Everything Ready for Ilidža Festival 2019.

The Municipality of Ilidža will once again organize the cultural and musical event Ilidža 2019 Folk Music Festival. From August 1 to 3, the "Ilidža 2019" Folk Music Festival will be held, the largest and most famous folk music festival in the region, dating back to the 60s of the last century. For the fifth year in a row, Hayat Television is the technical organizer and media sponsor of this event.

A press conference was held at the Hotel Hercegovina on July 30, 2019, and the PR of this event Amir Saletović, the Mayor of the Municipality of Ilidža Senaid Memić, and Sejo Pitić, who will receive a special recognition for preserving sevdalinka, addressed the numerous attendees. The organizer of the accordion competition Edo Krilić, the queen of sevdalinka who will premiere a new song at this year's event, Hanka Paldum, and Professor Emir Merjemić also addressed the press conference.

The first night will feature an accordion competition, and the festival organizers have selected 17 songs for the competition evening of the festival, which will be held on August 2, and August 3 is the "Legends of Folk Music" event. Special guest will be Ana Bekuta.

As Mayor Senaid Memić stated, this is one of the most significant musical and cultural events in our region, and it should be nurtured.

"We will strive to make the festival even better and more successful each year, because it is very important to nurture our tradition and cultural heritage. Today, we need a lot of relaxation, rest, laughter, good moments, and this event has all of that; in fact, Ilidža 2019 is a rest for the soul," Mayor Memić conveyed.

The Ilidža Festival is the oldest folk music festival in the former Yugoslavia. At the peak of its popularity, especially during the 70s, it launched singers of folk music such as Slobodan Lalić, Nedeljko Bilkić, Šerif Konjević, Mile Kitić, Mitar Mirić, Halid Bešlić, Miroslav Ilić, Lepa Lukić, Emina Zečaj, Nada Mamula, Zehra Deović, Hanka Paldum, and many other great names of folk music into the orbit of popularity.