10 Cultural Must Do’s across Europe this summer!

UK / The 2012 Sum­mer Olympics; The Edin­burgh Fes­ti­val Fringe

The Lon­don Olympic Games is the place to be even for cul­ture freaks! Zaha Hadid’s Lon­don Aquat­ics Cen­tre will remind you of a flow­ing river. Hurry if you want to see the famous works by Picasso, you’ve got until July 15th, or encounter Damien Hirst’s grand exhi­bi­tion, until Sep­tem­ber 9th, both at Tate. To take a rest from the sport mania envelop­ing Lon­don, visit the famous Edin­burgh Fes­ti­val Fringe tak­ing place from August 3rd to 27th. This year 2,695 shows will take place in the­atres, pubs, nooks, cran­nies and gar­dens all over Scotland’s cap­i­tal to cel­e­brate the Year of Cre­ative Scot­land. To dis­cover more on the cul­tural events ded­i­cated to the Olympics, go to www.festival.london2012.com.

Rus­sia / The White Nights Fes­ti­val (May 25– July 15)

The White Nights Fes­ti­val is a tra­di­tional music and arts fes­ti­val that takes place dur­ing the mid­night sun in St. Peters­burg, Rus­sia. Span­ning eight weeks, this fes­ti­val show­cases a wealth of inter­na­tional clas­si­cal music tal­ent, from the La Scala Phil­har­monic Orches­tra, to Greek vir­tu­oso vio­lin­ist Leonidas Kavakos, and mes­mer­iz­ing French pianist Hélène Grimaud.

Den­mark / Roskilde Fes­ti­val (July 5 – July 8)

Around 100, 000 music fans will head to 42nd edi­tion of the largest North Euro­pean cul­ture and music fes­ti­val held in Roskilde, Den­mark. This year the head­lin­ers are Bjork, Bruce Spring­steen, The Roots and The Cure!

Czech Repub­lic / Karlovy Vary Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val (June 29 – July 7)

If you don’t like the glam­our and shine of Cannes, the famous spa city of Karlovy Vary is here to sate your film hunger. The 47th edi­tion of the Karlovy Vary Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val will host 8 world pre­mieres. Some 350 film direc­tors, actors and other film­mak­ers per­son­ally present their films at Karlovy Vary. About 850 dis­trib­u­tors, sales agents, pro­duc­ers, and fes­ti­val pro­gram­mers attend the fes­ti­val each year. It is the biggest film event in the region.

Hungary/ Sziget Festival(6 August– August 13)

The Sziget Fes­ti­val is the place to be in the mid­dle of August. One of the Europe’s best music fes­ti­vals is cel­e­brat­ing its 20th anniver­sary this year. See more than 1000 per­for­mances vary­ing from the Balkan beats of Goran Bre­govic, indie rock­ers The Killers, British Maxïmo Park, the leg­endary East Coast crew, to the crazy LMFAO.

Bel­gium / Man­i­festa 9 (June 2– Sep­tem­ber 30)

The Euro­pean Bien­nial of Con­tem­po­rary Art is tak­ing place in the for­mer indus­trial com­plex in Genk, Bel­gium. The fore­most Euro­pean art event has a new curat­ing team for each edi­tion pre­sent­ing con­tem­po­rary art. Man­i­festa is known for intro­duc­ing new con­tem­po­rary Euro­pean artists.

France / La Tri­en­nale; Cen­tre Pom­pi­dou; Rock au Seine

La Tri­en­nale of con­tem­po­rary art has been moved from the Grand Palais to the recently opened Palais de Tokyo. If you haven’t seen Ger­hard Richter’s Panorama in Berlin, then take this oppor­tu­nity at the Cen­tre Georges Pom­pi­dou until Sep­tem­ber 26th. To expe­ri­ence a three-day marathon of rock music at Rock au Seine, mark your cal­en­dar for August 24th to 26th, and see Placebo, Green­day or lesser known Car­a­van Palace.

Aus­tria / Vienna’ s Museumsquartier

If you are pass­ing by Vienna on an Alpine hike and wine tour, don’t for­get to make a stop here and not only for the famous Sacher torte dessert! The Muse­um­squartier will be devoted to fash­ion this sum­mer, open­ing an exhi­bi­tion Reflect­ing on fash­ion at the Mumok museum fol­lowed by series of fash­ion shows, dance per­for­mances and events through­out the sum­mer until Sep­tem­ber 16th. Don’t miss the Leopold Museum cel­e­brat­ing Gus­tav Klimt’s 150th birth­day with their exhi­bi­tion ‘Klimt up close and per­sonal’.

Ger­many / Clas­sic Open Air (July 5 – July 9)

The very pop­u­lar Clas­sic Open Air fea­tures con­certs in the heart of Berlin. The musi­cal palette reaches from Ger­man and Ital­ian opera, operetta and musi­cal to crossover pro­duc­tions with clas­sics of pop, soul, swing and jazz.

Por­tu­gal / Guimaraes

If you hap­pen to be cruis­ing the north coast of Por­tu­gal, make an inland trip to the 2012 Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture – the beau­ti­ful town of Guimaraes – one of the emerg­ing cul­tural hot spots. Go and check it out!

 

Barbora Pola­chova  is a stu­dent in the Czech Repub­lic who worked for the CCA in the con­text of an intern­ship project with the European Union.