Welcome to the first edition of the National Geographic Travelers Festival

The editors of National Geographic are launching another fascinating travel project. On June 4th, for the first time, the Travelers Festival will take place. It will bring together the most interesting globetrotters, sportsmen, explorers, bloggers, photographers and book authors. For one day, Warsaw’s Kinoteka cinema will be filled with travel enthusiasts and lovers of interesting stories. During several hours, participants will be able to hear and watch stories from the most remote corners of the world and, together with the invited guests, experience them once again.

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The entire festival is divided into 10 thematic panels:

• Tony Halik – Legend through the eyes of Elżbieta Dzikowska and Mirek Wlekły
• Witches are afraid of fire. How to elude witchcraft on the Trobriand Islands a century after Malinowski
• By bicycle to the ends of the world
• 30 world lessons in 30 countries – or why you should be the parent of a child who travels
• Hic Sunt Leones – Bargiel versus eight-thousanders
• Green Dress – Siberia and Kazakhstan in the footsteps of family history
• Cheap travel in practice
• Why it is worth photographing in Poland – recommends Tomasz Tomaszewski
• Hranicka Propast – the world’s deepest underground and underwater
• Glider across six continents with LOTTO EXTREME

The main event will be a meeting led by Martyna Wojciechowska with Andrzej Bargiel, a young Zakopane inhabitant who in 2013 was the first Pole to conquer the Shishapangma eight-thousander on skis and to descend from its summit. This time he decided to prove that skiing is possible even on the roof of the world. We will learn about his preparations for the extreme effort and the challenges he may encounter on his way.

Małgorzata Szumska will tell the story of her expedition to Siberia and Kazakhstan, following the advice of her 80-year-old grandmother – Ride for 10 days by train, then spend a night on horseback until you find the village called Mokrusza. Aleksandra Gumowska, on the other hand, will prove with her stories that even in the 21st century witchcraft is still common on the Trobriand Islands.

Photography amateurs will also find something for themselves. During the panel “Why it’s worth photographing in Poland” Tomasz Tomaszewski, who publishes his photos in, among others: Paris Match, New York Times or Vogue, will try to convince the audience that in our own country, you can also find wonderful landscapes full of photographic charm. And thanks to Marcin Jamkowski’s photos and films, participants will learn the story of persistence and fascination of diver and speleologist Krzysztof Starnawski, who explores the mysterious underground and underwater world.

Elżbieta Dzikowska and Mirek Wlekły will introduce participants to the legend of Tony Halik. And Mateusz Waligóra – a specialist in high-performance expeditions to the most desolate places on our planet – will talk about his bicycle trip through South America and Australia.

During the LOTTO EXTREME panel Julia Nowińska will interview Sebastian Kawa. He was the first person to fly over the Himalayas without a mechanical drive (together with Krzysztof Strama), and was also the first Pole to cover a distance of over 2000 km without landing. Participants will hear about the obstacles he encountered and the feelings that accompany a man several thousand kilometres above the ground.

During the event, there will also be representatives of the blogosphere. Ola and Karol from Bus Through The World, Łukasz Supergan, Patryk Świątek and Kajtostany will reveal their methods of cheap travel. During a panel discussion with the creators of The Family Without Borders – Anna, Tom, Hania and Mila, you will be able to find out how important it is in the lives of children and parents to explore new places.

In addition to meetings with guests, there will also be screenings of 4 National Geographic Channel documentaries. During the festival we will see “Badjao. Ghosts from the sea” (directed by Eliza Kubarska, a story about fish people from Borneo), “Two on K2” (dir. Dariusz Załuski, a story of an expedition to K2), “Salt of the Earth” (dir. Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders, a portrait of photographer Sebastião Salgado) and “Ghost People” (dir. Martyna Wojciechowska and Marek Kłosowicz, a story of Tanzanian albinos) as well as 2 screenings from the EXPLORER National Geographic Channel series – “Ivory Traders” and “The Lost City”.

The first events of the festival will begin at 9.30 a.m. Tickets are available for pre-sale online, and at Kinoteka box offices from 20 May. The price of admission to each event – 10 zł. Screenings of the EXPLORER series are free of charge. Passes for the screenings will be available at the Kinoteka box office from 20 May.

Source: Organiser