Festival PAN started its existence in 1994 when Miroslav Kasprzyk brought his idea of a platform for mimes to meet and perform in a beautiful mountain town to life. I am only 5 years older than the festival itself and I have missed it only because of some life changing events. So let me take you inside the 30th Festival PAN 2023 in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia and why you should think of it when you're thinking of mime and pantomime festivals.
The biggest mime festival:
The number of participants eager to mime at the festival is quite large. Already in the second year of the festival, 140 people came to the festival to learn and do pantomime. Normally there are between 250 and 300 participants every year attacking the culture house in Liptovský Mikuláš in Slovakia and demanding pantomime. This year, more than 350 young people came and went into 14 different workshops to learn mime and other disciplines so there is no doubt it's the biggest mime festival out there.
We've had several big names in mime coming to the festival like Milan Sladek and no one ever saw a bigger mime festival anywhere in the world with so many children and teens so happy to learn and perform in mime art.
The unique mime festival:
Festival PAN is a very unique festival and you get it right away when you come there. Because at that moment, you find yourself in the middle of a crowd of 250 - 350 young people mostly from 7 to 17 eager to learn and see mime, pantomime, dance, new circus, juggling, clowning and similar arts.
To add to this, most of the children and teens also come to compete with each other in a mime competition for solo, duo and trio pantomime etudes and also group performance competition. It's truly unbelievable to see so many young people eager to perform and show what they learned to their peers and also professionals that come to the festival to perform mime, teach mime or just visit the festival.
This year was unique by festival standards because there was actually no competition this time and all the mime etudes were performed without any pressure to be the best and every mime was very happy to just enjoy their time on the stage.
The oldest continuous mime festival:
That's right, Festival PAN is not the oldest because the oldest mime festival is actually The International Pantomime Theatre Festival in Dresden, which had it's 38th anniversary this year but it was founded in 1982 and therefore missed few years.
Miroslav Kasprzyk on the other hand was stubborn enough to bring Festival PAN to its thirties this year without missing a year and raising the quality of the festival bit by bit every year. And this year was truly incredible and full of inspiration, quality and even stars in the world of pantomime.
The 30th Festival PAN
I will finish this mimeblog by summarising this year and bringing the festival to you through my experiences so you can have a glimpse into our little world of pantomime. So welcome to the capital city of mimes, Liptovsky Mikulas.
Wednesday is always very fast paced as all the participants come by trains and buses and this year was different only because there was a huge number of people coming. I was in the lobby meeting everyone, old and new faces at the festival and when everyone came in we moved on stage to take a group photo. It is always a lot of fun and a feeling of togetherness. After that, everyone was welcomed by Miro Kasprzyk, the father of the festival who dedicated everybody to their mime, clown, dance or circus workshops.
The workshops on Wednesday are always very short. It's only two hours so I personally, at my contemporary mime workshop, try to go through the basics of pantomime to have a good base for Thursday's whole day workshop.
In the evening, we opened the festival by mime etudes of the old and the new generation of mimes and participants of the mime festival in the role of an audience enjoyed them very much, clapping and clapping. Right after that a premiére of multimedia classical mime performance "ADAM 2100" by Damir Dantes from Switzerland and a late student of Marcel Marceau. A sci-fi story told in a classical pantomime style of Marcel Marceau and combined with new media has taken the audience off their seats and the first standing ovation took place.
Thursday is all about workshops. Starting at 9 am, all 14 workshops were working all the way until 4 pm with a lunch brake and going for the well deserved dinner after the end. There was also a discussion held by Peter Mato about the 30 years of Festival PAN.
And in the evening it was time for the amazing guests that came all the way from Australia to perform their brand new show, that pushes the boundries of mime, comedy and creativity. The Umbilical Brothers performed "The Distraction" and all the participants of the festival together with local audience was shooked from 90 minutes of laughter and surpises from the possibilities of 21st century physical comedy. A truly spectacular performance was finished by a special Q&A session with the audience ending with the middle finger battle bringing the auduience to tears of laughter again. These humble australian stars of mime then held an autograph and photo session for another hour because of the endless queue of fans.
Friday started with a wonderful show for children from Pohybs Konsorten, two adorable clowns coming from Germany performed their "A day as any other" and children laughed and enjoyed it very much.
Right after their performance everybody got ready in their costume or with the white mask for the parade of mimes and followed Miro Kasprzyk into the streets of Liptovsky Mikulas to show that it truly is a capital of mimes.
The day continued with the only competition of this year and that was the competition of trios in improvisation pantomime. It is always fun even though it's not always the best but that is the world of improvisation and improvising in mime is not an easy task. This competition is not about winning because mere participation makes you one of the bravest mimes so everybody is a winner.
It was time for more inspiring performances in the evening and it was time for the students of The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the department of nonverbal theatre. They performed "Inside" by the 3rd grade students and right after that a composed evening of classical Marceau etudes from a new perspective by students of pantomime class by Radim Vizvary. It was a big success that got a lot of children inspired to do more mime and some teens to start thinking about joining the school and dive into the depths of pantomime.
Saturday was a big day for the participants because it was the time to gather all the knowledge they learned at the workshops and bravery and show everyone what they prepeared. It was the time for the solo, duo and trio etudes and performances made by the very children and teens participating at the festival.
All this took place right after everyone went to see amazing Andrej Lyga and his "Fairytale for the brave". A truly unique and wonderful performance nominated for a prize in Czechia.
The solos, duos and trios I mentioned earlier were special in one other way this year. No one could win because of the festive nature of the 30th anniversary and they had also very special technicians to help them with their lights and sound.
It was actually our job. Miroslav Kasprzyk as a founder of the festival and me as the new chief of dramaturgy took care of the lights and sound of these young and talented mimes and even though there were no prizes and no jury, there were some awesome etudes and later performances that would take the prizes I believe.
With all the performing going on, the evening came fast and the cherry on top of the festival cake came to the festival from exile in Norway and Netherlands. Special guests and absolvents of the Kyiv Mime School in Ukraine came to Festival PAN with their solo etude "Peace inside us" by Anetta Anisimova, a personal story about her leaving her home and family. It was accompanied by a monologue about her journey and made her performance even more powerful and impactful. Before her, the rest three of their torn company performed "News" and it was also very on point with transcending ideas and clean mime technique. Funny moments changed into chilling sad reality moments and back seamlessly. Their evening was a perfect ending for a mime festival because they are one of the best contemporary mime representatives and I was very happy to have them at our festival.
And after yet another standing ovation for the amazing ukrainian mimes came traditional ending of Festival PAN with traditional slovak snack and by giving every participant a diploma of participation. But when every other PAN would end, the 30th festival took a turn and a surprise guest, magician Talostan appeared and showed everyone some impossible tricks you can master by mastering your body and that was the last inspiration of the festival but still not the end. To properly celebrate the 30 years of this amazing mime festival, the remaining participants hit the festival floor because the last surprise occured as DJ Manolo opened the dance floor on the festival grounds and everybody danced and celebrated until midnight.
Festival PAN is a unique experience to have and as the saying goes, it's better to experience it once than to read about it a hundred times. So follow Festival PAN on socials and come by to experience it for yourself at the 31st Festival PAN, 27.-30.11. 2024 in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia. We are waiting for you.
Tomas Kasprzyk, www.contemporarymime.com