Varaždin Baroque Evenings

The Varaždin Baroque Evening Festival is the most important music and stage event in central Croatia, founded in 1971, and today, as a specialized festival of early music, it is one of the most eminent festivals of its kind in the world. The festival is under the permanent auspices of the President of the Republic of Croatia, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia awarded it national significance 20 years ago. The Varaždin Baroque Evenings Festival is of great importance for Croatian musical baroque heritage, as it encourages research, performance and preservation of Croatian Baroque works, both by domestic and foreign performers who often perform together as part of the festival. An important part of the festival is also a scientific conference with topics in the field of culture and music, which is attended by the greatest cultural and musical experts from Croatia and Europe, emphasizing the importance of heritage preservation. It is important to mention that VBE is mainly about authenticity – the authenticity of ambient because Varaždin is one of the best-maintained baroque cities and the program is held in palaces, churches and castles from that period - authenticity of performance because concerts are performed on baroque instruments and authenticity of the programme consisting of baroque compositions.

For several years now, the festival has had a partner country every year. So far, the partner countries have been Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Israel, Austria, the Russian Federation, Italy, France, Spain, Hungary, Japan, Sweden, Slovenia and Ireland. As a baroque music festival, the Varaždin Baroque Evenings also have an additional program called Total Baroque. The program expands the visibility of the festival to squares and streets within the partner country and various exhibitions and workshops connect different segments of culture with the Baroque.

This year Varaždin Baroque Evenings will be held from September 22nd until October 5th and the partner country will be Switzerland.