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PINKBUS festival
September 20 | 19:00 – September 23 | 22:00
“Queer Rites” is the motto of the fifth edition of the PiNKBUS festival, taking place at Palác Akropolis from 20–23 September 2025.
“We created drag and ballroom; instead of church services, we created parties to the rhythm of house music – our very existence is an act of revolt. This is not just a rebranding of traditional values, it is the creation of our own culture, our own rituals.”
— Tomáš “Grófka” Procházka, curator of the PINKBUS Platform
The queer anointing will kick off the full-length PINKBUS show, featuring all the beloved members of the so-called “ESSENTIALS” – the artists who were at the origin of this now-legendary curated evening: Martin Talaga, Just Karen, La Cuntessa, Chlorophyll von Needle, and Lotta Love – complemented by guest artists Michelle Marvelous, Hayley the Strange, Tereza Holubová & Kristýna Štarhová, Miss Steak, Ruddy Daddy, and Dalila Drag. The evening will be hosted by Just Karen and Deník N editor, and No.1 PINKBUS Daddy Filip Titlbach.
After the opening “blessing,” the evening continues with the afterparty “mass” featuring DJs from the collective Temple of: Kavkaz Widow and Nisan. The festival will also feature an exhibition by Slovak photographer Dorota Holubová, “Slovak Drag Queen and No Other.”
The second day of the festival will celebrate music! It begins with a concert by Slovak indie sensation ERØ, accompanied by dance performances from Slovak choreographer, dancer, and long-time collaborator of the platform, Dominika Malenovská. The evening will then be led by PINKBUS platform member, director, performer, and accomplished musician LEDET. Her baroque film about Marie Antoinette will be followed by a seamless performance and party featuring LEDET, Michelle Marvelous, Becka McFadden, Helena Araújo, and Cristina Romero.
The final day will host the moderated PINKPANEL, bringing queer artists together at one table. The panel, titled “Artdrain: The Exodus of Slovak Art,” will feature director Majo Amsler, Bratislava Burlesque founder and PINKBUS icon Lotta Love, and photographer/documentarian of queer life in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Dorota Holubová. The discussion will be moderated by Tomáš “La Cuntessa” Procházka.
Immediately following the panel, Wojciech Grudziński’s THREESOME will take the stage – a choreographic séance with the ghosts of Polish ballet legends, a queer ritual of memory, desire, and resistance.
The festival programme also includes the THREESOME workout workshop led by Wojciech Grudziński, which, through the rhythms of the oberek and improvisation, opens the movement memory of queer bodies and histories.
