Numerous musical and cultural events at Baščaršija Nights

(Patria) - The Baščaršija Nights festival begins on Monday, July 1, and Zoster, Nermin Puškar, Amira Medunjanin, Jelusick (Dino Jelusić), and Damir Avdić alias Diplomatz are just some of the musical names who will perform at the 28th edition of this Festival, which has been organized since the late 1980s.

The foundations of "Baščaršija Nights" were laid in 1988 and 1989. What started as a small gathering in the early years, as "Baščaršija Night" during which between 15 and 20 diverse cultural programs were held in various locations throughout the Old Town Municipality, has developed into one of the largest and most visited summer festivals in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond. Every year during July, this unique festival hosts dozens of different programs on stages set up at recognizable locations throughout Sarajevo.

This year, the Festival opening will be marked by young urban hip-hop artists. Thus, on July 1, Katarza, Geko, Black Beriz, and DJ Kaizen, along with surprise guests, will take the stage in the atrium of Sarajevo's BKC. The uniqueness and power of these young hip-hop artists lie in the themes of their lyrics, which, with a dose of humor, represent what they call "keep it real," the authentic voice of the urban generation.

Four days later, on the open-air summer stage that will be set up in Zelenih beretki street, one of the best vocalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nermin Puškar, will perform. The band Tetak 13, a five-member group performing energetic original rock repertoire, will perform as the opening act at the concert.

Puško and his band, consisting of top professional musicians from BiH and Slovenia, will perform songs that have marked his successful long-term musical career, songs that, we can freely say, have also marked a period of time and with which an entire generation has grown up.

For all lovers of hard rock and alternative music, we recommend the concert stage at Kino Bosna, where the band Jelusick will perform on Friday, July 19, as part of a unique rock'n'roll weekend, while the following day, Damir Avdić alias Diplomatz will perform on the same stage.

Jelusick is a progressive hard rock band led by what is currently probably one of the best vocalists in the region, Dino Jelusić (former member of the mega-popular band Whitesnake and the band Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He participated as a jury member and mentor in this year's music show The Voice, one of the biggest international television competitions). Within the genre they play, Jelusick is difficult to compare to any band in this region, both vocally, as well as in terms of songwriting and performance.

The next evening, July 20, Damir Avdić, an urban poet with an electric guitar, a BiH singer-songwriter with a Slovenian address, will arrive on the festival stage at Kino Bosna. He does everything from the heart. With a clear head. Always getting to the core of the problem. He steps on many toes, exposing the banality of harsh reality to the fullest. All his albums are great, but his greatest strength has always been and will remain his concerts, where his raw unwaveringness comes to the fore.

The cult band from Mostar, Zoster, will come to Sarajevo on July 24 to present their new album "Najgori" (The Worst), as well as a selection of singles from their two-decade-long career. The concert will be held on the open-air summer stage that will be set up in Zelenih beretki street. They build regional popularity with every new concert, and their performance at Baščaršija Nights will be an opportunity for all those who have not yet heard their acclaimed new album live, which has been well received by both the audience and music critics.

This year's Baščaršija Nights will also have an atmosphere and a touch of theatrical spectacle and glamour. The theater part of the program opens with the cult play "Umri muški" (Die Hard), which will be performed in the large hall of Sarajevo's BKC on July 26. The characters Eva, Bruno, and Mario, in brilliant interpretations by Tatjana Šojić, Admir Glamočak, and Senad Bašić, have been on stage together for over 30 years. It is the longest-running play in the history of BiH theater. It was first performed on February 14, 1990, as actress Tatjana Šojić's diploma play, and has been on the repertoire of Kamerni teatar 55 ever since, enjoying cult status. "Young married couples who came to the premiere and to those first performances in the 90s are now bringing their children, and they are coming with them too," said actor Admir Glamočak. This will also be the first performance of the play in front of an audience of several hundred spectators.

Enis Bešlagić's hit play "Da sam ja neko" (If I Were Someone) recently had its successful premiere in the large hall of BKC, followed by seven encores, and within Baščaršija Nights, it will have its eighth and ninth performances on July 20 and 21. The same monodrama/stand-up will also be performed in Kozluk on July 27 as part of the Baščaršija Nights tour.

At the closing of the Festival, the doyen of BiH acting, Emir Hadžihafizbegović, will perform his authorial project, the monodrama "Sve je do nas" (It's All Up to Us), in the large hall of BKC on July 30. This is a theatrical piece in which Hadžihafizbegović, with a superb acting performance, speaks about the state of mind which, in his opinion, is under serious manipulation. In the play, he plays a mathematics professor who was fired for telling the harsh truth and having the courage to use arguments to detect our deviant reality and speak about the prevailing mental narrative of greed, hypocrisy, disastrous political games, and the neglected values of friendship, tradition, and culture...

The Baščaršija Nights Festival will also host the masterful Amira Medunjanin, who will officially close the Baščaršija Nights program with her performance on July 31, on the Central Stage set up at a striking location opposite the City Hall. The concert will also be an opportunity for Amira Medunjanin to present her new album titled "For Him and Her," which is a tribute to Toma Zdravković and Silvana Armenulić.

Visitors can also expect sets from great DJs, and this year's rich program is the best invitation to spend the first days of summer and your free evenings in Sarajevo with the Baščaršija Nights Festival programs.

The complete program can be viewed on the website https://bascarsijskenoci.bkc.ba/bs/