On June 5-9, the most anticipated event of the summer – the AUDRA festival - returns to Kaunas. The five-day programme will invite not only night culture lovers, who are determined to dance until dawn, but also visitors who are thirsty for artistic initiatives. This year, 16 cultural events will take place in 10 different locations of Kaunas. It is a tribute to contemporary people living in a contemporary city.
The AUDRA youth programme, which offers 70 hours of high-quality cultural events, will invite people to explore the city this year as an island of thoughts, ideas and communities. Audio Sessions and Half Song Festival, performances and concerts, which have already become a tradition, will be complemented by pleasant surprises – for example, choirs singing in dialect, distant rave spaces or an interwar cafe that will only be open for one day.
The organisers of the event revealed that great attention was paid to the search of unique spaces for this year’s programme. “For the performance, we will invite you to visit the Bank of Lithuania, taste interwar desserts in the Žaliakalnis funicular, we will carry out night painting in the pool of Kaukas stairs, we will invite everyone to tours of hundred-year-old rave spots and check out book storage tower of the Ąžuolynas library. This is a way to both explore the physical spaces of the city, and also tame them”, – says Austėja Jociūtė, the head of VšĮ “Kylantis Kaunas”.
Shame, coffee, fashion show and audio sessions under the stars
In the programme – the AUDRA festival token, that has already become a classic – Audio Sessions at the Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery entrance, curated by “Nepatogus kinas”. On June 6-7, under the starry sky, with silent disco headphones, we will calmly listen to unique stories of people.
The most loyal fans of AUDRA will once again gather at the Half Song Festival (PDF), which will be enlightened by performers from Klaipėda – MORRE and YYORI. PDF is an annual concert-competition that invites online music artists to the stage. At this competition a very well known artist Dj Nevykele performed for the first time. On June 7, in Jonavos st. 3, we will find out who will be the new stars of the musical stage of Lithuania.
There will be plenty of innovations this summer – the audiovisual performance “OvertoNE” has been created exclusively for the AUDRA festival. On June 7, the axis of the performance, which will be held at the Kaunas branch of the Bank of Lithuania, is the ethnographic regions of Lithuania, their traditions and customs, which will be voiced by a moving choir singing in old dialects.
For the first time, Ąžuolynas library is joining the festival. On June 7, in K. Donelaičio st. 8, in the courtyard of the library, visitors will be invited to cross the borders of shame and look at it through historical, sociological and psychological perspectives. At the end of the event, visitors will have the opportunity to release any feelings of shame with the alternative rock band Gėda. The Ąžuolynas library will offer visits to their renovated branch in Radąstų st. 2, where everyone will be greeted with tours of the book storage tower, which usually is not available to visitors. An equally interesting event will await on the ground as well – a sustainable designer fashion show will take place on the stairs of the library.
June 5-9 there are even more activities awaiting. Baristas, coffee lovers and workers will meet on the Kaunas funicular. Even more unique places will be shown by various tour guides, who will briefly show the history of Kaunas nightlife or stop by the Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts.Artistic installations, activities and workshops will also be waiting in the courtyard of the Kaunas Artists’ House, the courtyard of Lithuanian Museum of Educations, Ąžuolynas, night club “Lizdas” and even on the stairs of Vytautas park.