MIME FEST
MIME FEST is an international festival of mime theatre, whose programme is always composed of international performers who are among the world’s top, as well as domestic artists and groups whose main language of expression is pantomime and clownery. At the same time, it is no longer confined to the typically theatrical spaces of the traditional festival facilities, but is expanding to include site-specific projects in collaboration with other cultural organisations and experimental performances in the open air. It presents cooperation with foreign festivals, schools and important institutions in the field of mime art. It involves them in a wider European context and opens new possibilities for artists to meet. The programme’s dramaturgy focuses on professional artists and a wide range of forms of mime theatre. Its main component is the support of the young generation and educational activities – workshops and seminars led by experts for both art school students and the public. Thanks to this, MIME FEST becomes a unique platform for expanding the overview of the contemporary art of mime in the world.
Mime Fest Polička commemorates the mission of its founders, Radim Vizváry and Boris Hybner, to pay full attention to the diversity of mime art, to connect the otherwise unconnected through laughter and to find the previously unseen.
The festival was held for the first time in September 2012 in Polička and was attended by about 1500 people over 4 days. After the great success of the first edition, the second edition took place over seven days and was attended by approximately 3000 spectators. In 2014, the festival expanded to the capital city of Prague, and together with the Polička festival, it recorded an attendance of up to 4000 spectators, which was repeated in 2015. During the four editions of the festival, over 250 art school students and more than 200 artists from fifteen countries (USA, Egypt, Ecuador, Germany, Finland, France, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Georgia, Russia, Malaysia and the Czech Republic, etc.) participated in the workshops.
