Croatia’s very own Edinburgh, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival has just been launched for the 74th time, lifting the curtain on 47 days of culture between July 10 and August 25.
Historic landmarks around the Old Town become stages for theatre, music and dance beneath the stars, comprising some 70 performances in total.
Highlights include shows by Portuguese fado singer Mariza, Hungarian pianist Sir András Schiff and Croatian choreographer Leo Mujić, at locations including Lazareti, Sponza Palace and, synonymous with the festival, Lovrijenac fortress.
It all harks back to the 1930s when Dubravka, by 17th-century Croatian writer Ivan Gundulić, was dramatised outdoors for those attending the PEN writers’ congress. It set the tone for the slightly playful take on classical literature still prevalent today. Croatians know the Dubrovnik Summer Festival as Dubrovačke ljetne igre – literally the ‘Dubrovnik Summer Games’. Things began in earnest in the early 1950s when director Marko Fotez set a production of Hamlet at Lovrijenac. As the event evolved, the Old Town gradually became its stage. For a few days, one week and then two, Dubrovnik lived the festival year after year. This same concept has been in place since.
After much of the Old Town had been destroyed in 1991 and 1992, the festival took on a poignant aspect. In place of an opening ceremony, locals lit candles in the windows while Ivan Gundulić’s Hymn to Freedom played on the radio to a deserted Stradun.
The event has since expanded its schedule and its scope, inviting big international names, and broadening its locations to include Lokrum island, accessible by taxi boat.