Karić scattered and promised, but it was for nothing: Merlin attracted more people for a 'trifle' than Seve, 'Sarajevska priča', and Dubioza combined!

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

And so the New Year arrived. And the madness of the wildest night of the year passed, so it's time to draw lines and sum up the results, but also to calculate what we got for almost a million convertible marks.

Sarajevo residents and tourists in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina were welcomed into 2025 by Croatian singer Severina, preceded by a musical warm-up by Adi Šošo. The night before, Adi Šošo was preparing a modest number of visitors for New Year's Eve. Sara Jo was preparing a more than modest number of visitors for New Year's Eve.

The number of visitors at a concert is not necessarily a measure of the quality of art and everything that accompanies the organization of outdoor entertainment for New Year's, but comparisons with some earlier celebrations can very precisely detect whether ex-mayor Benjamina Karić and her associates threw hundreds of thousands of our money down the Miljacka river.

Before any explanation of why it could have been better, it should be noted that Karić led the capital city for four years without initiating a single major project, so the financing of New Year's celebrations was at the top or at the very top of her budget expenditures.

That Karić likes to waste our money on not-so-quality musical-stage entertainment was shown by the New Year's Eve celebration for 2023. At that time, 350,000 KM was allocated for the performance of the band Dubioza Kolektiv and accompanying production, but the result was far weaker compared to the investment.

Because Dubioza attracted slightly more than 20,000 visitors to Sarajevo, and given the sound system, probably only a fifth heard what the band was playing. Karić had to apologize to the public, with the justification that 35,000 KM was collected from the clause for non-compliance with the contract.

For comparison, a year after Sarajevo, Dubioza Kolektiv played at a New Year's party in Split, and they were paid slightly more than 160,000 KM for those services. That is, more than double the amount Karić paid. However, the SDP mayor might seek justification for this price difference in the fact that Dubioza was almost the official band of the Trojka coalition in their attack to take power.

For "Sarajevska priča" and the New Year's 2024 celebration, the City of Sarajevo allocated around 400,000 KM, and then sought sponsors for organizational support. Although presented as a Sarajevo gathering, it attracted slightly more visitors than Dubioza Kolektiv with four bands, i.e., according to estimates, slightly more than 30,000.

And then the then-mayor Karić served us Seve, a couple of much less popular singers, and DJs who had never appeared in Sarajevo before, and it was not explained to the public whether the money was returned.

The cost of this celebration with Seve was around 800,000 KM, and it was conceived as a two-act event. In the first act, only Sara Jo performed, whose popularity was sufficiently indicated by the presence of perhaps only two thousand visitors who found nothing better to do at that moment.

I am not an economist, but after everything, it is clear even to an illiterate blind person that we have thrown away a huge amount of money for a small gain. Because, from the fantasized numbers and expectations, we got about 50,000 attendees at the New Year's concert and a fiasco at the prelude.

Simple comparisons of where we were with New Year's Eve organization a few years ago show that a criminal complaint against ex-mayor Karić is entirely justified.

Because, back in 2017, the magician Dino Merlin sang for three times less money than the amount allocated this year. And his performance had more people than Severina's, the one called "Sarajevska priča", or the Sarajevo fiasco Dubioza Kolektiv.

So, mathematically, Merlin could have filled the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina for three years for the amount we paid for Seve, Adi Šošo, and Sara Jo. In fact, it is more likely that these concerts would have been even more attended, as Merlin is a proven magnet for the audience.

Zdravko Čolić Čola would not have done any worse, who in 2018 brought about 80,000 people to the capital, and it is certain that he could have sung at Sarajevo's New Year's gathering for at least two consecutive years for less money than what Karić allocated for Seve & Co.

If we add that the public procurement method is questionable, that the job was given to a company founded just over a year ago, it is clear that Karić announced a lot and delivered very little.

Because, when she started with her New Year's tricks, she announced that in her time, Merlin's hundred thousand or Čola's 80 thousand from Skaka's time would be surpassed, and paid much less.

But today, when we look back, it is clear that Benjamina Karić is an exemplary case from the opus of the Trojka politicians – excellent at announcing and deceiving. As for implementation and cost – don't ask them about that! But, we hope the prosecutor's office will!