Festival in Gradić – Street Art in all its Glory

After 15 years of lingering in the center of Novi Sad, this summer, the Street Musicians Festival moves across the Danube into the Suburbium of Petrovaradin Fortress, where, from 1st to 3rd September it will welcome more than 100 performers of this art form from Serbia, region, and the world. During three nights, our romantic Baroque Gradić beneath the mighty walls of the centuries-old fortress will thus serve as the ideal ambience for extraordinary entertainment with artists to who see playing in the street as a way of life, including other art forms which will attract equal attention through direct contact with visitors.

The idea behind the Street Musicians Festival’s movement to this idyllic, but slightly run down part of town, in close proximity to the city center, Danube, and the Fortress, as the greatest jewel in our city’s crown, is to revive it and show it in all its splendor and glory. Narrow, slightly steep streets full of old houses with flowers flowing from windows and romantic balconies, squares, courtyards, and the old wall foundations of the Fortress, make it an ideal stage for this unique street entertainment, which has its own foundations in similar settings during the Middle Ages, at the foot of castles and forts.

The Street Musicians Festival, beside nurturing this form of entertainment, stays true to its core values of taking other art forms into the street, and, thus, in a unique ambience, making it closer to the audience through direct contact with performers. So, this year’s festival edition will overflow with performances, ambient theatre and other socially engaged forms of artistic expression.

Fans of great and original music and dance, youth prone to adventure during exciting nights full of the most diverse sounds and costumes, or families with children enjoying a late afternoon stroll, will all find their own little space in the Suburbium, fitting to everyone’s taste. The ultimate goal of the Street Musicians Festival is to display street entertainment and art in our Gradić in its true light, to the joy of visitors, but also to turn the Suburbium of Petrovaradin Fortress, during the not so distant future, into an attractive part of town, inspired by culture and tradition, attractive to both residents and visitors alike.

Street Musicians Festival is organized by Art Association “Inbox” from Novi Sad, in partnership with the City of Novi Sad, Tourist Organization of Novi Sad, the Embassy of the United States of America in Belgrade, MTS and Generali osiguranje Serbia.