The garage is the smallest stage of the Pohoda festival. From 2021, thanks to the European Capital of Culture project Trenčín 2026, it always moves to the city of Trenčín after the festival and turns into an alternative cultural space with its own dramaturgy for several weeks. In connection with the Garage, news has appeared, and not only that, but we will talk with the artistic director Lenka Kuricová and the production coordinator Patrik Kubizna from the European Capital of Culture Trenčín 2026, welcome.

You will bring Garage to Trenčín for the third time, where several bands will once again be able to present themselves. How did this idea come about?

Lenka Kuricová: This idea arose in cooperation with the Pohoda festival and its organizer Michal Kaščák, when we conceived various types of programs for the so-called Bid book, which is the book with which he is applying for the European Capital of Culture. Michal was also a member of our program board and represented the field of music. So we consulted with him on all the programs related to this kind of art. We wanted to follow up on the alternative and underground background of Trenčín and the musical background that exists in the city. For us, the garage was a good and natural symbol of beginning bands. At the same time, it provides a space where different subcultures and not just big headliners can get opportunities.

During the previous two years, young bands could give concerts in the Garage in Trenčín during August and September. This year, on September 14-16, you will bring the Garage in the form of a showcase festival. Why this change and how will it all take place?

Patrik Kubizna: This year we decided to focus on the showcase format of the festival. We focused the entire concept of the Garage on the potential growth of young bands that will perform at the Garage in MR Štefánika Park. The concerts will take place over three days, and the accompanying program will run simultaneously.

We invited budding bands from all over Slovakia and experts from the music industry, i.e. people from music festivals, publishing houses, and people who deal with showcase festivals. As part of the accompanying activities, more well-known musicians, on whom we focus, will come and complement the educational part of the project.

On Thursday, we have a discussion moderated by Oliver Rehák with successful musicians from Trenčín - Nina Kohout and Bulp. In addition, we have a slam poetry performance in the evening.

On Friday, we have legendary bands from the Trenčín region in the program, such as Bez Ladu and Sklad, during the day Vrbovský Víťazi will perform.

On Saturday, we focused primarily on the music industry. We have prepared a discussion with Shina, who is a musician and at the same time heads the independent publishing house Slnko records, and Alex Čerevka, who covers La La Music Export, Sharpe (showcase festival, editor's note) and also Slnko records, which means that he has in this broad scope.

The garage is intended for beginning bands. He mentioned Nina Kohout, who is one of the most famous contemporary names in our scene, Bezlad and Sklad, and Vrbovský Víťazi are established fighters within the Czech and Slovak scene. Why are you expanding the festival program to include these important names?

Lenka Kuricová: We are not inviting these names to the Garage as part of the music program in the sense that they will have a musical performance, but we are going to interview them, how it happened that they got from point zero to somewhere higher, where they are now. Therefore, participants will primarily be in discussions and small panels, which will be accompanying activities to the concerts of young Slovak bands.

One of the purposes of showcase festivals is networking, i.e. gaining new experiences and exchanging them between experienced professionals and beginners. That was one of the most important reasons why we invited them.

The most important thing was to choose the twenty bands that will perform this year. What bands did you look for and find?

Lenka Kuricová: We selected the bands through an open call. We had a jury in which our EHMK Trenčín 2026 team was represented, but above all, this jury consisted of independent experts from the Slovak music scene. We can mention Táňa Lehocká from Real Something or Michal Berezňák from La La Slovak music Export and Sharpe, the Pohoda festival and others were also represented.

We were looking for up-and-coming bands that haven't released a single, or at most one EP or debut album, because we wanted to create a showcase festival atmosphere, and EHMK is a tool not only for big events and festivals, but also for creating transversal opportunities for all layers of the cultural-creative industry .

Of the twenty performers, I personally know Soňa Kmeť and Cup of Tea, who only recently released their debut albums, and we will hear about them in the fall, when they will appear on TV screens and on RTVS in the new music program Na šnúre. The other bands were completely unknown to me. How many of the bands that will perform at the Garage did you know?

