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The Music Programme Selected for the Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest
Sergio Lounge (facebook.com/Sergio-Lounge)
Lukeblack, Bitipatibi, BojanaVunturišević, Hornsman Coyote and Mambo Stars are the most prominent names on the list of local and regional artists selected to represent the music part of this year’s Gradić Fest, which will take place from 1st to 3rd September in the Lower Town of the Petrovaradin Fortress. The art jury of the Street Musicians Festival has selected 33 individual performers and artistic troupes from the local and regional music scene, who will represent the music part of the festival, alongside a rich selection of artists from the whole world, as well as cinematic, theatrical, and other types of performances by the partner organisations participating in the organisation of Gradić Fest.
The selected artists from Serbia and the region have been chosen after the competition which was announced in March and lasted until June 15th. Although this year’s concept for Gradić Fest has been expanded compared to the last year’s event in the Lower Town, the Street Musicians Festival has remained faithful to its usual practice of making young and not well-known artists from the local and regional scene the main feature of the festival, giving them a chance to present their interesting programmes to a wider audience and a possibility to become better known.
Mambo Stars (mambostars.com)
The local scene of the city of Novi Sad will be presented by musicians with different music orientations: the orchestra Dobri ljudi, as a part of the music workshop Soundbeam for people with special needs; blues oriented Green Onions and Petting; trip hopper Dojo; NađaVračarić with her indie art rock programme including live and pre-recorded vocal performance; the winners of the Takt Fest Vanja and Saša; guitarist Olivera Popović; and guitar duo Izmena vremena from Petrovaradin.
There will be an equally big number of artists from Belgrade: Eudven School for Musicals; neo-pop band Herz and neo-country On Tour; underground funk duo Skijaš and Jeti; duo Sanda and Shoica; guitarist Vuk Vujačić; Ivan Jegdić, a singer-songwriter and a finalist of Ja imam talenat (I’ve Got Talent) TV show; Sergio Lounge, an unusual keyboardist; and Buč Kesidi, a rock bend from Pančevo.
Bitipatibi (facebook.com/bitipatibi)
Our country’s art scene will also be represented by the Dobrica Milutinović Theatre from Sremska Mitrovica; jazz ensemble Jazzmo from Kruševac; and multi-instrumentalist Jasna Jovićević from Subotica. There will be artists from a wider region: Patrick Walker Trio, the “Irish” from Zagreb; singer-songwriter Irena Žilić; ambient duo Nuit Blanche from Šibenik; as well as the youngest performer at this year’s festival, Chiladado, a singer-songwriter from Tuzla; and accordionist Toni Pezzanov from Skopje.
Those selected through this year’s competition are also: Trance ‘n’ Dance, a didgeridoo and cajon box drum duo, who divide their time between Holland and Serbia; as well as electro-acoustic Akshani Project from Klagenfurt and Novi Sad.
This year too, the art jury of the Street Musicians Festival has tried to adapt the programme to the demands of the specific Gradić environment, with the intent of preserving authentic values of street art, which has always been promoted at this festival. The selected performers will, as it is customary for this type of art, perform on the streets, at squares and other space units, without pompous stages and in direct interaction with the audience, and the entire programme will again be – free.
The Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest – is organized by the Art Association Inbox from Novi Sad with the sponsorship of the city of Novi Sad and the Provincial Secretariat for Culture and Public Information. The partners and co-organizers of Gradić Fest are: Cinema City, Pop Up Novi Sad (Berberaj & Public P), Scenatoria, Suburbium, Fruškać, Happy Trash Production and AAA Festival.
