Experience&Lifestyle Slovenia
Darko Brlek, Director, Ljubljana Festival; Photo: Miha Fras
Interview: Darko Brlek, Director, Ljubljana Festival
A Program is the Identity Card of the Artistic Director By Gamze Ekmekcioglu
Born in Ptuj, Darko Brlek has spent most of his life in Ljubljana. After becoming the youngest Artistic Director of the Ljubljana Festival in 1992, he took on the position of Executive Director in 1995. In addition, Mr Brlek organises other prestigious festivals and cultural events including the Slovenian Days of Music and the Winter Festival in Ljubljana and he is also the Chairman of the Council for Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, a founder of the Slovenian Chamber of Culture, and was the Vice President of the Brussels-based European Festival Association in 1997 and its President from 2005 until May 2017. Mr Briek has been granted numerous awards for his work. 52
The Slovenian Times | Summer Edition 2018
Q In addition to the Ljubljana Festival, you also work on the Winter Festival and Slovenian Days of Music. With all these festivals, how much time do you need to organise the program and create new ideas for the Ljubljana Festival each year?
A We will have the 66th Ljubljana Festival this year and as you mentioned, we also organise the Slovenian Days of Music which we held for the 33rd time this year and we started the Winter Festival only two years ago, in the beautiful concert hall of the Grand Hotel Union. So, of course, the most demanding is the Summer Festival and we start to organise each festival something like three or four years in advance, finishing just one year before the event. Especially when you are dealing with big orchestras like the Munich Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Theatre or Israel Philharmonic, they of course plan their program at least two or three years in advance and so we have to adapt to it, otherwise we cannot compete for the dates. But then, of course, every festival is not only an artistic challenge but also a financial one. If we are successful enough with the city authorities and also the main financier (and also with the sponsors of course), then we can