The festival » Year 14 (2008)
eLnadruhou Press Report
eLnadruhou Cultural Festival
7–13 May 2008, Prague, Czech Republic
As usual, the not-only-lesbian cultural festival eLnadruhou (L2) – a unique event in the whole of Central/Eastern Europe – is due to occur as one of the first entries in the Czech Republic’s forthcoming festival season. Year 14 of the festival is once again organized by non-profit civic association eLnadruhou, which is dedicated primarily to the cause of lesbian, bisexual and transgendered women. However, as it lists the integration of sexual minorities into the mainstream society and presentation of the lesser-known aspects of these subcultures to the general public among its main goals, the festival strives to win the attention of all women regardless of their sexual preference along with GLBT-friendly people of all persuasions. Both the festival and the organization itself are financially supported by the Global Fund for Women (USA) and the Slovak-Czech Women’s Fund (SK/CZ); a long-term collaboration with Sananim, the largest Czech NGO providing prevention, care and treatment services in the field of non-alcoholic drug addiction, has also been successfully established.
While the festival features no events conducted solely in English (or with English subtitles), there are always concerts (this time the eLnadruhou stage will be graced by the popular young Czech rock star Aneta Langerová and the indie band Lili Marlene), dance parties, a table football tournament and an outdoor sports and games tournament that anyone can attend without having barely any knowledge of Czech whatsoever. The major part of the festival takes place in downtown Prague (Café Therapy and the Vagon music club & pub). Apart from the abovementioned items the festival line-up also includes an art exhibiton, a Prague walking tour, and a conference of non-governmental organizations supporting the GLBTIQ movement in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and/or abroad.
For the last four years, the eLnadruhou NGO has been organizing a wide variety of social, cultural and sports events where everyone is welcome regardless of their sex/gender or sexual preference. In order to facilitate them the organization has been collaborating with a number of local and global NGOs including the Global Fund for Women and the Slovak-Czech Women’s Fund.
In the last three years the visitors to the eLnadruhou festival had the opportunity to see the concerts of well-known Czech chanteuses Lenka Dusilová and Bára Basiková & Precedens, to meet the writer and translator Eva Hauserová (under whose auspices was the festival also held in 2006), to actively participate in a number of music, dance and song workshops (including those conducted by the up-and-coming musicians such as Ridina Ahmedová or Tiditade) as well as open discussion with the Czech MPs, and to see various stage performances.
For more information (both in Czech and English) please visit the website (www.elnadruhou.cz) or contact the spokesperson (daniela@elnadruhou.cz).