Tartu International Literary Festival Prima Vista 2026

The international literary festival Prima Vista 2026 will take place in Tartu from 11 to 16 May. The festival’s theme is ‘True and Fake’. This year’s patron is the novelist and scholar Meelis Friedenthal, and the festival’s partner city is Viljandi. The festival’s theme offers an opportunity to reflect on the borderlands between human beings and technology, nature and culture, reality and imagination. It will explore how artificial intelligence and artificial environments shape human identity and creativity, how literature helps to preserve human experience, the role of imagination in the formation of identity, and what cultural authenticity means in a contemporary context. The festival aims to foster a lively dialogue between creative practitioners from diverse backgrounds and audiences, and to offer new perspectives for understanding the rapidly changing world.