Event categories

• Charity
• Spoken word
• Talks
• Theatre

Date
08/06/2026

7:00 PM

Location / Link:

East Street Tap

Three Eastern European flavoured tales from Curious Histories, as Suzanne Rolfe, Annika Mombauer, and Pete Fijalkowski take us on some strange historical journeys. Join us at Brighton’s friendly, quirky East Street Tap for our charity event in aid of Food & Friendship.

Doors will open at 7pm, with first talk beginning around 7.30pm. There will be an interval, and we aim to finish about half-nine.

Our talks:

The Three Bears

Leading us from Stalinist Siberia, via Poland and Surrey, to his latest musical exploits, Pete Fij tells the story of three teddy bears that belonged to members of his family.

Gavrilo Princip: Villain or Hero?

Professor Annika Mombauer takes us from pre-First World War Sarajevo to twenty-first century Serbia to uncover the strange case of Gavrilo Princip. He seems destined to be remembered in the public mind as the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and, perhaps, as the man who started the First World War. There is, however, far more to his story, and to his legacy, than popularly imagined.

Bears, Gourds, and Romanian Curses

As part of her ongoing explorations into Europe’s folkloric celebrations, Suzanne Rolfe recently visited the bear dances of Romania and the Busójárás masked festival of Hungary. Here, she’ll be examining their origins and survival, and how these strange festivities are practiced today.

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