The PINKBUS festival takes place at the Akropolis Palace. It will offer queer rituals, drag icons and baroque extravaganza
This September, Akropolis Palace will be transformed into a temple of queer rituals. The fifth edition of the PINKBUS festival with the motto Queer Rites (20-23 September 2025) follows last year's Queer Renaissance and brings a programme that is as political as it is opulent. Here, drag, ballroom and house parties function as their own "masses" that the queer community has created in response to oppression - and which have now become a celebration of freedom, identity and collective power. Playwright Tomáš "Grófka" Procházka sums it up clearly: "Our very existence is an act of revolt. It is not a rebrand of traditional values, but the creation of our own culture, our own rituals."
The slogan of this year's edition is Queer Rites. What does this motif mean to you and why did you choose it as the central theme?
Queer Rites is directly related to Queer Renaissance. Just like any artistic group, we are a living organism that is constantly evolving. While Renaissance symbolized our entry onto the theatre boards through several collaborations, Queer Rites is a "pagan" highlighting the uniqueness and specificity of queer events, as well as a play on words - "queer rites" sounds just like "queer rights". We need to celebrate queer while we can!
You mention in the program that the queer community has created its own rituals - from drag to ballroom to parties. How did this motif of rituals work its way into the specific festival programming?
Yes, exactly, the queer community has been forced through oppression to create its own rituals. House parties, ballroom culture, but also things like cruising are part of our culture. It's important to say that we owe most of these rituals to queer BIPOC and trans people. If it weren't for them, there would be no house or ballroom. While this seems like a terribly obvious point, we feel it's important to "officially" anchor this fact on the PINKBUS platform as well. We end our meetings with a symbolic ritual, where our bodies transform into a unified mass, which then rebels against its surroundings with love and screams.
This year the festival will kick off with a show featuring "ESSENTIALS" - the original members of the PINKBUS platform. How does it feel to see them return to one stage?
It's like a family reunion after all these years. We are incredibly lucky to have managed to put together a line-up that we dare say is our strongest yet. We're looking forward to having drag icon Hayley the Strange back on our bill, as well as introducing the fantastic drag artistry of Miss Steak to the wider Prague audience. Drag king icon Rudy Daddy and burlesque femme fatale Michelle Marvelous will also be making their festival debuts. We honestly can't wait, not only as organizers, but also as spectators.
The opening ceremony will be followed by an after party with the Temple of. How does the music and dance level fit into the overall concept of queer rituals?
Rave culture and queer culture go hand in hand. For us, parties are a safe space where we can let loose and let all the worries of the world out on the dance floor. It's no coincidence that some clubs are familiarly called "church".
The programme also includes an exhibition by Dorota Holubová about the Slovak drag scene. How important is it for you to bring a documentary and visual aspect to PINKBUS?
Dorota Holubová is a long-time ally of the community and her photographic work goes beyond what we can see in contemporary Czechoslovak photography. Dorota has been fascinated by drag for years and has been following some drag queens for a long time. Her series is one of many that not only actively supports the community, but also openly criticizes the current leadership of the Ministry of Culture. Therefore, her participation was almost a given.
The second day of the festival is dedicated to music and a baroque performance by Marie Antoinette. How do you find a balance between the opulent aesthetics and the political dimension of queer art?
No balance, queer art is opulent and political! :)) And anyway - baroque, rococo and the whole Versailles realness is the ultimate drag, and no it's not! Similarly, the concert of Slovak indie sensation ERØ fits into this mindset - music that is both emotionally powerful and socially engaged.
Sunday's programme will offer a THREESOME workout workshop. Why is it important to you that the festival includes active audience participation?
PINKBUS would not survive without its audience. We make no secret of the fact that our shows carry a political dimension, although you could say we are "entertainment first". It's extremely important for us to remind our audience that the fact that we still have the opportunity to be on stage - in this or that costume - is a huge privilege that is not a given for all queer communities. Audience engagement is our way of saying that we see our audience and stand behind them.
The final day will be a PINKPANEL discussion on the outflow of Slovak queer art. Why did you decide to open this particular topic and what do you expect from the panel?
The topic of the outflow of Slovak queer art has been present for a long time, but we feel that it hasn't been properly named or treated yet. Basically, every year, every month we hear that another person has "given up" and gone to Prague to wait. Basically, the core team of the PINKBUS platform consists of "exiles" from Slovakia - Grófka, Martin Talaga, Adriána Spišáková. It's hard to say what exactly we are expecting - you know, an hour-long discussion won't change the world - but if it helps to make some kind of kick towards networking of Slovak (not only) queer art, we will be extremely grateful.
The festival will end with a choreographic performance by THREESOME. In what ways do you think performance can work so powerfully with memory, the body and queer identity?
I came across a book somewhere called The Body Keeps the Score. It struck me immensely because I realized how true it is, especially with queer identity. A queer person who has been looking for a way out of the imaginary "closet" for years is like a bird locked in a cage who considers the flight of other birds a disease, a flaw.
Looking back at the entire program, how would you describe this year's event in one sentence?
That would be something!
PINKBUS 2025 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
20 SEPTEMBER - DAY 1
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19:00 - Opening of the exhibition Dorota Holubová: Slovak drag queen and no other
A unique visual document of the Slovak drag scene - politically engaged art and an intimate portrait of performers off stage. -
19:30 - PINKBUS show [ENG]
Composite evening of burlesque, drag, performance and theatre. Featuring La Cuntessa, Lotta Love, Chlorophyll von Needle, Just Karen, Michelle Marvelous, Hayley the Strange, Miss Steak, Ruddy Daddy, Tereza Holubova & Kristýna Štarhová and Dalila Drag.
The evening will be hosted by Just Karen and Filip Titlbach. -
22:00 - Afterparty (Akropolis Underground)
A musical ritual performed by the Temple of - DJs Nisan & Kavkaz Widow.
21 SEP - DAY 2
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19:00 - ERØ [SK]
Concert by Slovak singer ERØ, accompanied by a dance performance by choreographer Dominika Malenovska. -
20:30 - Marie Antoinette [CZ/ENG]
Baroque performance by LEDET, which combines queer aesthetics, historical fiction and visual opulence in the spirit of a decadent ceremony.
Michelle Marvelous, Becka McFadden, Helena Araújo and Cristina Romero.
22 Sep - DAY 3 (location to be confirmed)
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17:00 - THREESOME workout [ENG]
Dance workshop by Wojciech Grudziński. Through the rhythms of oberek and improvisation, he opens up the movement memory of queer bodies and histories.
23 SEP - DAY 4
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19:00 - PINKPANEL [CZ]
A discussion on queer art in Central Europe. Guests: director Majo Amsler, founder of Bratislava Burlesque Lotta Love and photographer and documentary filmmaker Dorota Holubová.
Moderated by Tomáš "La Cuntessa" Procházka. -
20:30 - THREESOME [ENG]
A choreographic evocation of the ghosts of Polish ballet legends and a queer ritual of memory, desire and resistance performed by Wojciech Grudziński.
