At the beginning of 2023 – on January 16-20, the international children and youth festival KITOKS’23, organised by the Arts Printing House, will take place for the twelfth time! The festival for children and youth is the first and biggest festival in Lithuania, introducing unconventional, contemporary performing arts to audiences aged 0-18 years. This year the festival program will include performances by not only Lithuanian but also Norwegian, Swiss and Belgian artists.

This year KITOKS’23 welcomes visitors with the slogan – “Inspiring connections”! This slogan was chosen for a reason. The festival, which has now reached its second decade, besides the international performance program, the presentations of the works by the local artists and continuous education programs will be somewhat different. At the same time, three international projects focused on a young audience and those professionals who are creating for such an audience will connect in the Arts Printing House: the annual festival KITOKS, project BABEL – or The Art of Listening in TYA, supported by Creative Europe, and a joint project with our partners from Norway – No Borders: Theatre for Children and Youth. All these projects will complement and expand the regular festival program. We are also expecting quite a few guests and organisers of international festivals to whom we will offer not only Lithuanian performances included in the program but also meetings with Lithuanian artists who create for children and youth. I really hope that all these connections will become yet another experience for the audience of our festival and the professionals who create for it,” says Jolita Balandytė, the organiser of the festival program and director of the Arts Printing House.

This year’s main festival program will be focused on teenagers; however, some performances will also be suitable for children of preschool age and elementary grades. “This year, we invite high school students who feel that KITOKS’23 is not for them to get to know this festival in more detail. Especially for this audience of teenagers during the festival, we will introduce several performances from foreign countries that focus on the search for oneself in modern society,” Jolita Balandytė fills in the highlights of the program.

KITOKS’23 program will include not only performances but also different educational programs such as The Young Critic and Stage conTEXTS, aimed at teenagers and young professionals who will have the opportunity during the festival to watch all performances as well as discuss them with their authors.

A diverse introduction to contemporary performing arts awaits at the festival for children and youth. The full and colourful festival program will be available soon!

More information - menuspaustuve.lt

The festival program is supported by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality.