Bled Festival Hall is a congress and arts venue that, due to its cultural importance, enjoys the status of a cultural heritage building. Situated on the shore of Lake Bled, the Hall hosts major artistic performances and concerts, as well as corporate, scientific and political events.
Commissioned by the Municipality of Bled, the Festival Hall was designed in 1961 by architect Ivo Špinčič for the purposes of an upcoming world chess tournament. In 1962 and 1963, the Hall provided the venue for staging the first two Slovenian Pop Song Festivals, an important music event that grew to emerge as an influential manifestation of Slovenian pop music. In the 1960s, the Hall hosted the first Yugoslav Jazz Festivals, which took place at Bled between 1960 and 1965, and initially focused primarily on musicians and jazz groups of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Some of the most notable names featured at the jazz festival include Nino Robič with the Mojmir Sepe Ensemble, the Boško Petrović Trio, the Mojmir Sepe Quartet, Ati Soss, Marjana Deržaj and the Ljubljana Jazz Ensemble, Gaby Novak and the Zagreb Jazz Quintet, and the RTV Slovenia Dance Orchestra under the baton of Jože Privšek. Over the following years, the Festival began to attract an increasing number of foreign musicians (from West Germany, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, USA, Brazil, etc.). From 1962, the catalogue of starring international guests appearing at Bled Festival Hall during the Jazz Festival included trombone player Albert Mangelsdorf, singers Helen Merill and Wanda Warska, as well as North American jazz bands led by reed player Herb Geller and trumpeter Buck Clayton, respectively.
Running at the Festival Hall since 1996, the summer International Bled Music Festival annually includes a selection of classical music performances, as well as jazz, chanson and ethnic music concerts. Within the context of Bled Okarina Festival, the Festival Hall has hosted concerts by jazz pianist Hiromi, pianist Omar Sosa, Orchestra Baobab, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, and a Turkish music group, Baba Zula. Also catering to classical music enthusiasts, the Hall presents chamber and choral ensembles, including Neues Ensemble Linz, Trio di Parma, Charterhouse Chamber Choir and other international symphony orchestras and promising soloists, primarily violinists, cellists and accordionists taking part in international competitions and masterclasses by Helfrid Fister, Karmen Pečar and Marko Hatlak.
Today, the venue’s grand auditorium accommodates 500 spectators, and its smaller halls seat between 20 and 150.
