2 November 2016 I do not think I can take over the crowd - summary of the Conrad Festival
Looking outside, we can see the Town Hall and a beam of light shining into the darkness. From the window of Czeczotka Palace, you can see the Market Square and the Cloth Hall. If you look at the window at the right angle, you will also see your own reflection in the window pane...
People gather at Czeczotka Palace. “I’ve been here since early morning”, said someone, who was supposed to leave two hours ago and yet stayed for a while to listen. “I just couldn’t resist”, said someone else, who was going to come only on Monday, but stayed until Sunday. Almost 15 000 participants took part in the week-long celebration of literature in Krakow.
“We think about literature the same as writers and readers” - this democratic formula comprises the concept of the Conrad Festival, which for years has been building a deep bond with its audience, to whom it has also started leaving significant decisions. During the Festival, the audience not only participates actively in meetings, but also gives out awards, with the most important being the Conrad Award for the best debut. Its aim is to bring attention to the writers, who have only just started to gather their audience. During the meeting titled “Literature, or the 18th camel", a kind of a symbolic opening of the Festival, Grzegorz Jankowicz told us that it is all about inviting the writers back to reality, so that they can start working on it in some way. Working with senses, language and emotions, not free from tensions, but leading to mapping the world anew.