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During the last weekend of June, Belgrade hosted the Krokodil Festival, which was attended by Anna Gulińska, representative of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature team at the invitation of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, partner of the event. This year’s Krokodil Festival was held for the seventeenth time under the headline Under Pressure. The invited guests included authors from Serbia, Poland, Sweden and Czechia.
The special event of the festival was the Poland in My Heart presentation dedicated to the contemporary Polish literary and artistic scene. One of the main guests of the event was Dorota Masłowska. The list of invitees also included writer and journalist Małgorzata Rejmer and the Krakow-based participant of the CELA international literary talent development programme, Barbara Woźniak.
The first day of the festival was devoted to networking for CELA programme participants. They had the opportunity to share experiences, gain new contacts and strengthen existing relationships. The main topics for discussions included support measures for authors and translators, as well as working with publishers. During the event, Anna Gulińska showcased the flagship projects of Kraków UNESCO City of Literature: KMLU Award, the KMLU Patronnage Programme and the Krakow Convention.
The second day of the event focused on workshops. During a class aimed at festival organisers, our representative shared best practices concernig the organisation of the Miłosz Festival and the Conrad Festival. The list of participants featured organisers of events such as Bookstan (Sarajevo), Bookstar (Skopje), Reading Sofia (Sofia), International Book Fair and Literary Festival Book World Prague (Prague), and Fabula Festival (Ljubljana). The workshop focused on developing the idea of building a European network of literary festival organisers. It is tentatively scheduled to launch in 2027. Until then the group will focus on conceptual work and preparations.
On the final day of the festival, participants took part in meetings with authors and discussions with Polish writers, whose works were released in the Balkans. They talked about potential international cooperation focused on inviting authors to literary festivals in Europe.
We came back from Serbia with a lot of new knowledge and inspirations. We are sure that the relationships established during that trip will pay off in future literary projects.