Events and festivals in Pristina

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This is a list of some of the major festivals and events held in Kosovo's capital city Pristina, which are common occurrences throughout the year in the city.

Contents

Music festivals

EtnoFest

Etno Fest is a cultural event held in Kukaj village during summertime. As the years passed the festival progressed into something bigger than the exposure of traditional food and folkloric music. Actors, dancers, musicians, cooks, painters and photographers show their respective skills during the event. One of the most visited areas in EtnoFest is the acting stage where local plays are performed. Within EtnoFest exists a smaller festival named AgroFest and where traditional Albanian food is served.

The founder of EtnoFest is the Albanian director Fadil Hysaj. The festival usually lasts for 5 to 7 days. [1] [2]

Pristina Jazz Festival

The Pristina Jazz Festival is a music festival where jazz artists from all over the world perform. It is held annually in October and November, in the ODA theatre. Pristina Jazz Festival has hosted artists such as:Uri Caine, Tom Kennedy, Reggie Washington, Giulio Martino, Willard Dyson, Bob Albanese, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Robin Verheyen, Aki Rissanen, Peppe La Pussata, Tim Story, Francesco D’Errico, and Yiotis Kiourtisoglou. [3] [4]

ReMusica Festival Festivali REmusica Kosove.jpg
ReMusica Festival

ReMusica

ReMusica is a festival where a group of Albanians from Kosovo led by Rafet Rudi (the founder of the festival) promote contemporary music, through presentations of different stylistics tendencies of the 20th century up to the present day. ReMusica, so far, had a lot of guest artists from all over the world – from individual ones to collective ensembles such as: Aki Takahashi, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Rafael Andia, Andreas Lewin Richter, Vande Gorne, and Ensemble Vivendi. This festival is held every year in May. [5] [6]

Beer and Wine Festival - Prishtina

Beer and Wine Festival Beer and Wine Festival - Prishtina.jpg
Beer and Wine Festival

Beer and Wine Festival is one of the biggest touristic events that happens in the first days of the summer in the capital of Republic of Kosovo - Prishtina.

Rich artistic program, the given support to local producers of wine & beer products as part of social culture, and promotion of young artists who aim to enter the world music, is one of the characteristics that characterizes the festival.

The main focus of the festival is on bringing new innovations that enrich the cultural and social life, since year after year, welcomes a large numbers of visitors. [7]

Coffee and Tea Festival - Prishtine

Coffee and Tea Festival - Prishtine Cofee and Tea Festival - Prishtine.png
Coffee and Tea Festival - Prishtine

If you are a coffee or a tea lover, then you definitely need to visit this festival.

Ranked as one of the best festivals in Kosovo, in the first days of the autumn season, the festival welcomes coffee and tea lovers with brands that dominates the local and foreign markets. The festival is followed with a rich artistic program and other cultural activities that makes an amazing atmosphere for a memorable festival!

COFFEE AND TEA FESTIVAL [8] has a promotional and cultural/educational character which is held in the "Zahir Pajaziti" Square known as one of the most frequented locations of the capital - Prishtina.

Chopin Piano Fest

The Chopin Piano Fest is a festival held in April every year. It has become a traditional piano festival, where local and international pianists perform piano works by well known composers, classical and contemporary ones. The festival is organized by Prof. Lejla Haxhiu-Pula, the first pianist in Kosovo. [9]

DAM fest. DAM fest..jpg
DAM fest.

DAM Fest

Translated as "The International Festival of Young Musicians", this festival brings classical music to Pristina, with performances by hundreds of musicians in various venues during March and April. It was first held in 2006. This festival aims to present new and young musicians from different countries of the world, while highlighting new forms of musical expression. [10]

VideoFest

The VideoFest festival is a showcase of video clips, which different musicians and entertainers create. Artists from Kosovo and places nearby compete with one another for the main prize. VideoFest aims to promote and stimulate the creativity productions in the aforementioned territories. The jury does the selection of the best video-clips in different genres but also the best video-clip of the year. [11]

Arts events

International exhibition of Gjon Mili

Gjon Mili is an international exhibition and competition that is held every two years in The National Gallery of Kosovo. This event is a memorial for one of the most famous Kosovan photographers in the last century, Gjon Mili. Some of the previous winners are: Genc Kadriu (2013), Driton Paçarada (2002), and Mumin Jashari (2004).

