Karlovy Vary, West Bohemia, July 9 (CTK) – A total of 13,080 people were accredited to the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival that ended on Saturday, which was almost 700 fewer than last year, according to the CTK sources.
The accredited visitors included 403 film-makers, 1190 film professionals and 630 journalists. The rest, 10,857, bought regular festival passes.
Last year, 13,734 were accredited to the Karlovy Vary festival.
The event, held in the west Bohemian spa town from June 29 till July 7, offered 236 films in 501 screenings for which 140,135 tickets were sold.
The main award, the Crystal Globe for the best film, went to Romanian director Radu Jude’s co-production film I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians.
The operators of quite cheap accommodation facilities agree that the highest number of people were seeking beds for the beginning of the festival, that is for the night to June 30.
A total of 1744 people, including 78 foreigners, stayed in tents in the festival camp in Rolava near Karlovy Vary, probably the cheapest accommodation possibility available during the festival, which is about 100 fewer than last year. About 1400 stayed in two cheap hostels in the town throughout the event.
The festival traditionally offers good opportunities for catering services, primarily in the surroundings of its main venue in the Thermal Hotel. This year, the Czech Retail Inspection (COI)) again revealed many shortcomings, this time in one in four test purchases of food and drinks during the festival.
Moreover, some 40 people got infected probably from service water in one of the food kiosks in Karlovy Vary and had to be treated in hospital during the first festival weekend.
