Freshers’ welcome and the official start of the 2026/27 academic year

Students will be welcomed from the stage by UL Rector Professor Gregor Majdič, ŠS UL representative Maksim Miklič and Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Janković. They will be joined on stage by the deans of the 23 faculties and three academies of the University of Ljubljana, which is the oldest, biggest and most successful higher education and academic research institution in Slovenia.

More than 50 stands will be set up at Kongresni trg to present the work of the student councils of the various UL member faculties, UL Alumni, the UL Careers Centre and the Equality and Inclusion Office. The EUTOPIA Alliance will also be represented. The Tone Tomšič Academic Choir will perform on stage, and will also sing the academic hymn Gaudeamus Igitur.

Cultural organisations, institutions and societies will be on hand to tell visitors about the exciting cultural life of the capital, and there will also be appearances from the Mestno gledališče ljubljansko theatre, Slovenska Filharmonija, the Natural History Museum of Slovenia and Center Rog, among many others. The editorial boards of the Študent magazine and Radio Študent will also present their work. 

UL and ŠS UL have joined forces to raise awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyles and the importance of prevention in health, with the DrogArt association, the Red Cross, the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) and the European University Sports Association (EUSA) all running stands at the event.

The list of organisations that will be represented at the event has not been finalised and may change.

Special thanks for helping to organise the event go to the City of Ljubljana, with which the university has been working successfully under a cooperation agreement signed in 2023.

About the performers

DEMM are a punk band comprising three friends – Marko Brglez, Urban Kavkler and Jan Kolbič – who make disco punk with slightly provocative and (self-)ironic lyrics. 

Hailing from Tržič, Smetnaki cannot be pigeonholed into a single genre, but make music in response to the ordinary and occasionally very bizarre situations of life. Their music, and their lyrics in particular, is characterised by humour more or less concealed within multiple layers of irony. The group’s members are Gal Grobovšek, Anže Balantič, Anže Podobnik, Amadei Šaršanski, Žan Škrjanec and Rok Valjavec.