July 18, 2018
Starting Friday, June 22 and lasting until the end of the month, Maribor’s Lent Festival is nine days that bring the city alive with music, art, food, wine, sports, theatre, comedy, dance and more, all playing out at over 50 locations, with the related website promising: “Opera and ballet, theatre and dance performances, jazz concerts, concerts of classical music, music of the world, singer-songwriter concerts, concerts of chansons and ethno music, folklore evenings, street theatre performances, summer cinema, sports activities and events and activities for children.”
Many of the events and shows are free, making this an ideal time to visit Slovenia’s second city and enjoy the long summer evenings in great company. For those performances that aren’t free, we recommend getting a “Lenta”, a general full-festival ticket for 9 venues, costing 25 euros for regular folk, and just 15 for students. This also gets you discounts on some other shows, as well as free entry to a number of city museums, with more details, including how to buy one, here. The city has also partered with some hotels to offer 3 day and 2 night packages, with details of those here.
This screenshot shows just a few of the events planned for the opening day
Since there really are too many events at too many venues to mention without giving the wrong impression - the only real theme is pleasure - the best thing to do is visit the website and see what’s on, with the full programme shown here (there’s also a PDF version, but the print is tiny and it contains few details). Suffice to say, the whole thing is varied enough for there to be something to enjoy every day, no matter what your age or inclinations.
The street shows are just part of the funThat said, we’ll highlight the food and wine events that are scheduled each evening, from 19:00 on, all nine days of the festival. These take place in the ideal location, in front of the Old Vine House (Vojašniška 8), home to the world’s oldest vine, still growing after more than 400 years. Every evening will see winemakers from different regions presenting their work, so you can visit every day and learn something new each time, with the detailed schedule here. We’ll also note that both two weekends the festival covers you can take part in a number of creative workshops and activities in Maribor City Park, with something suitable for all ages and all things free of charge.
A tradition on the last day of the festivalThe English website is here, and there are also Slovene and German versions.
