More than 50,000 visitors enjoyed themselves on the 15th Street Musicians Festival
The 15th Street Musicians Festival proceeded in a great festival atmosphere on more than ten different locations in the center of Novi Sad, from 3rd to 5th September, with more than 50,000 visitors from the country, region and Europe. During the three days, about 80 different art programs were performed in the streets and squares. This year’s event gathered more than 150 of the best artists from our country, the region, Europe and the rest of the world, who once again made Novi Sad the epicenter for street art, while the entrance to the Street Musicians Festival was, according to the nature of its program and as previous years, completely free.
Drawing special attention was the never before seen street musical clash concert of Rijeka’s band Let 3 and Novi Sad’s group Atheist Rap, as well as the great festival procession which was led by the Italian brass-percussion orchestra BadaBimBumBand and the big open festival truck hosting the renowned drummer Dragoljub Đuričić and twenty other drummers. The most important participant of this year’s procession as always was the audience, which, together with the musicians, created the rhythm helped by shakers, rattles and various other instruments. The program of the Festival evening was followed by more than 20,000 people.
Some of the most popular programs were the performances of French class clown and pantomime Jean Ménigault, as well as the show-concert full of gags and high-altitude acrobatics of the Italian duo Nando e Maila. The audience had a chance to enjoy the performance of Belgrade’s accordion player Miško Plavi, singer-songwriter Kralj Čačka, English guitarist named The Flamenco Thief, as well as the concert of the line-up of five acoustic players InSession from Slovenia, who arrived to Novi Sad with a numerous entourage.
The festival days were marked by programs for kids, as well as the festival’s Karaoke Battle of representatives from Novi Sad’s neighborhoods, which brought the winner an interesting and unusual park bench as a prize, by artist Stefan Stanojević, as a goal of making a part of the city more beautiful.
In the Catholic Courtyard, the program titled Dance Night, closed this year’s 15th Street Musicians Festival. American ten Phat Cat Swinger “made” the audience dance for two hours in the rain to the seductive sound of swing. Before the Californian masters of swing, in the same place, the audience also danced during the concerts of the local ensembles Belgrade Dixieland Orchestra and VIS Limunada.
The specific thing about this year’s Festival was its visual identity based on the model of the pedestrian zone of Novi Sad made, during five years, by students from the Department for Architecture of the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, but also the open-call for this year’s performers and the judging panel whose members were also the citizens of Novi Sad, as well as organizer of the Street Musicians Festival, the Association Inbox in cooperation with the City of Novi Sad began the initiative for regulating street performing in this city.
This year’s 15th Street Musicians Festival was organized by the Art Association Inbox from Novi Sad, with support from the City of Novi Sad and the Provincial Secretary for Culture and Information, Tourist Organization of the City of Novi Sad, the embassy of the United States of America in Belgrade, the Italian Institute for Culture in Belgrade, the Serbian Petroleum Industry, Telekom Serbia and Generali Insurance Serbia.
Photographs from this year’s Festival are available on our flickr profile.
