The Miłosz Festival is one of the most important poetry festivals in Poland and the largest event of its kind in Central Europe, laureate of the prestigious EFFE Label by the European Festival Association in 2017. The festival’s extensive programme features meetings with poets, both those starting out, as well as classics, as well as writing workshops, podcasts, poetry slams, artistic events bringing together art and literature, joint activities organised with publishing houses and magazines aimed at promoting of poetry, translating poetry and poetry criticism. The overarching objective of the festival is to promote Polish and world poetry.
The festival grew out of the tradition of the Kraków Poetry Meetings held in 1997 and 2000 under the patronage of Polish Nobel Prize laureates – Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska – who took part in the events. Czesław Miłosz was particularly involved in the organisation and hosting the Poetry Meetings, especially the Meetings of the Poets of the East and the West in Kraków. The Milosz Festival was established after the poet passed away to highlight these efforts, as well as to pick up the debates on literature and the condition of contemporary culture.
The first edition of the festival, titled Captive Mind and organised by the Book Institute, took place on 23-26 October 2009. In 2011, which coincided with the 100th birthday of the poet and the Year of Czesław Miłosz, the Kraków Festival Office joined the festival as one of its organising partners, hosting the third edition titled Family Europe.
This year’s edition once again coincides with the celebrations of the Year of Czesław Miłosz. The 13th edition of the festival – titled Rescue – refers to the name of the volume of Miłosz’s poetry, which will be reissued for the first time since 1945, along with other selected works by the Nobel Prize laureate. The festival will start on the poet’s birthday – 30 June – and will run for eight days until 7 July. The 13th edition of the festival is organised by Kraków: UNESCO City of Literature, City of Kraków, Polish Writers’ Association and the KONTENT Foundation. The project was supported by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.