The Urban Highline Festival returns for its 15th edition!

Get ready for the ultimate summer thrill – Carnaval Sztukmistrzów is hitting Lublin with a whirlwind of excitement and fun! And guess what? We’re bringing the sky-high stage to the party with the Urban Highline Festival. Get ready to look up in awe as incredible slackliners show off their balancing skills on lines, right in the heart of the Old Town and City Centre!

The Urban Highline Festival is the oldest highliner event in Europe and one of the world’s largest official highline festivals taking place in an urban setting.

Since 2009, this international  celebration has become an integral part of Lublin’s landscape. As the oldest and most renowned festival of its kind in the world, it has attracted thousands of slackliners from over 50 countries to the city.  As the audience gazes up at the daring slackliners gracefully balancing on the tightropes, little do they know that for the participants, this Festival is so much more than just a spectacle. It’s an annual gathering of passionate slacklining enthusiasts from all corners of the globe, where they share their love, knowledge, and hard-earned expertise!

Mark your calendars for July 27-30, 2023, because Lublin is about to transform into the ultimate playground for sky-high showdowns! Thanks to the incredible Urban Highline Festival organised by Firmament Foundation, the city will once again become a thrilling battleground for slackliners. This year marks the festival’s 15th anniversary, so you know it’s going to be one epic jubilee edition! Prepare to witness around 250 daredevils from all corners of the globe descending on Lublin to show off their gravity-defying skills!

This year, the audience will join us in our exciting adventures. With the support of the City of Lublin and our partners: Lublin Voivodeship, Azoty Puławy, and Lublin Conference Centre, we are thrilled to create a special workshop zone in Błonia near the Castle. Here, every enthusiast will have the chance to try walking on a tightrope in a safe environment. And that’s not all! Among this year’s thrilling attractions, which are also part of Carnaval Sztukmistrzów’s programme, get ready to witness an extraordinary trickline performance. Top slackliners Filip Oleksik and Mortiz Purer will amaze you with their mind-blowing, synchronised acrobatics on the trickline, accompanied by the enchanting melodies of the cello. For those who seek even more adrenaline, we’ve prepared freestyle highline shows by the incredible David “Sakalomo” Paloma. Undoubtedly one of the best freestylers in the world of slacklining, he will showcase his skills on a tightrope stretched between Krakowska Gate and the City Hall – says Marceli Wydra, the coordinator of the Urban Highline Festival.

This year,  get ready to witness breathtaking aerial performances by these talented artists at several iconic locations in Lublin. These include the vibrant Lublin market square, the majestic  Krakowska Gate, the Lublin Catherdral, Lublin Conference Centre, and the cultural hub, the Centre for the Meeting of Cultures. And let’s not forget, the longest lines will make a triumphant return, suspended between the City Hall and the Voivodeship Office on Wieniawska Street.

What every Urban Highline Festival fan should know?

• Slackliners walk on lines  (not ropes!), which are about 2.5–5 cm wide and usually made of nylon or polyester.
• Slacklining has its roots in nomadic culture. The practice of walking on a tensioned tape was known among some Central Asian and Middle Eastern tribes. For these communities, slacklining was not just a form of entertainment but also a part of their traditions and ceremonies.
• Some slackliners take on challenges and attempt to set world records. The record for the longest slackline walk is around 1.5 km! Impressive, right? Balancing and maintaining strength for such a long distance is no small feat.
• Trickline is one of the main disciplines in slacklining, where slackers perform various tricks, acrobatics, and jumps on the tensioned tape. Tricklining is all about creativity, expression, and spectacular movements, adding acrobatic and freestyle elements to the basic act of walking on the line.
• Freestyle highline combines two disciplines – freestyle and highline – within slacklining. It’s an advanced form of slacklining where slackers showcase a variety of tricks, acrobatics, and sequences on a high tensioned tape suspended at a considerable height.
• Highline is an extreme sport that involves walking on a tensioned tape high above the ground. In highlining, the tape is set at much greater heights, like between two rocks or even between two buildings  – as in Lublin.

Of course, this is just a fraction of the fun we have in store for you! The Festival’s schedule is bursting with entertainment that will make your heart soar! Get ready to be dazzled by captivating busker performances, immerse yourself in creative workshops, and be mesmerised by mind-blowing circus spectacles that will leave you cheering for more! We’ve got special sponsor zones where you can discover fantastic surprises and goodies for the whole family to enjoy!

Excited to join in on the fun? Keep your eyes on the schedule! All the incredible events are just a click away at carnavallublin.eu.

Carnaval Sztukmistrzów
27–30 July 2023
Old Town, Błonia near the Castle
Admission free, selected shows are ticketed, tickets are available via goingapp.pl

carnavallublin.eu

Organisers: Workshops of Culture in Lublin, Cultural Institution of the City of Lublin, Lublin – City of Inspiration

Partners: Fundacja Firmament, Institut Français de Pologne, Elmax, Maki

Media patronage: TVP 2, TVP Kultura, Radio Lublin, Radio Eska, Gazeta Wyborcza Lublin, Presto, e-teatr.pl, TerazTeatr.pl, Kultura Enter, Onet

Sponsors: PGE Obrót S.A., Tavex Sp. z o.o., Ball Packaging Europe Lublin Sp. z o.o.,

Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Krzysztof Żuk – the Mayor of the City of Lublin has assumed honorary patronage.