Beer Fest reunites top Balkan bands
Belgrade :
As well as offering beer a-plenty, visitors will have chance to see many old favourites from the rock world of the Eighties and Nineties.
Beer Fest, Belgrade’s biggest festival, will be held in Ušće Park in New Belgrade from August 14th to 19th.
The tenth annual Beer Fest will host rock bands from all over the region, and most local rock musicians that have had hits since the late Seventies will hit the stage at some time.
Prljavo kazalište, a Zagreb-based band that enjoyed mass popularity in Eighties’ Yugoslavia, will open the festival.
The lyrics of the band’s love ballads are familiar to all generations, so the concert is expected to attract not only youngsters but also some of their parents.
While Prljavo kazalište has been working on albums and performing live over the last decade, the band playing after them has been quiet for the last 12 years.
Vampiri [“Vampires”], a rock band from Belgrade, was one of the most popular rock bands of Nineties’ Serbia. The band’s trademark was their black sun glasses that they never took off in public.
Vampiri’s lead singer, Aleksandar Eraković, was as popular in Serbia as the Backstreet Boys were in the US. But after the band disbanded in 1998, they performed only once, in February this year.
The second night of the festival will host performers from several ex-Yugoslav countries. Evil Eva from Slovenia will hit the stage first, followed by Obojeni program from Serbia, Hladno pivo from Croatia, Vlatko Stefanovski from Macedonia and Rambo Amadeus from Montenegro.
Other old bands whose ballads became Balkan evergreens – Valentino, Crvena jabuka and Plavi orkestar from Bosnia and Galija and Yu grupa from Serbia - will also perform.
Those who prefer harder sounds may enjoy concerts by Love Hunters, Partibrejkers, Psihomodo Pop, Zabranjeno Pušenje, Sunshine or Ritam Nereda.
Along with sounds that they don’t have a chance to hear that often, Belgraders will also have a chance to taste various beers that they can’t usually find on offer.
Over 40 beer companies and breweries will be offering their brews, such as Kilkenny, Guinness, and Lindemans who will also be offering some fruit beers.
With more than half million visitors and no entrance fee, and with more than 20 live bands and DJs, Beer Fest has grown into a well-known international festival and is becoming a major summer event.
During the festival the streets around Ušće Park will be closed for traffic and the authorities will be laying on extra public transport to bus festival-goers to and from the event.