Patrik Kubizna: I confess that, apart from the aforementioned Sonia Kmeť, I also did not know many. Bands that have already played in the Garage will also come. When I first listened to the playlist of the bands that signed up, I was blown away by how many great things we have in the program and how well it was put together. We tried to coordinate it so that the program was varied in terms of genres, and I can say that we have it divided by genre from indie rock, alternative rock, metal to rap. I am looking forward to the diversity of the Garage program and I think that everyone who comes will enjoy it.

Last year Dušan Vlk performed at Pohoda v Garáž, who this year reached the third biggest stage of this festival, literally the jumper of the year. When you think of all the bands that have played in the Garage so far, are there any names that stick in your mind and are they successful in building their careers?

Patrik Kubizna: I can tell our internal joke that the biggest jumper of the Garage is Gleb, who performed as the first headliner of the Garage in the skate park (in 2021, editor's note) and made it all the way to the main stage of Pohoda.

Getting to the main stage of Pohoda is not easy.

Patrik Kubizna: That is not easy. But I must also say that the Garage concept changes every year. The first year during the candidacy for the EHMK 2026 title, we wanted to connect the community in Trenčín with this very concept. We built it on giving you a garage, space and you create your program. At the same time, we provided technical security, we did it in cooperation with Pohoda, we made a fantastic opener, but the anti-pandemic measures that were still in place at the time spoiled it a little.

The community itself then created the program and we provided it with support. It was amazing, the space of the skate park came to life, even those kids, when the Garage started, came to clean the space so that it looked at least a little presentable there.

Last year we also announced an open call, which was aimed at organizers in Trenčín who could gain experience with Garage. We competed for the best Garage concept with regard to both the music and accompanying program.

It was won by Yasmine Cabanová and Marek Niejadlík. They decided to place the Garage in MR Štefánik Park, where it will be this year as well. It was a great place where they made a program every two weeks in August and September. Our team provided them with mentoring, technical support, they had a workshop with Pohoda and learned, for example, about PR.

This year we are mainly giving space to bands. We try to provide them not only a place to play, but also opportunities for education and further growth.

Lenka Kuricová: Within the EHMK, capacity building is important, and Garage is one of the tools to help with this. Whether it's within the community, young producers, now we're building capacity within the bands.

We are still forming the educational block, it will take place at the end of October and all the bands that will perform at the Garage in September are supposed to take part in it. We will finalize it with our jury, which is published and helped us choose the bands. Bands will be educated on various topics: how to get their music on the radio, how to book festivals and clubs, how to get their music abroad, how to record an album. These are all questions that young creators may be interested in.

Within this, we can say that this knowledge can in some cases save ten years of gaining own experience and is a kind of welcome shortcut to get to the pension of this information. You mentioned that you are also trying to build capacity. Are there young people in Trenčín who want to work in various positions within the cultural and creative industry?

Lenka Kuricová: It is a difficult question, because we have to build this human capacity to a certain extent. I do not think that there is a certain capacity, but Trenčín has a potential in this, which we must take advantage of. The European Capital of Culture is a big event, but it is preceded by a preparatory phase, which we are currently in. We launch projects gradually and they scale to larger dimensions.

Capacity building is a transversal issue not only for the music industry. Last year we launched the Runway project for professionals , where people can learn about cultural management. We have launched Runway English , where they can learn the language so that we can better connect it with abroad. Capacities must be sought and built if we want to strengthen the cultural and creative industry in general. But I can say that there is potential and certainly interest.

How can bands use these experiences?

Lenka Kuricová: EHMK is first and foremost a strategic project based on culture. It is important to say that it is not just a set of events, as people tend to think. The purpose of this project is the positive transformation of the city, but also of the region thanks to cultural means. One of the important goals is precisely the development of the cultural and creative industry. That is why we are also dedicated to education and things that are not necessarily visible and spectacular for the general public, but form the framework of the cultural and creative industry in the region, which can therefore develop better and be stronger.

