Press release

Press release for the announcement of the Golden Gander and the Stricken Goose nominations

Kremnica, July 3rd 2017 – The 37th annual international festival of amateur and professional culinary masters of humour and satire – European Festival of Humour and Satire KREMNICA GAGS 2017 – will take place on a non-traditional date, september 2017 in the town of Kremnica. More than 200 authors and performers from five European states, New Zealand, and Slovakia will visit the historical centre of Kremnica in order to show unrivaled proficiency in their craft. The underlying theme of the festival is CONSUMPTION versus quality humour and cultivated fun, the latter two being the programme priority of the last 14 editions of the festival. Humour, satire, and laughter have always been connected with thinking, self-awareness and being enriched by new, unique cultural experiences. The special menu of nominated works and performances in eight categories will be watched and the gourmet awards of the Golden Gander and Stricken Goose will be awarded by the international Academy of humour, with the president Zuzana Kronerová. The academy will decorate the most delicious work with the title GRAND PRIX 2017.

The grand opening will serve as a starter of the festival menu and will take place on Friday, 11:00 in the area of the City castle, followed by the reveal of the nose of the cartoonist and journalist Ján Schuster in the Alley of Famous Noses, which will be accompanied by his exhibition of drawn humour in the Slovak Olympic and sports museum, in the permanent exhibition on skiing. The exhibition opening of the nominated cartoonists from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland, Luxembourg, and Slovakia will provide a very hearty “soup mixture” in the gallery of the Museum of coins and medals. An unexpected delicacy is sure to arrive with their improvised group drawing on the topic of CONSUMPTION.

The wide supply of main courses was prepared by the festival dramaturgy from Czech productions: Theatre in DLOUHÁ from Prague will serve Viliam Klimáček’s ironic comedy THE DAY GAGARIN DIED to the young viewers, the band STO ZVÍŘAT will offer their musical animal delicacies from their BEST OF ELEPHANTOUR and students of the department of non-verbal theatre from HAMU will taste the strange, cosmic THING via clownery, magic, trickery and acrobacy. Another crunchy sample of puppetry by Theatre LOKVAR will arrive from Prague in the form of the fairytale CZECH JOHNNY, the theatre group BRATŘI V TRICKU will then serve a happy dessert for families with children – THE PIG CIRCUS, as well as the motion indulgence for adults, a funeral cocktail of dark humour and the bizarre in the neo-circus slapstick FUNERAL.

Theatre COMMEDIA will feed the festival-goers the freshest Slovak specialties, cooked from humour and sarcasm during their parody DON QUICHOTE AND SANCHO PANZA, and an original pie, cooked from spicy satire of the current socio-political status quo by the Theatre ASTORKA from Bratislava under the name of A HOLE FULL OF HOLES. In the play LÁS-KA-NIE 2, the Radošiná Naive Theatre will remember the stunning culinary art of acting by the late Katarína Kolníková. The bands ZVA 12-28 BAND from Zvolen, and PRESSBURGER KLEZMER BAND from Bratislava will provide a wonderful musical snack. The stomachs of the festival-goers may be churned by the Theatre LA KOMIKA with a remake of the famous cult play under a new name ENGLISH TWO – New Blood. The youngest kids will definitely enjoy little goodies by the GRANDMA FROM THE EGG, performed by the well-known Theatre PIKI from Pezinok, older children will then feast upon a slightly different CINDERELLA by the Theatre ensemble GONG from Bratislava.

The most attractive foreign attraction for the wide groups of conossieurs of humour will surely be the motion-pantomime show of the world-class master of physical theatre Trygve Wakenshaw, hailing from New Zealand. Trygve lives in London, but travels the whole world with his amazing menu. In a Slovak premiere, he will perform twice with the pantomime plays KRAKEN and NAUTILUS, which managed to boil the viewers even at the famous Fringe Festival in Edinburgh in Scotland (2014 and 2015), receiving prestigious awards at other festivals around the world. Probably the most attractive musical-visual morsel of the festival will be brought forth by the phantasmagoric brass ensemble Système Paprika from France, who are sure to get the mobile KRAKEN ORCHESTRA going on a special vehicle, with strange instruments and bizarre costumes.

Families with children are sure to enjoy the funniest and most accessible multiple-course menu on stilts by the street Theatre KVELB from České Budějovice, whose BLACK FAMILY will also be preparing unexpected side dishes for the entire three-day course of the festival directly in the streets of Kremnica.

The recurring and beloved poetic delight of the festival has been the composed programme KOŇA JEHO, created from elocution of humorous texts by the most mature elocutionists from all around Slovakia. True gourmets are not to miss the candidate for the Stano Radič Award for the Newcomer of the year. This year, the candidate is OZ FLAHERTY with a cabaret journey to the roots of our civilisation in the ECONOMY OF GOOD AND EVIL, also presented by the L+S STUDIO.

The European Festival of humour and satire KREMNICA GAGS, which is organised by the City of Kremnica, G.A.G. - art agency, the non-profit organisation NEO, and also co-organised by the European Commision in Slovakia, will take place from September 1st till September 3rd 2017 on 12 scenes and podiums in the city centre of Kremnica. In the program, you will find 25 main productions and roughly the same number of accompanying productions, which are free of charge for the visitors of Kremnica.

Take your pick from the haute cuisine menu of humour and satire. Consume with restraint, savour to the fullest!

Ján Fakla, HRT KG´17