See what's on in Wroclaw in 2016

European Capital of Culture 2016 Commencement Ceremony

Outdoors / ECC / Elderly citizens / Children / Happenings

From 15 January 2016 to 17 January 2016

Wroclaw: various locations depending on the programme

• 16-29 January 2016: European Men's Handball Championship EHF EURO 2016.

Wroclaw is going to be one of the host cities to the EHF EURO 2016. A total of 17 games throughout the tournament will be held in the capital of Lower Silesia.

European Men's Handball Championship EHF EURO 2016

Sports / Tournament

From 16 January 2016 to 29 January 2016

Centennial Hall in Wroclaw

February

• 23 February 2016 Ennio Morricone's 60th Anniversary Performance

Legendary themes from "Mission" and spaghetti westerns by Sergio Leone as well as a suite full of themes composed for Oscar-winning film productions. That's a brief programme of Ennio Morricone's performance to be conducted by the maestro himself. To be held on 23 February 2016, the show is going to feature an orchestra and a choir.

Ennio Morricone live at the Centennial Hall

Live music / Classical music / ECC

23 February 2016 8 pm

Centennial Hall in Wroclaw

April

• 23 April 2016: Pan Tadeusz Museum Opening

One of the most prominent investments carried out by the Ossolineum, the Pan Tadeusz Museum offers in innovative space to educate through culture. The museum will be held at the House Under the Golden Sun in Wroclaw's Rynek. "We are not offering an exhibition but a kind of tool to promote values conveyed by "Pan Tadeusz" through education, art and contemporary media," explains Marcin Hamkało from the Ossolineum. Apart from the permanent exhibition, the museum is going to offer temporary and educational exhibitions, live music, literary festivals, film screenings and scientific conferences. "The location is key to our project, as we would like to combine our modern approach with a historic setting, which also adds value to the venue," adds Marcin Hamkało.

• 23 April 2016: International Book Day/European Night of Literature

In June 2014, Wroclaw was appointed the World Book Capital 2016 by the UNESCO. The selection committee chose Wroclaw "for a unique programme assets both in terms in quality and variety", and especially "for the focus on community participation, the promotion of book publishing and libraries on regional and international levels". This brings an opportunity to celebrate the European Night of Literature, during which public readings will be held by actors and celebrities at Wroclaw's churches, and the International Book Day.

May

• Guitar Guinness Record/ PPA/ Cardinal Kominek/Jazz

It is a done thing in Wroclaw that May begins with an attempt to break the Guinness Guitar Record (1 May 2016). A special edition of the Stage Song Contest will be held between 13 and 22 May. Equally important are jazz festivals such as Jazz on the Oder and the World Jazz Day.

An exhibition called "Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Cardinal Kominek, or Europe's Unknown Father" arrives in Wroclaw in May. Fifty years ago, in 1965, Wroclaw Archbishop Bolesław Kominek wrote "The Address from Polish Bishops to their German Brothers in Christian Pastoral Office", in which famous words were used "we forgive and ask for forgiveness". His attempt was the first in history to reconcile the nations in the aftermath of World War II. The exhibition casts a light on the evolution that Poland and Germany has gone through to make peace between each other (9.05-30.09).

June

• 11 June 2016: Flow

"Flow" brings an event to showcase the history of Wroclaw's development, destruction and reconstruction in the 20th century. Carried out by Chris Baldwin, the project centres around the River Oder. The river, parks, buildings and bridges will provide space for a number of performances to tell the history of Wroclaw/Breslau.

• 18 June 2016: Night with Carmen: Zarzuela Show, or a Massive Opera Performance at the Stadium

Little detail has been revealed on the opera super production to be premièred at the Wroclaw Stadium as part of the ECC 2016. All we know for now is that the performance, which is going to star Kate Aldrich, will be directed by Waldemar Zawodziński in collaboration with Ignacio Garcia.

• 18 April 2016: 4. Night Half-Marathon Wroclaw

With collaboration from the European Capital of Culture Wroclaw 2016, the participants will be offered to compete to the sounds of classical music performed live at a number of locations that are scattered along the marathon's route.

4. Wroclaw Night Half-Marathon

Runs and Marathons / Sports Events / Outdoor Activities / ECC

18 June 2016, between 9 pm and midnight

Olympic Stadium

• 25 June 2016: David Gilmour & Możdżer

Primarily known as a long-standing member of Pink Floyd, the English guitarist, singer and composer David Gilmour is going to perform in a duet with Leszek Możdżer on 25 June.