For the bands themselves, it serves for their own development and growth, to connect with important people from the scene, to be able to travel, and for example, for one of the bands that will perform at the Garage to play at Eurosonic in 2026 (the biggest European showcase festival, editor's note).

What is the position of the Garage in the overall project of EHMK Trenčín 2026, because it affects me as one of the supporting activities?

Lenka Kuricová: This also seems to be due to the fact that it is already running. We have many projects planned and there are dozens of them. Not only in the program, but also in other chapters such as the European dimension, work with communities and others, there is really a lot. Garage has become significant for us, people associate it with us, also because it is related to Pohoda, it has been working with us since candidacy and we are waiting for its third year. Of course, we will launch more activities. You asked about the meaning of the Garage for us, and it can also be read from the previous answers.

It is one of the representative projects for the budding music scene, the strengthening of the young cultural and creative industry, and at the same time it provides space for subcultures and thus creates space not only for a wide audience, but also for marginal audiences.

What does a garage mean to you, do you have any experience with it from your teenage years?

Patrik Kubizna: For example, when we transferred the Garage to the city, I felt that we transferred a piece of Pohoda to the park. There was a really excellent atmosphere. And since I'm doing this project for the third year, I don't imagine the word garage as anything other than the ten-ton garage that we transport every time through Trenčín to different places, and it's never completely easy. We always have to find creativity in how to get it to the given place, which we always succeeded. I already have a strong connection to the garage with this project, and for me it is a musical space and a carrier of culture to various places in Trenčín.

Lenka, you work in visual arts. Are there artists who start out in a garage?

Lenka Kuricová: I can't speak for all young artists, but they usually start in some type of studio, which they can also create in a garage. But I personally haven't created anything in the garage, so I don't have an interesting answer to this question. (laughter)

Trenčín will host the EHMK title in 2026. You are currently in preparation. What can we look forward to, because the whole project is not only about the city of Trenčín and its region, but should have an impact on the entire republic and Europe, which is a challenging task.

Lenka Kuricová: Reaching out to Europe is important in order to create channels through which art and culture can flow from us abroad, and at the same time new, interesting and different foreign culture can flow here, and so that we can diversify the cultural offer we have here and at the same time to enrich the culture that is outside with ours. EHMK contains a large number of topics. One of the main topics is the cultural and creative industry, we mainly talked about the music environment, but we also have a lot to do with fashion and design. Fashion in Trenčín has its own historical underpinnings, which we want to build on in a contemporary way.

Another very important topic is public space. Last year we launched the City Reimagined project, it is one of our flagship projects and it feeds into the physical transformation of the city, which is connected to the European Capitals of Culture, because the program, educational and other "soft" activities form one layer and at the same time it is a very good opportunity to help the cultural infrastructure in cities that hold the EHMK title. One of the key projects in this context is the reconstruction of the railway bridge . Currently, it is only a footbridge and a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists, but it should become a new, contemporary and cultural symbol of the city.

Communities are very important. We work very inclusively. Inclusion and accessibility are an important topic for us. It means making different types of programs available to different types of audiences. I don't mean just physical accessibility, but transversally diverse. And European themes as such. We develop democracy, critical thinking and all these programs in all genres. You can look forward to visual art, literature, a lot of music, and in addition to all this, there are educations and things that may not be visible at first glance, but are a very important tool for us to be able to spend the entire year of the 2026 title in the best possible quality.

A very important thing when I do something is to build an audience, which is a very difficult thing in general.

European capitals of culture are accelerators of cultural growth in regions, and audience development is a very important concept in this regard. In the next few years, we will launch a program that will not necessarily be visible to the general public, it is called Cultivating accessibility, and audience building is one part of it. How can different types of audiences be addressed, from children, youth to seniors and the general public. How to make a program as such, even if it is a subgenre that some audience group is not used to, how to decommunicate it, make it more accessible. There will also be an open call for this, and we will also address cultural institutions and organizations within the region. It will be attended by foreign lecturers who will come to share their experience so that our cultural institutions can also expand their own fan bases.

Source: trencin26.sk

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