Floating Castle highlights local heritage

The festival will see a variety of acts from folk-fusion to jazz, experimental and electronic music, as well as circus shows, improvisational theatre and workshops for adults. There will be also a programme for children and families running throughout the day, featuring shows and creative workshops.

This year's main theme is Polhn Grad, meaning full castle but with a clever wordplay on dormice. It refers to a local custom of dormice hunting in a social and cultural context.

The organisers also want to have the castle complex revived because the buildings appertaining the castle have been left abandoned and let to fall into disrepair for the past decade even though millions of euros had been invested in their renovation.

Visitors will get a chance to roam around the Dormouseatorium, fall into the Dormousefuture time capsule, take a rest in the Dormouse's nest or let loose at the hunters' tavern. They will be able to climb a watch tower for great views or clear their conscience on the Dormouse's Path to the Chapel.

In exchange for admission, each visitor will get five coins, which they will hand out to performers they like best. All of the festival's proceeds will then be distributed among artists, with the amount depending on the number of coins they gather.

As a prelude to the festival, a temporary art academy has been set up two weeks before the main events. It hosted 12 masterclasses in performing arts, dance, circus and music near Snežnik Castle.

Simultaneously, the 70-member Etno Histeria World Orchestra, brining together musicians from 21 countries, had rehearsed at the festival site before venturing on a tour of Slovenia, Croatia and Italy last Friday, which will conclude with a performance at the festival.