Muslim Mulliqi

Exhibition Galeria e Arteve e Kosoves.JPG
Exhibition

Muslim Mulliqi is an exhibition which displays visual arts such as painting, drawings, videos, etc. A contest is opened yearly by The National Gallery of Kosovo giving any artist the chance to participate. The winner is chosen by a committee. [12]

Artist of Tomorrow

This event is a program initiated by Wendy W. Luers, founder and director of Foundation For a Civil Society in the United States. It is an exhibition that provides space for young creators to showcase their art. The project is built with help from The American Embassy in Kosovo. The most hardworking youngster is given the opportunity to travel to the US in order to represent Kosovo for a month. After the trip the winner is also encouraged to have a personal exhibition in order to share the newly gained experience. This contest is held every year in The National Gallery of Kosovo.

Sports events

Car racing

Two events of car racing are held during the year. The first one is highway car-racing and it is held in June, the other has a Tōge racing theme i.e The cars race in mountains and hills. Participants need to be well trained and the vehicles under great conditions. The event is organized by FASK (Federate of Auto Sports in Kosovo). [13]

Pristina's Half Marathon

Pristina’s Half Marathon is an event that is organized from Ministry for Culture and Sport. The main reason of this half marathon is to promote the values of peace, coexistence and excellence in sports, and this is the reason that the motto of this Marathon is “Run for Peace and Tolerance". In this half marathon participate people from different countries, like: Kosovo, Kenya, Morocco, Hungary, Ukraine, Sweden, Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Moldova. All participants will be awarded with certificates, ranking and finishing time, but the best finishers in senior, veteran and disabled category for men and women will be awarded from a total of 12.000 euros. [14]

Related Research Articles

Music of Kosovo is music that originates from Kosovo, a country in the Balkans. Kosovo's population is mainly Kosovo Albanians, also known as Kosovars, and there are various minority ethnic groups as well. Kosovan music is closely related to that of neighbouring Albania, as well as to that of countries in the former Yugoslavia.

Burim Myftiu is an Albanian-American contemporary photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pristina</span> Capital and largest city of Kosovo

Pristina or Prishtina is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district.

The International Festival of Young Musicians – DAM Festival Pristina is one of the most prominent cultural events taking place in the capital city of Kosovo, Pristina. Founded in 2006, DAM Festival is an annual music festival which gathers young and talented national and international musicians from all over the world. This festival works on enriching the Kosovar cultural scene with the collision of the traditional and the contemporary. DAM Fest was founded by back then art student, now well known TV producer, musician, journalist and manager of Kosovo's Philharmonic Orchestra, Dardan Selimaj.

Lorenc Antoni was an Albanian composer, conductor, and ethnomusicologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rona Nishliu</span> Musical artist

Rona Nishliu is a Kosovo-Albanian singer and songwriter. She came to international prominence after representing Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, where she placed fifth and achieved the best placement for Albania to date.

The Prishtina International Film Festival, also known as the Pristina Film Festival and PriFilmFest, is a film festival held annually in Pristina, Kosovo, that screens prominent international cinema productions in the Balkan region and beyond, and draws attention to the Kosovar film industry. It was created after the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence. The first festival was held in 2009, and featured actress Vanessa Redgrave as the host. In 2015, the festival was cancelled due to a cut in funding by the Ministry of Culture of Kosovo. The 7th edition of the festival, which was scheduled to take place from 24 April to 1 May, was thus instead held in Tirana, Albania on 24 and 25 April and renamed to "PriFest in Exile".

Theatre in Kosovo like the culture of Kosovo is a dual tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bazaar of Pristina</span>

The Bazaar of Pristina, Kosovo, was the core merchandising center of the Old Pristina since the 15th century, when it was built. It played a significant role in the physical, economic, and social development of Pristina. The Old Bazaar was destroyed during the 1950s and 1960s, following the modernization slogan of "Destroy the old, build the new". In its place, buildings of Kosovo Assembly, Municipality of Pristina, PTT, and Brotherhood and Unity socialist square were built. Nowadays, instead of PTT building resides the Government of Kosovo building. Only few historical buildings, such as the Bazaar Mosque and ruins of the Bazaar Hammam have remained from the Bazaar complex. Since then, Pristina has lost part of its identity, and its cultural heritage has been scattered.

Events and festivals in Gjakova are highly valued if not great in number. The historical city of Gjakova, Kosovo, especially the Old Bazaar (Çarshia), is the hub of many outdoor and indoor festivals, cultural events and street parades, and is a main attraction for tourists. Many events only take place once, while others are organised regularly on an annual basis by festival societies. Some of the events are organised by the city and others by private companies.

