Červený Kameň starts night tours
ČERVENÝ Kameň Castle near the village of Častá launched its first night tour of the new season on Saturday, May 13 at 21:00, the SITA news agency reported.
Last weekend saw an opening of an exhibition of Spanish art at the castle. A medieval fencing show will take place next weekend, May 20-21.
Quartet joins V4 countries
TO CELEBRATE the 15th anniversary of their cooperation, the Visegrad Four countries - Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic - have put together a joint cultural programme called Quartet. The main part completed its run last week, but two exhibitions remain open until the end of month.
One is the Visegrad Portraits exhibition at the Culture Ministry's Dvorana (Parlour), which features photojournalism depicting social and political personalities. Next to Slovaks, captured through the lens of SME reporter Miroslava Cibulková, hang photos by journalists of the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza and by Lenke Szilágyi from the Hungarian magazine Beszélö. In addition, there are Karel Cudlín's photos of Václav Havel, and, the photos of several other Czech faces are the work of photographers from the Czech-Slovak weekly Mosty.
The Milan Dobeš Museum is showing 11 From Central Europe, a display of constructivists, including Hugo Demartini, János Fajó, Stanislav Kolíbal, Milan Dobeš and Štěpán Pala.
Slovak Euro coins on display
THE NATIONAL Bank has organised an exhibition to show the artistic side of the process that led to the design of Slovakia's Euro coins. The exhibition presents the 144 drawings that competed to make it onto the coins, as well as the national sides of the member states' Euro coins. Children's designs can also be seen. The exhibition takes place until June 30 and is open during workdays from 10:00 to 16:00.
Jimmy Sommerville at FajnFest
THE NEW multi-genre music festival FajnFest, which will run in Bratislava from June 16-24, already knows who will headline its grand opening, the TASR news agency reported.
After his January performance at the Ball in Opera, the legendary Scottish musician Jimmy Sommerville will return to Slovakia to start the festival off. Other stars include the British trio Dario G and Delegation and Finnish Darude.
A trip tip behind the borders
THE UNIQUE sand sculpture festival Sandland 2006 will open its doors on May 17th at 18:00 near the swimming centre in Neusiedl am See, an Austrian town close to Bratislava. Internationally reco-gnized artists, including the most famous sand carvers, will create metre-high sculptures.
Sandland will start at the same time as the World Championship of the ISAF World Sailing Games 2006 to become one of its highlights. It will run until the end of July 2006. For more information visit, www.sandland.at.
Jazz Sundays, blues Mondays
THE HLAVA XXII club in Bratislava recently made some changes to its programme. Its regular Wednesday jam sessions, which have been gaining popularity among musicians as well as the broader public, have been switched to Sundays and the popular Blues Mondays, which used to run at the Stoka theatre but ended after it had to close down, have been added.
"I was a bit worried at the beginning, but Sunday could become a strong day for the whole Bratislava jazz scene," said Juraj Kalász, bassist from The Trio, who initiated the jam sessions. "We expect more people to come in the future, mainly from outside of the jazz community and young musicians, who should come to play with us."
