Photos: Marko Biljak
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Along with the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Split Summer Festival is the greatest, longest-lasting, and most emblematic national theatre festival that takes place in spaces with a special ambience, and its founder and holder is the City of Split.
The Split Summer Festival first saw the light of day in 1954, when it was baptised the Split Summer Performances, at the initiative of Tomislav Tanhofer, Silvio Bombardelli, and other people of culture. In 1968, Marko Fotez decided to rechristen it the Split Summer Festival. The festival opened its curtains with a performance of the comic opera “Ero the Joker” by Jakov Gotovac, while the centrepiece of the entire event was the “Aida” opera by Giuseppe Verdi, performed on the Peristyle, the central square of Diocletian’s Palace, next to an original sphinx from the time of Thutmose III.
At the dawn of this manifestation of culture, the organiser of the festival was the National Theatre in Split (as of 1971 the Croatian National Theatre in Split), assisted by other cultural and artistic institutions of the city. From 1970 to 1978, the festival was produced by the Dalmacija koncert agency from Split, only for the festival’s sun to do a full rotation back to the Croatian National Theatre in Split afterwards.
The festival traditionally takes place from mid-July to mid-August, not so often in the theatre building itself, but mostly at a series of cultural and historical (mostly open-air) venues in Split, such as the Peristyle, Meštrovićeve Crikvine-Kaštilac, Meštrović Gallery, Carrarina poljana, Diocletian’s cellars, the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (“Sveti Dujam”), Sustipan, Prokurative, as well as several squares in Split. Over the last three decades, the Split Summer Festival has expanded to include some other Dalmatian towns (Trogir, Vis, Stari Grad, Supetar, Sinj, Vrlika).-
Since 1958, art exhibitions (painting, sculpture, photography…) have been organised as part of the Split Summer Festival, along with those more closely related to theatre performances (scenography and costume design), as well as poetry recitals, book presentations, panels, and the like.
The programme for the 70th edition of the Split Summer Festival is available on the festival’s official website:
www.splitsko-ljeto.hr
