In this turbulent and all but relaxing summer, classical music festivals all over the world are all but »business as usual«.

Nothing is as usual, and as different countries and even different regions tackle the corona chaos in different ways, there are no models to look up to. So, we invented ours! All through the spring and summer we have been planning and re-planning, modelling and remodelling the festival until it felt just right.

What kept us going was a simple conviction: humans need art and music. In these crazy times more than ever! Not just on our screens and headphones. As though they are all right and there is nothing wrong with live streaming and recordings, something is missing.

If there is one lesson, we learned from the lockdown it is that being a human means craving interactions with other humans! We need to get together, we need to share; we need to feel the energy coming from the musicians creating magic right before our eyes.

And that is what we are going to do. From September 17th to September 26th we will open our venues, we will welcome our extraordinary musicians and say hello again our faithful audiences. And we will enjoy all that we were craving for during the lockdown. Music! Live and alive. Creative energy. Palpable and magnetic.

But all the time we will be keeping in mind, that to be able to enjoy it further, to be able to keep the doors of our auditoriums open throughout the autumn and winter, we all need to stay healthy.

Therefore the safety of our artists and our audiences remains in our focus. We are closely monitoring the situation both in Slovenia and in Europe. We are in daily contact with the Ministry of Health and National Institute of Public Health, rigorously following all the measures, aimed to provide and assure a risk-free, safe festival experience.

So, you are most heartily and most safely welcome! We are convinced that Festival Maribor 2020, even though shorter, will be able to put smiles of joy on your faces. No matter if they stay hidden behind protection masks. We'll feel them in our hearts! And that's what counts.