In Krakow will be held the Culture for Tolerance festival

In Krakow will be held the Culture for Tolerance festival

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In April, in the Polish cultural capital of Krakow will be held highly unusual for the Catholic Poland Festival - "Culture for Tolerance" - the main idea is to promote the ideas of liberty, equality and tolerance. In particular, tolerance for homosexuality.

It is always difficult to swim against the tide, to break stereotypes and patterns and to be an innovator. Therefore, the main thing that is necessarily inherent in the participants of the "Culture for Tolerance" festival is a healthy dose of courage and fearlessness.

The idea of the festival was born in 2003 in the circle of the participating students of the Krakow branch of the “Company Against Homophobia”. The first festival against homophobia and in support of tolerance was held in Krakow from 6 to 9 May 2004 and contained a number of cultural events: film festival, numerous workshops and discussions, exhibitions, rock concerts, with the participation of Polish and foreign stars and famous March of Tolerance in Krakow attended by over 1500 people. One of the most important events was the conference with the participation of the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiello University.

Undoubtedly, the first festival "Culture for Tolerance" in support of gay culture has caused a major stir in a very traditional and very Catholic Poland. Among Krakow politicians and media erupted numerous heated discussions about the place of homosexuality in society. It should be noted however, that the festival "Culture for Tolerance" was supported by numerous international organizations, Krakow prominent artists and intellectuals. A petition in support of the festival signed Polish Nobel Prize winners Czeslaw Milosz (Nobel Prize for Literature 1980) and Wisława Szymborska (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996).

In 2007 the festival was a unique large-scale campaign of confrontation to the language of violence and hatred. The main idea was to use the company's slogans "What are you looking at, fag?", "What are you staring at, lesbian?" and "Fag! Lesbian! I hear it constantly. Hate hurts", which were designed to encourage the traditional Polish society to look at themselves from the back side and make ordinary people think about the tragedy that can cause their calls for violence.

This year's festival "Culture for Tolerance" will be held in Krakow in April and will include many interesting cultural events. Also from 9 to 18 July in the Polish capital of Warsaw will be organized the parade on the famous European gay culture Europride 2010.

Alesia Belaya

Date: 08/03/2010