David Gilmour in Wroclaw

Live music / Outdoor Activities / ECC / Rock

25 June 2016 at midnight

Rynek

July

• T-Mobile New Horizons International film Festivals

A special edition of the festival brings Basque documentaries and Lithuanian cinema.

• 23 and 30 July 2016: Singing Europe

Wroclaw is going to transform into the European Singing Capital for three weeks in 2016. Singing Europe 2016 brings together several dozen different choirs to showcase opera, oratorio and a cappella music.

August

• 6 August 2016: Singing Europe

Wroclaw is going to transform into the European Singing Capital for three weeks in 2016. Singing Europe 2016 brings together several dozen different choirs to showcase opera, oratorio and a cappella music.

• Summer Rental. Dr Erich Marx's Collection

One of the most celebrated European contemporary art collections, the set will be open to the public from 20 August 2016 to 29 March 2017. Erich Marx's Collection, which features recent European and American painting, is Berlin's most prominent and largest private art collection. It is also one of the most prominent contemporary art collection both in Germany and worldwide. The collection is on permanent display at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin. Erich Marx (born in 1921) holds a PhD in Law and has been collecting artworks dating from the 1950s to most contemporary times. He first revealed his collection to the public (including works by Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly) in 1982 at the Neue Nationalgaleir in Berlin, which attracted enthusiastic reviews.

September

• 3-18 September 2016: 51. International Wratislavia Cantans Festival

The special edition of the festival will be devoted to Baroque opera.

October

• 25-30 October 2016: Catherine Balet. Looking for the Masters

Catherine Balet is coming to Wroclaw with her photography cycle to showcase the evolution of the genre. The artist also sets out to analyse the challenges to the nature of the art that emerge with the rise of digital photography and the ensuing upheaval. Balet's photographs cast a completely new look on the Masters of the genre: from a self-portrait that dates back to 1839 to latest trends on Instagram.

• 14 October - 13 November 2016: Theatre Olympics. The World as a Place of Truth

Wroclaw is playing host to the seventh edition of the Theatre Olympics, which are held every four years in different location throughout the world. The idea for the Theatre Olympics was created by Theodoros Terzopoulos. The first edition was organised in 1995 in Delphi, Greece, while subsequent editions travelled to Japan, Moscow, Istanbul and Seoul. The current Theatre Olympics are held in Beijing. The Wroclaw edition is going to explore the "The World as a Place of Truth", which is a paraphrase of the title of a text by Jerzy Grotowski (the same slogan is used by the Grotowski Institute to promote an international theatre festival). The event brings together a number of eminent masters of the theatre, including Tadashi Suzuki, Robert Wilson, Wole Soyinka, Peter Brook, Eugenio Barba and Romeo Castellucci. The masters' feature will be complemented by five different programme lines.

November

• 10 November 2016: Zbigniew Preisner in a première performance of The Birds

A month prior to the European Film Awards Gala, the celebrated composer is going to present this première work called The Birds in Wroclaw.

December

• 10 December 2016: European Film Awards

The European Film Awards Gala is going to be held on the night of 10 December in Wroclaw. Presided over by Wim Wenders, the European Film Awards Academy presents their distinctions annually. In odd years, the gala is held in Berlin, where the EFA is located, and in even years the ceremony travels to various cities throughout Europe. The European Film Awards are the most prestigious of their kind in Europe. The first director to receive the EFA was Krzysztof Kieślowski for his "A Short Film About Killing". The winners were presented with the Felix Statue until 1996. Since 1997, a new and unnamed statuette which is simply called the European Film Award has been presented. In recent years, the EFA winner has always outdistanced the competition in the race for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The best examples in this respect are "Love" by Michael Haneke, "Great Beauty" by Paolo Sorrentino and "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski. Read more.

• 17 December 2016: European Capital of Culture Closing Ceremony in Wroclaw

The performance to summarise and close the European Capital of Culture 2016 will be held in Wroclaw on 17 December. Staged at the Centennial Hall, the show will combine and wrap up on the themes recurring throughout "Awakening" and "Flow". The project will be featuring artists from Germany, France, Israel, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Great Britain. The framework for the performance will be created by musicians from several different countries and a massive choir.