Libertalia - Find the treasures within!

In the 17th and 18th centuries, "Libertalia" was an existing and active organisation of pirates who called themselves the "Guardians of Liberty". According to legend, the community was founded on compassion and self-organisation.

In 2023, Veszprém hosted the Libertalia - Collective Moves project, an international co-production that spectacularly combines street theatre, acrobatics and circus arts. Another special feature is that it was created in just one week of intensive work, which the audience could see live only once.

Each time the artists present the spirit of Libertalia in an alternative outdoor performance. Every Libertalia story they perform is unique and based on a story related to the host city. Although we did not have pirates, we drew a lot of inspiration from the stories of our own Bakony outlaws, called "betyár" in Hungarian.

The Libertalia - Collective Moves project is an international partnership of 7 cultural organisations and European Capitals of Culture from 5 European countries. The project is implemented within the framework of the Creative Europe Programme, the Hungarian partner is Veszprém-Balaton 2023 ECoC. The countries participating in the programme are England, Sweden, Finland, Austria and Hungary.

The core of the project's creative team is a community of dedicated artists, with two participants from each country taking part in the labs. The international volunteers also took part in both the preparatory work and the performance, creating a truly diverse collaboration.

We feel very fortunate to have been able to host this colourful performance in our ECoC year and to be the last to host this special international project.