Muslim Mulliqi was an impressionist and expressionist painter of Kosovo. Born into a family of artists in town, Mulliqi attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade under Zoran Petrović, where he also continued with the postgraduate studies. Mulliqi exposed in galleries of Kosovo, ex-Yugoslavia, Italy and Albania. Mulliqi was the initiator of the foundation and vice-president of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo. He taught painting in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Prishtina. Kosovo Art Gallery exhibition holds his name. While his creations are everlasting, academic Mulliqi was and will remain one of the most prominent figures of the Albanian art. He died in 1998 in Prishtina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture in Pristina</span>

As the capital city of Kosovo, Pristina is the heart of the cultural and artistic development of all Albanians that live in Kosovo. The department of cultural affairs is just one of the segments that arranges the cultural events, which make Pristina one of the cities with the most emphasized cultural and artistic traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Gallery of Kosovo</span> National Gallery in Pristina, Kosovo

The National Gallery of Kosovo, formerly known as the Kosova National Art Gallery, is an art gallery situated at the University of Pristina Campus that focuses on 20th-century art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical monuments in Pristina</span>

Historical monuments in Pristina are made up of 21 monuments out of a total of 426 protected monuments all over Kosovo. A large number of these monuments date back to the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Since 1945, the Yugoslav authorities followed the idea of constructing a modern Pristina by relying in the urban development motto “destroy the old, build the new” and this resulted with major changes in the structure of the buildings, their function and their surrounding environment. However, numerous types of monuments have been preserved, including four mosques, a restored orthodox church, an Ottoman bath, a public fountain, a clock tower, several traditional houses as well as European-influenced architecture buildings such as the Museum of Kosovo. These symbolize the historical and cultural character of Pristina as it was developed throughout centuries in the spirit of conquering empires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairs in Pristina</span> Fairs in the capital city of Kosovo

Fairs in Pristina started since the medieval period, at the time when it was famous for its annual trade fairs and its goat hide and goat hair articles. Pristina always had a development in trading due to its position in the Balkan trade routes. Despite that fact, Pristina, or Kosovo in general, is not known for occurrence of fairs. With the development of culture and especially after the last war in 1999, Pristina has had progress on holding these kinds of events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourism in Pristina</span>

Tourism in Pristina attracted 36,186 foreign visitors in 2012, which represents 74.2% of all visitors that visited Kosovo during that year. Foreign visitors mostly come from countries like Albania, Turkey, Germany, United States, Slovenia and North Macedonia, but also from other countries. Some of the most visited places in Pristina are Lake Batllava and Gadime Marble Cave, which are also among the most visited places in Kosovo.

Liburn Jupolli is an Albanian Musician/Composer from Kosovo.

Visar Mulliqi is an impressionist and expressionist painter of Kosovo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunny Hill Festival</span> Annual music festival in Kosovo

The Sunny Hill Festival is an annual international music festival in Pristina, Kosovo, organised by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa and her father Dukagjin Lipa. It has established itself as the largest music festival in Kosovo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2030 Mediterranean Games</span> 2030 edition of the Mediterranean Games

The 2030 Mediterranean Games, officially known as the XXI Mediterranean Games, and commonly known as Prishtina 2030, is a forthcoming international multi-sport event that is scheduled to be held from 24 July to 4 August 2030 in Pristina, Kosovo.

References

  1. "Etnofest – festë kulturore | Presheva Jonë". Preshevajone.com. 2015-02-23. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  2. ""Kukavica" bashkon ritet e zakonet tradicionale (Video)". Archived from the original on September 9, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
  3. "JAZZ FESTIVAL PRISHTINA '14". Jazzprishtina.com. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  4. "Home - Rolling CMS Demo". Teatrioda.com. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  5. "Prishtina international festival REmusica". Remusicafestival.com. 2008-05-25. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  6. [ dead link ]
  7. Beer and Wine Festival since 2013
  8. "Coffee and Tea Festival - Prishtine". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  9. "Festival 2010/2013". Chopin Kosova. Archived from the original on 2014-01-10. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  10. "Zeri.info | DAM Fest, pak 'pickim' për muzikën klasike". Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
  11. "Video-Fest Muzikor 2013 | Vizion Plus TV". Archived from the original on February 14, 2014. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
  12. "Ekspozita Çmimi Muslim Mulliqi - Ngjarje të ardhshme - Kosova". KosovoGuide. Archived from the original on 2015-02-27. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  13. "Formula 1". Autoklubi. 2013-06-23. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  14. "Fondacioni Together Kosova". Fondacionitogether.org. Archived from the original on 2015-02-27. Retrieved 2015-02-27.