Four days of cultural merriment begin. Luhovaný Vincent starts tomorrow!

The festival will start with a Thursday screening of the summer cinema on the terrace of the Municipal Swimming Pool. The screening of the French film "Across the Border", created using the demanding method of animation by painting on glass, will be preceded by a partner opening of the group exhibition "Echoes of the Siren Song" organized by the Jindřich Chalupecký Society.

Festival visitors will also be able to enjoy the spaces of the City Swimming Pool during Sunday's ambient performances by Matej Kotouček, who performs under the musical alias Sky to Speak, and Liverpool native Myst K. This meditative listening session will offer the perfect space to refresh in the pool or relax on the terrace.

A screening taking place in the lobby of the Spa Inhalatorium will also lead visitors to unwind. It is called Breathing In/Breathing Out and is produced in collaboration with the curatorial project of Eliška Děcká - Anipromítačka. A series of short animated films related to the process of breathing have been selected to fit the space and will run in a loop during Friday and Saturday morning.

In a purely spa spirit, the lecture by historian Vladan Hanulík will be held. The Shaping of Modern Forms of Czech Spa Industry. It will take place on Friday afternoon on the terrace of the Social House.

Those who would prefer to take a walk during the lecture can join this year's architectural walk through the Prague quarter with ethnographer Blanka Petráková and lecturer Lenka Psotová. It is a guided tour of the interiors of five unique villas revealing the history of the places and the fascinating stories that took place there.

The festival will also offer guided walks through the exhibition programme prepared for visitors by curators Nela Klajbanová and Jakub Frank.

"We choose the walk format because the programmes and installations presented in our dramaturgical selection often have no clear end or beginning and can remain hidden, unnoticed or unexplained to visitors. This concept also offers a coordinated visit to the festival locations and a possible new insight into them," said the curators of the exhibitions.

Visitors will also be able to explore individual artistic events and interventions on their own. They can look forward to, for example, the happening of the Intermedia Studio of FaVU BUT: The Fountain of Fulfillment, about the discovery of a new spring, or the interactive installation by Dominik Lang: What do you want, what do you desire, what do you have, what do you want to replace, what do you lack, what will you give me?

Marian Palla's Spa Painting will also be playing with the onlookers, where he will use clay, brush and fingers to immortalize portraits of interested people, selfies and views of the Luhačovice spa.

Two workshops await the children's audience, which they can attend at any time during the duration of the workshops. Saturday's will take place at Dr. Št'astný's spring under the guidance of artist Veronika Vlková and is entitled Time of the Mud Wizards. The second one will belong to daydreaming, and participants will be engaged by Eva Kot'áátková and her Day Dreaming Work Station. For children there will also be an outdoor theatre playroom called Zahrátky created by the group Řev na hřišti and Studio Damúza.

The adult audience will also find something to enjoy. This year, Club Domino is back in the game and has prepared two nights of contemporary electronic and guitar music for its audience. The first one, on Friday, will feature the music duo LOFN, moving from ambient to techno and back again, the Silesian raw guitar band Pacino and the sound artist Natálie Pleváková, who will close the evening with a DJ set tailor-made for the festival.

Saturday will then belong to producer, artist and recent winner of the Best Electronic Track category at the Vinyla Music Awards, Pavla Bastlová, performing under the name Tokyo Drift. Her performance will be followed by the slow industrial riffs of Slovakian duo Möbius, which will pave the way for the final performance of experimental rapper Arleta.

This year there will also be no shortage of music and sound in the daytime public spaces. On Friday evening, a live sound installation by Tomas Niesner, based on this year's award-winning album Bečvou, will take place at the Aloiska spring. The aim is to evoke the cycle of water and take the audience on a journey along the river.

On Saturday afternoon, the composer and sound artist Natálie Pleváková will entertain visitors at Hala Vincentka. Her installation, tailor-made for the festival, plays with the context of the spa environment - alternative time, space and perception.

On Sunday afternoon, Thistle - an abstract improvisation combining acoustic instruments, synthesizers and field recordings by Czech producer Matěj Kotouček and Finnish musician, performer and documentary filmmaker Simo Hakalist - will take place at the Ottovka spring. Also featured will be the self-taught pianist Tomáš Hrubiš, whose instrumental compositions will offer the audience a melancholic-psychedelic atmosphere, with overlaps to minimalist, experimental or film music.

In a similar vein will be Saturday's breakfast set by writer and music critic Pavel Klusák. It will offer a layered sonic environment where visitors can come to wake up, eat breakfast and be inspired.

Categories: Tourism, Culture, What to do in Luhačovice, Luhačovice, Music, Festival, Vincent the Lion Festival, Exhibition