribute to Copernicus, and to the Tempel synagogue for the first ever concert… of women cantors in Poland!
Walking around Kazimierz, you will also come across various installations and activities organised for you under the joint title Kumzits – artists from Israel, Germany and Poland, the United States and many other countries from around the world have remotely prepared their special projects related to Kazimierz – its history and present day.
A total of 128 events will be held as part of the 30th JCF. Most of them will be broadcast live on a special streaming platform (30.jewishfestival.pl), which will be available shortly before the festival starts.
These events will be presented to you by 112 artists, and an international group of 60 volunteers from… 14 countries from around the world will help us in their efficient implementation. They come from Italy, Israel, Peru, Azerbaijan, Poland, India, Pakistan, Congo, Ukraine, France, Hungary, Germany, Portugal and Spain.
Moreover, like in the past, the festival’s accompanying programme will be prepared by our partners Galicia Jewish Museum, KBF and JCC Kraków.
All the events in the JCF Tent will be available for free, as will live broadcasts on the Internet. Tickets for concerts taking place outside the Tent are available at jewishfestival.pl. Tickets for events organised by our partners are available only from the partners.
The events at the 30th JCF will be held in compliance with the currently applicable sanitary regulations related to the Coronavirus pandemic, including the limits of people attending various events. Detailed information may be found in the 30th JCF programme.
